Top Ranking Factors 1, 2 and RankBrain

In a recent Q&A at WebPromo, Google's Search Quality Senior Strategist, Andrey Lipattsev confirmed the top two contributing signals for search result queries are content and links pointing to a site, in no particular order. The question was posed by SEO Expert John Ammon, with the assumption that RankBrain was the third most important factor.

It's no secret that content and links are key for good ranking within the search results but as Google's algorithm evolves it's nice to have recent confirmation. Lipattsev went on to explain that there was no exact formula that resulted in a top listing but a complex combination of factors. In the future, Google hopes to develop its RankBrain AI to have an even better understanding of natural language and user's intent as an ever increasing number of people move away from desktop search and onto mobile. You can watch the full Q&A below with the ranking factors segment starting at 30 minutes.