Google: You Cannot Isolate Specific Ranking Factor Successes

Apr 25, 2019 - 8:13 am 10 by

Google Algorithms Complex

I am going to do it, I am going to read between the lines here on a John Mueller tweet. In short, he said that you really cannot say that one specific ranking factor is the reason why a site might be doing well or poorly in search, even if that site focused on that exclusively over the last time period.

Here is John's tweet, but you can learn more by clicking through and reading the whole Twitter thread:

He said "I think the main thing we're trying to get at is you can't really isolate any "if X then use Y" elements." This clearly means that just because you think X is influencing Y, it probably isn't the only thing influencing Y, plus it might not be influencing Y at all.

"Everything is kinda related," John said. This means that even if you are doing well with links, maybe it is also your great content that is also shinning. Great content helps attract links and Google also likes to rank great content. John added, "and it can have cross-"factor" effects" where sometimes doing well with one factor will drive success in another factor. "But it doesn't have to" be cross related. Plus "all of this can change by the minute, intent, query, location, website, etc" so good luck trying to isolate it.

So yea, rankings are complex. It isn't just about how high your PageRank is and waiting for the Google Dance anymore...

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 29, 2025

Apr 29, 2025 - 10:00 am
Other Search Engines

ChatGPT Search Gains Shopping Search Features (Not Ads) & More

Apr 29, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Changing Lastmod Date In Sitemap Isn't An SEO Hack

Apr 29, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests New AI Answer Summary

Apr 29, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Tests New Shopping Ads Design

Apr 29, 2025 - 7:21 am
Bing Search

Bing Search Without Microsoft Name By Logo

Apr 29, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google Really Wants You To Use Remote Job Markup For Job Schema