For several years now, Google has said that it uses more than 200 signals to rank pages. Many of them have more than 50 variations within a single factor.
It's rare that Google confirms any of the factors, but in the past year, they have confirmed the top 3 ranking factors.
Last year Google confirmed RankBrain was the third most important ranking factor, but Google refused to say what the first two were.
That is until earlier this year when Andrey Lipattsev, a Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google, said the other two factors were links and content.
JR Oakes and Patrick Stox will break down some of the things that Google may be looking for with regards to content, links, and RankBrain and tell you what you need to know about each.
JR Oakes is the Director of Strategy for Consultwebs, an agency that specializes in online marketing for law firms throughout the United States and internationally.
He is in charge of developing and managing the company’s comprehensive approach to search marketing strategy for their clients.
In this role, JR analyzes and adapts strategy to address the constantly changing factors that affect online visibility.
He leverages data analysis, testing, and SEO / development best practices to help the team provide more value to their clients.
He is also one of the co-organizers of the Raleigh SEO Meetup, a Search Engine Land author, and is a member of several SEO groups around the country.
Patrick Stox is a Technical SEO Specialist for IBM and one of your organizers for the Raleigh SEO Meetup.
He’s also an author for industry blogs such as Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, and Search Engine Journal. Patrick speaks at major search conferences and has spoken at both SMX Advanced and SMX West this year.
