The Most Important Factors in SEO Today

Around every two years, SEOmoz puts out a report of Search Engine Ranking Factors based on survey findings from 100 of the industry's top SEO minds. This year around 72 of them participated in the data gathering process and answering of survey questions. Here's a summary of the results.

According to the SEOs surveyed by SEOmoz, the following are the most important ranking factors; I have only included the ones that are rated from very high importance to moderate importance and very high value to moderate value.

On-Page, Keyword-Specific

1. Keyword(s) in the title tag.
2. Keyword(s) used as the first word(s) in the title tag.
3. Keyword(s) in the root domain.
4. Keyword(s) used in the H1 headline tag.
5. Keyword(s) used in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page
6. Keyword(s) used in External Link Anchor Text on the Page
7. Keyword(s) used as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag
8. Keyword(s) used in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page

On-Page, Non-Keyword

1. Unique, relevant content.
2. "Freshness" of the page (eg. how recently it was published).

Effectiveness of Link Building Tactics for SEO

1. Linkbait + Viral Content Creation
2. Blogging and Engagement with the Blogosphere
3. Classic “Create Valuable Content” Strategies w/o Promotional Marketing
4. Public Relations (beyond just press release publication) 

Like most things, obtaining great SERPs is not a cookie cutter formula; if it was, anybody could be successful at it. There are many factors to consider, all depending on the vertical you're in, the keywords you're targeting and the amount of competition you face. There are many different SEO factors that may play more or less of a role in your websites’ specific optimization needs.

The search engines can change their algorithms at any time so even if you're doing everything right today, you can’t be assured that tomorrow hold the same. The best thing to do is to have a search engine optimization firm at your disposal that will monitor your search results and that strives to keep you on top the search engines.