Google is the most popular and largest search engine, where billions of searches are performed every day. So understanding how does Google ranks these search results is very important to make your business stand out in a crowd of competitors.
In this article, we will try to answer all questions about how does Google rank search results? 😊
Keep reading…
Search algorithms
Google’s algorithms are a complex system which finds, crawl, index & sorts the information to deliver the best possible results for a query.
There are different search algorithms which work to give users the most useful and relevant information instantly. Search algorithms look at more than 200 factors including the words of your query, content of the webpages, backlinks and location.
· Crawling
Crawling is the discovery process in which Google send out a team of robots or crawlers to find new or updated content. There are different types of crawlers which crawl information including webpages, images, videos or PDF files.
You may think how it possible for crawlers or Googlebots to find or collect information from all the documents across the web. Yeah, it’s possible due to links. Crawlers start out by fetching a few webpages and then follows the links on those webpages to find new URLs. In this way, the crawlers are able to find new content and add it to their index – a massive database of discovered URLs.
You can even prevent Google from crawling and indexing a page or the whole website. If you ask Google not to index this page or website then Google will not show that specific page or website in the search results.
You can block search indexing with ‘noindex’ meta tag or robots.txt
· Indexing
When crawlers find a webpage, then the next step is indexing in the Google search systems. Indexing is the process to store the webpages to show the searchers. The Google Search index contains hundreds of billions of webpages to show most useful information to users. It is not necessary that Google index all the pages. If Google hasn’t indexed a page, it’s mean Google will not show that specific page in the search results at all.
Read this:
How to Find out Which URLs are Not Indexed on a Website or Sitemap
Sudden Drop in Google Index Status – Possible Reasons Why
· Ranking
When someone performs a search, Google shows different results pages to give the searcher the most relevant information. This ordering of SERPs (search results) by relevance is known as ranking. In general, you can assume that the higher a website is ranked, the more relevant the Google believes that the site is to the query.
Major Google Algorithms
· Panda
Google algorithm that modernized to reduce the prevalence of low-quality and thin content in the search results so that to reward unique, compelling content.
· Penguin
Penguin deals with link quality – which specifically targeting to link spam and manipulative link building practices of a particular web page.
· Hummingbird
“Hummingbird” considers the context of the different words together, with the goal that pages matching the meaning do better, rather than pages matching just a few words.
· Pigeon
Pigeon was designed to tie Google’s local search algorithm closer to its web algorithm and to improve ranking parameters based on distance and location.
· Mobilegeddon
Google released a significant algorithm update for a new mobile-friendly ranking parameter that is designed to give a boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results.
· Rank Brain
RankBrain is a machine-learning artificial intelligence system that helps Google better understand the meaning behind queries and provide best-matching search results for users.
· Possum
Google Possum is an algorithm update launched in 2016 to improve local search results.
· Fred
Google Fred is an algorithm update that targets black-hat tactics. This includes an overload of ads, low-value content and little-added user benefits.
Most Important Factors that Google Use to Rank Search Results
There are more than 200 Google ranking factors, however, in this article, we will discuss the most important factors that Google uses to rank its SERPs.
· Quality Content
Content is always king for the Google ranking. Without quality content, you can’t even think about ranking a website. Google’s Panda and Penguin notified that content could primarily affect your SEO strategy. A high-quality and well-structured content engages the user to stay for a longer time which significantly boosts search ranking.
Search engine optimized content in which keywords related to your business are naturally adjusted informs the purpose of the content to search engines. It engages users and provides valuable information about your services or products.
· Backlinks
Building quality backlinks play an important role in Google ranking. Links improve crawling, indexing and even ranking for your website. Although search engine algorithms are changing and becoming more complex yet good quality backlinks can be a game-changer to rank a website.
· Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis helps you to identify your competitors and the strategies they are using to rank their websites. It will help you to find the right keywords and sites where you get backlinks. Also you can analyze their content to make your content marketing more effective and useful. In short, SEO competitor analysis is very important to rank your website higher in Google.
· Keyword Research
The main purpose of performing keyword research is to find words or phrases that your potential clients or customers are searching for on Google. Keywords are related to the products or services on your website. Keyword research also helps you to understand your audience and the questions they are asking and optimize your content accordingly.
· Meta Title and Meta Description
Meta title and description help Google and users to understand the content of a specific webpage. Writing the useful meta title and meta descriptions can dramatically boost click-through rates from SERPs. It will help you to drive more traffic from Google and generate more sales.
· Page Speed
Optimizing your website load time is very important for improving your ranking in Google as well as better user experience. You can evaluate your page speed using different tools including PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Pingdom and others. There are different ways to increase your page speed such as enable compression, optimize images, minify CSS & JavaScript, reduce redirects, remove render-blocking JavaScript, leverage browser caching and improve server response time.
· Image Optimization
Image optimization helps in improving website load speed & user experience and boosts SEO ranking. Also, add alt text to your images so that Google can better understand your images and rank your page accordingly.
· Sitemap
There are two types of sitemaps one is XML sitemaps and other HTML sitemaps. Â XML sitemaps help Google discover the pages on your website. HTML sitemaps ostensibly serve website visitors. Both sitemaps are important, XML sitemap improve crawling and indexing on the other hand HTML sitemap helps users to easily navigate the site.
· Mobile Friendliness
A mobile-friendly website is the tiny version of your website that displays on mobile devices. It was not mandatory in Google search ranking algorithms until Google announced the mobile-first indexing feature in 2016. The reason is that 50.48% of traffic comes from mobile, and 46.51% is from the desktop. Users spend an average of 3 to 5 hours per day on mobile. It makes a mobile responsive website suitable for users and helps in ranking a website on Google.
· Secure Website
Another most important factor that affects search rankings is the secure website. For the betterment of security measures, Google announced in 2014 that they would prioritize websites with strong security or using “HTTPS” instead of “HTTP.” The secure website is also good for users and they are satisfied that their information is secure and private when they will send it to the site.
· Social Signals
The importance of social media in terms of Google ranking can’t be overlooked as it can influence SEO on a wide scale. Now social media is an important ranking factor. Promoting your website on high traffic social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest is very beneficial for SEO and brand awareness. So, always try to increase followers, post useful content and engage with customers on social media sites for better ranking and results.
Conclusion
Google use different algorithms to rank search results. Google search algorithms find, crawl, index and sort the information to deliver the best possible results for a query.
So, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article!
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section below.
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