Google has "200+ ranking factors."
At least that's what the SEO industry loves to parrot.
And technically? Sure. Maybe.
But here's what 20+ years and 500+ campaigns taught us:
About 5 of those factors drive 90% of results.
The rest? Noise.
Let's cut through it.
Fundamental #1: Crawlability
If Google can't crawl your site, nothing else matters.
Broken robots.txt? Dead. Orphan pages? Invisible. Redirect loops? Congratulations, you've built a maze for Googlebot.
This isn't sexy. But it's the foundation.
Fundamental #2: Relevance
Your page needs to be about the thing someone is searching for.
Not tangentially related. Not "we mention it in paragraph 12." About it. Obviously. Unmistakably.
Title tags. H1s. Content depth. These signals tell Google: "This page answers this query."
Fundamental #3: Authority
Backlinks still matter. Full stop.
Not spammy directory links from 2012. Real links from real sites that have real audiences.
One link from a relevant, authoritative site beats 1,000 links from garbage domains. If you want to understand why, read about link quality vs. quantity.
Quality over quantity. Always.
Fundamental #4: User experience
Core Web Vitals. Mobile-friendliness. Page speed.
Google doesn't want to send users to slow, broken pages. Neither do you.
If your site loads like it's running on a toaster from 1997, fix that first.
rolls eyes at "SEO experts" who ignore page speed
Fundamental #5: Consistency
This is the one nobody talks about.
SEO isn't a one-time project. It's an ongoing system.
The businesses that win are the ones that show up every week, execute tasks, and track their progress.
Not the ones who do a "big SEO push" once a year and wonder why it didn't stick.
How to nail all 5
Hear me when I say this...
You don't need to be an expert in all 200 "ranking factors."
You need a system that covers the fundamentals and keeps you accountable.
SEO Checkup does exactly that. 113 tasks across 4 checklists. Each one mapped to the fundamentals that actually drive rankings.
Free. No credit card. 30 seconds.
Stop chasing shiny objects. Master the fundamentals. Moz's beginner guide is a solid starting resource if you need a primer.