Googleβs rank algorithm is shrouded in mystery and rarely do they come straight out and tell us about their more than 200 ranking signals.
We knew last year, Google announced that RankBrain, their artificial intelligence system, is the the third most important ranking factor
In a Q&A with Google, Andrey Lipattsev, a Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google, said the other two factors were links and content in response to a question by Ammon Johns.
I can tell you what they are. It is content. And itβs links pointing to your site.
He wouldnβt say which of was the more important factor. Β We now have 3 ranking factors on our list:
1 & 2: Links & Content
3: RankBrain
Of course, this arenβt the only factors as Google still look at many others But these are definitely the overall top three, officially confirmed by Google itself.
For a long time we have already known that links and contents have a great impact in rankings but the recent years, this has come into question. The confirmation done by Google in this Q&A provides content marketers with more ideas on how to improve their practice and push for growth.
Check out the full Q&A Video below.