Research library

Ranking factors

3 entries

Weak Apr 2025

Keyword in the title tag shows almost no ranking correlation

Brian Dean, Backlinko

Backlinko reported essentially zero correlation between using the exact keyword in the title tag and higher rankings. The same study also found zero correlation between site loading speed and rankings.

Moderate Mar 2016

Lipattsev named content and links as Google’s top two signals (2016)

Andrey Lipattsev, Google

Asked to name the top two ranking signals (RankBrain having been publicly confirmed as the third), Lipattsev said the top two are "content and links pointing to your site." This gave the running order as content, links, then RankBrain.