Is Google putting more weight on brands in rankings?

SEO Factors

On-Page (Keyword-Specific) Ranking Factors

• Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag

·         Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag

·         Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name

·         Keyword Use Anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag

·         Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page

·         Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page

·         Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag

·         Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page

·         Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name

·         Keyword Use in the Page Name URL

·         Keyword Use in the Page Folder URL

·         Keyword Use in other Headline Tags (<h2> – <h6>)

·         Keyword Use in Image Alt Text

·         Keyword Use / Number of Repetitions in the HTML Text on the Page

·         Keyword Use in Image Names Included on the Page

·         Keyword Use in <b> or <strong> Tags

·         Keyword Use in List Items <li> on the Page

·         Keyword Use in the Page’s Query Parameters

·         Keyword Use in <i> or <em> Tags

·         Keyword Use in the Meta Description Tag

·         Keyword Use in the Page’s File Extension

·         Keyword Use in Comment Tags in the HTML

·         Keyword Use in the Meta Keywords Tag

On-Page (Non-Keyword) Ranking Factors

·         Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on the Page

·         Recency (freshness) of Page Creation

·         Use of External-Pointing Links on the Page

·         Ratio of Code to Text in HTML

·         Existence of a Meta Description Tag

·         HTML Validation to W3C Standards

·         Use of Advertising on the Page

·         Page-Specific Link Popularity Ranking Factors

Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External Links

·         External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)

·         Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)

·         Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from Internal Links

·         Quantity & Quality of Nofollowed Links to the Page

Social Media/Social Graph Based Ranking Factors

·         Delicious Data About the Domain or Page

·         StumbleUpon Data About the Domain or Page

·         Twitter Data About the Domain or Page

·         LinkedIn Data About the Domain or Page

·         Facebook Data About the Domain or Page

·         MySpace Data About the Domain or Page

Negative Ranking Factors

·         Cloaking with Malicious/Manipulative Intent

·         Link Acquisition from Known Link Brokers/Sellers

·         Links from the Page to Web Spam Sites/Pages

·         Cloaking by User Agent

·         Cloaking by User Agent

·         Hiding Text with same/similar colored text/background

·         Links from the Domain to Web Spam Sites/Pages

·         Excessive Repetition of the Same Anchor Text in a High Percentage/Quantity of External Links to the Site/Page

·         Cloaking by IP Address

·         Hiding Text with CSS by Offsetting the Pixel display outside the visible page area

·         Excessive Number of Dynamic Parameters in the URL

·         Keyword Stuffing in the On-Page Text

·         Hiding Text with CSS display:none; Styling

·         Keyword Stuffing in the <title> Tag

·         Keyword Stuffing in the URL

·         Keyword Stuffing in the URL

·         Cloaking by Cookie Detection

·         Links to the Page from Web Spam Sites/Pages

·         Links to the Domain from Web Spam Sites/Pages

·         Cloaking with Positive User Experience Intent

·         Use of “Poison” Keywords in Anchor Text of External Links (e.g. student credit cards, buy viagra, porn terms, etc.)

·         ver-Optimization of Internal Link Anchor Text

·         Use of Keyword-Rich Anchor Text Internal Links in Footers

·         Keyword Stuffing in the Meta Description Tag

·         Forum Link Building (Signatures, Link Drops, etc.)

·         Excessively Long Title Tag

·         Keyword Stuffing in the Meta Keywords Tag