Now, that you already know how to get higher ranking in Google, let’s see a few “secondary” signals. These “additional”, lightweight variables usually won’t help you too much in your SEO efforts, therefore they are often overlooked by webmasters and SEO experts, but they are important for another reason: even if they don’s carry real ranking value, often they can do more harm than good. Let’s check them out together:

1. Automatically generated content

We are talking about programmatically created, auto-generated content, which obviously, can’t be neither original, nor really useful.

These automated techniques – such as translation, synonymizing, RSS scraping, content stitching – could result in a penalty or even de-indexing.

2. Affiliate links

It’s a well know fact: Google is not a big fan of affiliate websites.

As Google stated: “affiliate websites do not provide additional value for web users”.

As far as I know, the affiliate links won’t help you at all (I mean with your rankings), but if you have too many, Google could penalize you for being a “thin affiliate website”. The recommended, healthy ratio is around 1 link per 500 words.

3. Ads above the fold

Basically, the page layout algorithm is still an unsolved mystery. There are many debates discussing the real-time page layout algorithms launched with Penguin 4.0, but here is the fact: Google will penalize your site if you have too many ads that can distract the users from the main content.

So, don’t forget, having too many ads – especially above the fold – associated with a “thin” content will make the Penguin angry.

4. Broken links

It’s quite evident: having broken links may be a sign of a neglected, poorly managed website.

5. Comments

Having a lot of comments and a sustained user engagement is a clear signal of real interest, popularity and quality.

On the other hand, “allowing” and neglecting spammy comments, will definitely hurt your SEO results.

6. Contact page

Having a clear, well-crafted contact page with detailed information, informatioin that matches your WhoIs info, is a strong trust signal for both the users and the search engines. WhoIs is a widely used Internet record listing that identifies who owns a domain and how to get in contact with them. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) regulates domain name registration and ownership.

7. Content updates

The freshness factor is one of the most important secondary signals. A frequently and regularly updated website – especially if new valuable content is added – is a tidbit for search engines.

This is why Google usually shows the date of a page’s last update, especially for time-sensitive searches.

8. Contextual links

The links included in the main – textual – content of a given web page are known as editorial links or contextual links.

Evidently, they are considered more relevant and useful then other links presented in sidebars, footers, etc, therefore they are carrying a much bigger weight …

9. Country TLD

The country-specific top level domains (.ca, .de, .co.uk, etc) may help you rank better in the given country, but – presumably -, they can also limit the site’s ability to rank globally.

10. DMCA complaints

Back in 2012 Google announced that its search algorithm has started taking a new signal into account: the number of valid copyright removal notices.

The basic idea is obviously to punish the pirate sites, but any site can be – and most likely will be – downranked if is dealing with similar problems.

11. Domain registration length (and domain age)

It’s a minor signal, but is there in the magic formula … As Google stated: while the so-called doorway domains are rarely used for more than one year, the legitimate, valuable domains are usually paid for several years in advance, therefore the date when a domain expires can be considered as a reliable factor in predicting the legitimacy and the trustfulness of a domain. Usually, each year could give you an additional 10% boost.

12. Dwell time

The dwell time tells Google how much time people spend on your website when they are coming from a Google search.

If people spend more time on your site, that may be used eventually as a quality signal …

13. Hidden content

Using hidden text or links in order to manipulate your rankings is one of the most brutal violations of Google’s webmaster guidelines.

These deceptive methods – white text on white background, text hidden behind an image, using CSS to set font size to 0 or to position text off-screen, etc – are considered punishable black hat techniques.

14. Image optimization

Back in 2014 when Google launched its auto-caption algorithm, the image SEO has been changed irrevocably. Since then Google is able to caption and to rank photos without using the file name or the alt tag.

Still, image optimization is very important. If you want to deliver the proper relevancy signals, you’ll have to use the file name, the alt text, the caption, the title tag, the description tag and the EXIF data as well.

EXIF is all of the information that is automatically embedded into an image file when a photo is taken using a modern digital camera. EXIF data (also sometimes referred to as metadata) contains information such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, camera model, date the photo was taken and much more. You can also include copyright information in your EXIF data when you register your camera through the manufacturer.

15. Link cloaking

Presenting different content or URLs to human users and search engines is also considered a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines, and guess what … you’ll be severely punished by Google.

This is a quite sensible area, because the cloaking techniques are regularly used by many webmasters to create SEO-friendly URLs or to “bypass” content pieces that otherwise would be invisible or inaccessible for search engines (Javascript, images, Flash, etc).

16. Link schemes

These are tactics and behaviors used to manipulate the inbound and outgoing links in order to influence the site’s ranking in the search results.

Any similar attempt – bought links, excessive link exchange, automated link-building programs, etc – even a temporary one will be promptly retaliated by Google.

17. Link title attribution

It’s a debated issue, some SEO experts say that the link title – the text that appears when you hover over a link – is also used by Google as a minor relevancy signal.

18. Microformats

Web sites that support microformats seem to rank above pages without it. Why? Because integrating the relevant rich snippet and Schema.org markup into your pages helps you spoon feed important data to Google.

Which is then shown in the search results, getting you a higher CTR …

19. Private WhoIs

It’s very straightforward: having a private WhoIs or using a privacy protection service as a webmaster may be a powerful sign of “something to hide”.

And guess what, Google requires transparency …

20. Returning visitors

There is no need for long explanations: if your website has a high percentage of returning visitors, than you are doing a great job and Google will respect you.

21. RSS subscribers

Honestly? I couldn’t figure out if this is a real signal or just another myth.

Anyway, one of the most popular RSS services – Feedburner – is owned by Google, so it makes sense that they would take a look at some RSS subscriber data as a popularity signal.

22. Site uptime

Another easy-to-understand issue: if your website has frequent maintenance issues or server problems, your visitors won’t be happy … and Google will be unhappy too.

23. Sneaky redirects

Sometimes the redirecting techniques are used to deceive the search engines and to show content to human visitors that is different than that made available to crawlers.

It’s a deceptive tactic and a clear violation of Google webmaster guidelines, one that will be cruelly sanctioned by Google.

24. SSL certificate

In April 2011 – on April Fools Day – Google announced their efforts in improving SSL certificate security, and three years later they officially confirmed that HTTPS has become a ranking signal. It’s not a major signal (yet?), but I can tell you this: Goggle will never send searchers to sites that have invalid security certificates:

Luckily, here at WA we have free SSL :)

25. TOS page

Just like your contact page, the TOS page tells Google that your website is trustworthy.

26. Traffic volume

The idea is simple: sites with a huge – or a bigger – volume of direct traffic are likely higher quality than other websites that get a much smaller amount of direct traffic.

27. URL path

It’s a debated one, but yes, it’s possible: a web page that is “closer” to the homepage may get a slight authority boost.

28. Use of Google Analytics and Google webmaster tools

Some think that having these two tools incorporated in your site can improve your search engine rankings. In my opinion they won’t (at least not in a direct way), but I admit, they may influence your SEO results indirectly by giving Google more data and more accurate information to work with.

29. W3C validation

Lastly, another controversial ranking signal, the W3C validation. Many in the SEO industry think that the W3C validation is a weak quality signal.

I don’t agree, but I’ll tell you something else: a sloppy coding with a lots of HTML errors IS definitely an unambiguous sign of a poor quality website. Period.