We have identified a ranking signal where having more unoptimized signals than the competitors’ average can negatively affect rank. We are looking to see how deep into ranking signals this negative rank effect goes. We know that img alt is a weak signal, we want to see if this negative effect goes as far as images.
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The next three tests, tests 189, 190, 191 are all continuations of our new ranking factor that we have found. That ranking factor is unoptimized zones. What we found is that the number of unoptimized zones will actually affect rank. It is a ranking signal. What we found is that it works with H1s, H2s, H3s. Unoptimized zones are those with no keywords on it. We are actually just looking at the zone itself. The number of h1 tags on the page that does not contain keywords. The number of h2s on a page that does not have keywords, the number of h3s that do not contain keywords. We have found that this is a ranking factor so it is very important when you are putting your pages together that you consider that. You consider not just how many times you put in a target keyword in my h2s but how many h2s I have on the page in total because once you get outside that range of what is expected for the keyword, you can harm your page. The concept is you have 1 h1 on a page. We proved why that is. But once in a while, you will see a page that has 2 h1s or 3 h1s, is it harming itself? It actually comes down to what is expected for that keyword, what is expected for that niche. You might have a keyword that is expecting two h1s and you are fine but then the reason that 1 h1 is a problem because the vast majority of pages you are going up against only have one so as soon as you put 2 or 3, you are outside for what is expected for that zone and even if they are unoptimized, you are harming yourself. That is what we have found on those pages identifying for 2018. The ranking factor that nobody is talking about is unoptimized zones, as we discussed in the last two months.
We are expanding this out, we want to see how deep this goes and so for the next three tests, we are looking at h4s, anchor text on the page, and images. The reason I went for those is h4s is obviously after h3s and anchor text is a pretty strong signal right now and it has been for the last years and that is text that is on the page. The image alt is a very weak signal so we want to see if these concepts continue through this other signals – is this a universal type thing or is this just confined to the ones that we have identified – to the h1, h2, and h3.
Dori: Are we talking about keyword variations as well?
No, we are talking about nothing within these things.
Dori: Again, an unoptimized zone is just a zone without a keyword in it but a zone can be like your h1s, h2s, h3s.
Correct. So if you have 5 h2s on a page, we are going at 5 h2 zones and within those zones, you do not have a keyword at all. They are unoptimized. We are looking at the cumulative number of zones on a page.
I can sum up all three at once and you can go through all the data but what we have found is that it stopped. The h3 is where it ended. We could not get movement on the h4s, we could not get movement on the anchor text, and in the image alt. That is actually kind of a good thing and the reason that it is a good thing is because managing three zones, your h1s, h2s, h3s, are very possible. You can go through and you can count, get your averages for the top pages and you can find out how many h2s they are using and how many h3s they are using and you can modify your pages accordingly. The idea is, this is kind of a two step process to your optimization. You want to find out how many times you need to get your keyword in there, variations, and perhaps your LSI into those sections, but then you also want to count the zones themselves. You might find that you need your exact keyword in your H2 but how many h2s in total do you need on the page? That is where we are talking about. You can make that calculation, you can go in and get those zones or the tag totals, if you will, you can figure those out. When you are optimizing your page and you are making those decisions, count the h1s, h2s, h3s that you are using. H1 is probably one, that is probably going to be one all the time. But the 2s and the 3s are another story and you really want to look at how many time you need to use those and I would go for a competitive parity, I would go for the top ranking pages are doing. They clearly look like they are ranking as onpage as a factor and I will emulate them. I think Google is showing you the number of times you need based on the ones that are winning and then I would emulate that page. If they say the average is 3 h2s and I have 20 h2s on my page, probably the reason why you are not performing well is probably because of that. You have overoptimized the zones even if you do not have the keyword in there. Reduce them down to what the average is or get them somewhere close to that average. But do not worry about it for your h4s, anchor text on the page, or images on your img alt file.
That is the three tests as we work on figuring out how far our hidden ranking factor goes.