Let’s face it; everyone wants to have a top ranking website in Google. It’s the worlds most popular search engine and has a major influence on the success of your website. Unfortunately, Google’s ranking algorithm (how it determines search rankings) has long been shrouded in secrecy, leaving many website owners guessing about how to improve their ranking. Thankfully, this has now changed.

SEOmoz have just released a comprehensive list of the top 55 most influential factors in the Google ranking algorithm. The list was created from a survey answered by 35 leading search engine optimizers and contains factors ranked from most to least importance. While the list is a subset of the estimated 200+ ranking elements in the Google algorithm, it’s a sure fire guide to the most critical elements in any Google optimization campaign.

There is no doubt concentrating on all the elements in this list is a tough task, but to help get you started, here are the top 10 positive ranking factors - as agreed by the panel of SEO experts:

1. Keyword Use in Title Tag
2. Global Link Popularity of Site
3. Anchor Text of Inbound Link
4. Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link Structure
5. Age of Site
6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site
7. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
8. Keyword Use in Body Text
9. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
10. Rate of New Inbound Links to Site

With all the recent focus on links, it’s great to see that the most important factor still remains keyword use in the title tag, something that’s been included in our Optimizer Kit Plus service from the very beginning.

So how do you go about using this list to improve your website(s) ranking? Coordinating all 55 elements described in this list is tricky, and should only be attempted after thorough research and planning. Performing ‘Ad-hoc SEO’ is unlikely to offer any long term results and can prove to be an annoying waste of time and money.

Instead, turn your attention to the most important factors in this list and ensure to give special attention to those which you’re not actively performing. Remember to create a plan for your optimization campaign and perform thorough keyword research before you start. Alternatively, if you would to prefer to outsource your optimization to SEO professionals, check out our range of optimization services.