Ranking factor that changed in 2023

Over the past year, there have been a lot of changes in the search industry, making it more and more challenging to categorize the idea of ranking variables. Google has changed how it describes a number of previously known "ranking systems" by combining a number of technical signals into a single "page experience" evaluation. It has also increased the requirements for content quality by adding "experience" to the previously mentioned concepts of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

As a result, figuring out what is currently - and is not - thought of as a ranking component in Google's algorithms has grown more challenging.

Updates to the "Page Experience

The material for Google's "ranking systems" no longer mentions page experience. The evaluation of page experience is based on many ranking signals, and while it is still taken into account, it is no longer considered to be a separate ranking method. Other elements, such page speed, HTTPS, and mobile friendliness, were also taken out of the "systems" description. Officials from Google have stated unequivocally that the algorithms favor a positive website experience. Even though it isn't a system in and of itself, ranking systems use it.

We clarified several chapters to reflect these changes, however the following ranking variables remain confirmed:

1. HTTPS
2. page load time.
3. Adaptability to mobile devices.
4. Essential Web Vitals.

Alt Text

• We made it clear that alt text only affects search results for Google images, notfor other searches.

• In general search, alt text is treated the same as any other text on the page and is taken into account by algorithms.

Authorship

This entry was removed because E-E-A-T is rapidly covering it.

Relevant Links

We removed this entry because content, natural language processing, and anchor text are rapidly covering it.

Domain history

• SEJ's assessment of the domain changed from PROBABLY to CONFIRMED

• When a domain's owner changes, the ranking signals do not, therefore any algorithmic penalties that the previous owner may have imposed on the domain will remain in effect.

Link Strength

1. From Unlikely to Definitely Not, SEJ's assessment altered
2. This myth is based on a Google patent that included "link churn" in 2006, although the word is no longer used in the patent today.
3. The only effect of changing a link is that it can take some time for it to be crawled again.

Syndicated Material

1. SEJ's assessment went from Unlikely to Possibility.
2. Syndicated content might affect rankings negatively if handled improperly
3. Spam is when a website automatically reposts content that was previously scraped
4. Despite Google's efforts to favor original reporting, a site that syndicates content without no indexing may outrank the original.

TF-IDF

• Because it is so out of date in terms of Google's current natural language processing/algorithms, we removed this entry

• In 2023, if this worries you, you might want to go over some SEO principles.

URLs

• Although we modified it for clarity, our overall opinion on this ranking element hasn't changed.

• Despite being a CONFIRMED ranking component, it would only have an effect in very rare circumstances where Google has never before indexed content; once the item is indexed, the effect disappears.