Factor Documentation is RankGear’s built-in reference catalog that explains every individual factor — what it measures, how its result is interpreted, and what you can do about it.
| Term | Factor Documentation |
|---|---|
| Category | Reports, Workbooks and Exports |
| Also known as | Factor Docs, Factor Documentation Report |
| Where it appears | Reports screen and selectable HTML reports |
What it means in RankGear
Every factor RankGear measures carries an entry in the Factor Documentation — a plain description of what the factor looks at, how it is scored, and the interpretation and optimization notes attached to it. You reach it from the Reports screen, and it can be generated as one of the selectable HTML reports that accompany an analysis, so the reasoning behind a number travels with the number itself.
How to interpret it
Start with the opening summary and legend at the top of the documentation, which tell you how the factor scores are laid out and what the columns mean. From there, follow the entries down into the specific factors or supporting sections you care about rather than reading front to back. When you share the document, keep the run metadata intact: the documentation describes one analysis run, and stripping the settings and date makes its numbers harder to trust and impossible to reproduce.
Example
After analyzing a page for the query “commercial roof coating,” you open the Factor Documentation to understand why the word-count factor flagged. The entry describes what the factor counts, shows the target range drawn from the top-ranking pages in that run, and notes how to adjust. You then export the documentation as an HTML companion alongside the workbook and send both to a client — the measurements are unchanged, but now each score comes with the explanation of what it means.
Important considerations
- The documentation reflects a single analysis run — it is a snapshot of one moment with one set of settings, not a standing verdict on the page.
- When comparing runs, hold the settings constant; documentation from different configurations is not directly comparable.
- Formatting is presentation, not evidence — a polished HTML report is no more authoritative than the underlying measurements it wraps.
- Factor scores are comparative indicators built from the pages in a given run, not Google’s own ranking weights; a favorable factor reading correlates with what strong pages tend to do and does not by itself cause a page to rank.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.