{"id":225,"date":"2026-04-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/levelup-post-209"},"modified":"2026-04-25T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:00:00","slug":"what-affects-google-rankings-2026-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/what-affects-google-rankings-2026-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"What Affects Google Rankings? 2026 Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google rankings are influenced by many signals, but most small businesses should focus on the fundamentals first.<\/p><h2>Important ranking factors<\/h2><ul><li>Helpful content that matches search intent.<\/li><li>Clear on-page optimization.<\/li><li>Mobile usability and page experience.<\/li><li>Internal links and site structure.<\/li><li>Authority and trust signals.<\/li><\/ul><p>Focus on making your best pages more useful, easier to understand, and easier to find.<\/p>\n\n    <section class=\"lus-inline-cta\" aria-label=\"Level Up Stats call to action\">\n        <div class=\"lus-inline-cta-copy\">\n            <div class=\"lus-inline-cta-eyebrow\">Next Mission<\/div>            <h2>Ready to level up your SEO?<\/h2>                    <\/div>\n                    <a class=\"lus-inline-cta-button\" href=\"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/index.php?route=login\" data-lus-track=\"blog_cta_clicked\" data-lus-cta=\"inline_cta\">Press Start<\/a>\n            <\/section>\n    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google rankings are influenced by many signals, but most small businesses should focus on the fundamentals first. Important ranking factors Helpful content that matches search intent.\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seo-basics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/levelupstats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}