There's a few other factors that come in to play with your domain and Google ranking:

1. Domain History - Before grabbing a new domain, check out the domain's history via a WHOIS lookup. If a particular domain name has been dropped several times or has had a previous volatile owner (like someone who has been identified as a spammer), Google may reset the site's entire history - thereby negating any links that point to it.

2. Domain Registration Length - Google assumes that domains that are registered for more than one year will be more valuable in the long run. This means that, when it comes to ranking your site, they will look at when your domain is set to expire. The longer your domain is registered for, the more favourably Google will rank you.

3. WHOIS Information - As mentioned above, WHOIS can tell you a lot about a domain and its owner. All domains registered anywhere in the world will automatically be added to the WHOIS database by ICANN, who are tasked with maintaining IP's, TLD's and much more involved with the Internet (learn more on icann.org). The information in your WHOIS listing will include your name, email address and mailing address. Naturally, not everyone wants this information so widely available. Privacy protection services are available to mask this information and will not affect your SEO or how your domain is ranked. However, it is worth noting that having privacy protection in conjunction with some of the other red flags, like if you are using your domain for spam purposes, you will receive a much lower ranking from Google.

4. Site Security - In August 2014, Google announced that secure sites (those that start with HTTPS rather than HTTP) will start being ranked more favourably. You've no doubt seen HTTPS when shopping online - it's a sign that the webpage you are accessing is protected by a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate and that the sensitive data you are sending to the site will be encrypted. In addition, seeing that your site is secure adds an extra layer of trust - something that your site visitors can feel good about. Adding a trust symbol like this is an easy way to up the credibility factor of your website. All of this is an effort to make the Internet a more secure place, so it's wise to purchase an SSL certificate for your domain lest you get left in the figurative Google dust. By the way, did we mention that you can grab an SSL certificate from Rebel for as low as $16.66 per year?