Yes, UGC is a ranking signal, according to Google’s Gary Illyes: @jenstar it feeds into general quality. Say, there's good content, 5 points, great links from great pages, 2 points, thriving community, 1pt — Gary "鯨理／경리" Illyes (@methode) April 27, 2016 Notice how Gary says that UGC feeds into general quality. As long as it’s moderated […]

According to official Google statements, RankBrain does change rankings, although it’s not a ranking factor per se. Rankbrain has the ability to change rankings by re-calibrating the importance of other rankings factors, depending on the query, geo-location, browser language, and, to a smaller degree, user search history. “It [Rankbrain] does change ranking, e.g we’re better […]

Yes, backlinks are a very strong ranking factor, according to official statements from Google (cited below). “We do use links as part of our algorithm but we use lots and lots of other factors as well.” source “We use links, but also lots more.” source We use so many factors for ranking, it really depends […]

Yes, an extremely poor user experience is a ranking factor, according to the official statement from Google quoted below. “we developed an algorithmic solution which detects the merchant from the Times article along with hundreds of other merchants that, in our opinion, provide an extremely poor user experience. The algorithm we incorporated into our search […]

Yes, the number of internal links to a page is a ranking signal, according to the original PageRank paper from Google’s Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. In case you were wondering, as of 2018 Google still uses PageRank: DYK that after 18 years we're still using PageRank (and 100s of other signals) in ranking? Wanna […]

Yes, the mobile-friendliness of the website is a ranking signal, according to the official statements from Google, cited below. In April 2015, Google released a mobile-friendly ranking algorithm that was designed to give a boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results. “Today’s the day we begin globally rolling out our mobile-friendly update. We’re […]

Yes, keyword prominence in the URL is a ranking factor, according to Google’s spokesperson, Matt Cutts. Keyword prominence refers to how close are the keywords to the beginning of the URL. In an interview, Matt suggested that the first five words in the URL are given the full weight: “If you have got a three, […]

Yes, keywords in the URL are a positive ranking signal, according to official Google statements: “Q: Keyword in the URL, is that a ranking factor? A: I believe that is a very small ranking factor. So it is not something I’d really try to force. And it is not something I’d say it is even […]

Yes, HTTPS is a positive ranking signal, according to Google. Having a secure HTTPS website might provide a small advantage, as stated by Google: “We’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. For now it’s only a very lightweight signal — affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other […]

No, the hreflang attribute doesn’t impact rankings, according to Google’s John Mueller statement cited below. If you have a website, I don’t know that, that’s targeting furniture, and you have a UK website, and it doesn’t show it all in in France for example, then just setting up at the hreflang with completely new pages […]