#1 last month was "number of distinct enities used" #2 number of unique LSI words used #3 number of top 100 shared factors used #4 number of referring domains (up 96 spots) #5 number of backlinks #9 number of no-follow backlinks (up 108 spots) #12 number of do-follow backlinks #34 word count (up 28 spots) #50 Load time milliseconds #80 number of images (up 88 spots) #100 keywords in pages top 5 most used phrases (down 45 spots) The weighting/position of these metrics change every month. If there's one single thing that's usually in the top 5, is using the top 100 shared factors. It's not one or two factors that will make the biggest difference in ranking ,but using as many factors as possible as a whole/collective, specifically the factors in the top 100. When you only focus on say do-follow backlinks, you're only checking the box for #4, #5 & #12. But a competitor can easily outrank you, if they're checking the box on 25-40 or 70 different factors as a whole. To compensate you'd have to build a ton of links. This is why I focus on backlinks last, if they're even needed at all.
If you analyze the work of google, you can notice that it depends on backlinks a lot. If the site has correct backlinks people find it easier and faster, and even more importantly - when they search for the related item. Everybody wants their site to be popular and appear frequently in the first page of the google search, but it is impossible without good backlinks. click here if you want to know more about it