Ranking high in Google Search can deliver a dependable stream of organic search traffic to your website. However, grasping the ins and outs of how Google ranks search results isn’t so straightforward, as the Google ranking algorithm is incredibly complex and ever-changing. Boosting your rankings ultimately comes down to how the algorithm evaluates several on and off-page factors, many of which you can control to help your site rank higher in relevant results pages.
How Does the Google Search Algorithm Work?
Google stores pages in an index, which functions like an enormous content library. When you enter a query into the search engine, it wouldn’t be very helpful if it just returned an unfiltered list of all these pages. Instead, Google uses algorithms — complex mathematical rule sets — to filter and rank web pages based on relevance and content quality.
🤔 But what determines whether your website gets added to the search index, and how does Google rank it from that point?
How Google ranks websites begins with crawling — a process where Google’s bots scan your website, reading its content and following internal links to gradually discover all pages on your site.
While the web crawlers check the text and media on each page, they can’t fully comprehend what they read. Instead, Google determines the meaning of sentence structure and semantics using other technologies, such as natural language processing (NLP), particularly in combination with keywords and other on-page SEO elements.
Once Google understands your content and adds it to its index, ranking for a particular search term depends on how the algorithm rates the value of your page based on over 200 ranking signals.
Some of the most important ranking factors include:
- Content quality and freshness
- Keyword optimization
- Number and quality of backlinks
- Page speed
- Mobile-friendliness
Increase organic traffic to critical pages with flexible SEO strategies engineered to support your business goals.
How and When the Algorithms ChangeMuch to the dismay of website owners, Google updates its algorithms and systems frequently. This constant evolution is necessary to ensure the search engine returns valuable results to internet users. Often, major algorithmic changes occur specifically to counteract the latest quality problems.
One of Google’s first significant algorithm updates, Florida, launched in 2003 to combat keyword stuffing and link spam, shutting down tactics to game the system. In 2011, the infamous Panda update cracked down on sites flooding the web with thin or duplicate content.
Google has also often used algorithm updates to adapt to changes in user behavior. In 2015, Google introduced its mobile-friendly algorithm to reward pages optimized for smaller screens — responding to the surge in mobile users browsing and shopping on their phones. The 2021 and 2022 page experience updates prioritized factors like load time and layout stability, proving that user experience plays a bigger role in search rankings than ever before.
Most Google algorithm updates fall into a few categories, depending on the update’s size and goal. These categories include:
- Minor Updates: Small updates, like those targeting spam, are minor tweaks. While some websites are unfairly affected, you usually don’t need to worry much about them if you prioritize high-quality content and user experience.
- Major Updates: Large-scale algorithm changes, such as the Penguin update that expanded upon Panda’s foundation to tackle spammy practices, significantly impact ranking in Google Search. The Diversity Update, which reduced the number of rankings from the same domain, is another prominent example of a major update.
- Core Updates: Google updates all its search algorithms and systems several times a year, and these widespread changes are called core updates. They’re often the most challenging adjustments to prepare for or recover from since they don’t target anything specific. If your site is affected, Google states that you should focus on overall content quality, user experience, and adherence to search guidelines.
Systems Updates: Besides algorithms, several systems are essential to how Google ranks search results. These systems affect how the algorithms perceive your content. For example, the helpful content system boosts rankings for content that showcases unique expertise and delivers exceptional value. Similarly, the reviews system rewards in-depth product reviews that offer insightful perspectives.
These posts cover some recent algorithm updates:
- Your Google March Core Algorithm Update Cheatsheet
- How To Recover From & Write for Google’s Helpful Content System
How Does Google Rank Websites?
Now that you know how Google ranks search results using its algorithms, you might be wondering what is Google ranking websites for? What exactly does it look at?
In addition to keyword analysis, Google uses anonymized interaction data to assess how well content matches a given search query. This data is transformed into signals that refine Google’s machine learning systems, enabling them to estimate relevance with greater accuracy and deliver better results.
First, a note: Google doesn’t rank websites; it ranks web pages. It considers most ranking factors at the page level. However, there is an exception for the helpful content system. This algorithmic system can impact an entire site’s rankings rather than just a particular page’s rank.
On-Page Factors
On-page ranking factors are signals within the content and architecture of your site. Because you can control your website’s on-page content, optimizing these factors is one of the most efficient ways to gain higher search rankings.
Search Intent
Search intent is the meaning behind the query you type into Google. For example, Google can usually tell the difference between a search for Apple, the tech company, and apple, the fruit.
The four main types of intent include:
- Navigational: Queries where the user is looking for a particular site or web page, such as a Wikipedia article about a specific topic or the login page for Facebook.
- Informational: Searches that ask a question. The user generally wants to know more about a subject.
- Commercial: Queries that have a future purchase intent. The user may search for the “best TV” or product-specific information to assist with shopping.
- Transactional: Searches that occur once a user is ready to make a purchase. The keyword “buy” is common in these queries.
Google prioritizes content that aligns with what it believes users are looking for. For example, Google likely won’t present a product review page about a brand of solar panels to someone who wants to know how solar energy generation works.
User intent also affects the type of results and search features on the page. One example is the search results page providing more video content for how-to style queries, where the user may want a visual answer. Users may also find featured snippets better for any informational question requiring a short answer.
Searching for your target keywords and studying the top-ranking pages before creating or adjusting your content is always a good idea. Consider what a typical user might want and ensure your page reflects that for higher rankings.
Relevance
When appropriate, Google uses location and search history to deliver more relevant results. For example, a user searching for the best hairdresser probably doesn’t want to get on a plane for a haircut. Google understands this and returns results relevant to the person’s location.
Freshness is another form of relevance, as Google may rank updated content higher for time-sensitive search terms. For instance, someone searching for information about a product recall likely wants to know about the most recent event rather than past recalls. Google will rank up-to-date pages higher than older content.
While you can’t ensure your content is 100% relevant to all users, there are some simple things you can do to optimize its applicability to a broader audience:
- Create evergreen content with long-lasting appeal.
- Check and update keywords for changing search intent.
- Update pages with new information and multimedia to maintain freshness.
- Perform regular SEO audits to check for broken links and other technical issues.
Content Quality
Content quality is central to high search engine rankings. But how does Google rank search results with quality in mind, and what is E-E-A-T?
E-E-A-T signifies experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness — qualities Google seeks when manually rating relevant content. While these principles guide manual raters, their feedback helps shape Google’s algorithms, making E-E-A-T an indirect but crucial factor in how your content is ranked.
If your site doesn’t adhere to E-E-A-T principles, you may not rank as high. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to improve content quality:
- Publish in-depth content backed by research.
- Collaborate with experts and influencers within your niche.
- Provide transparent details about your business to build trustworthiness.
- Use expert authors or have professionals review information for accuracy.
Usability
Google’s page experience and mobile friendliness algorithm updates raised the importance of a good user experience. While having a lightning-fast website won’t necessarily propel your pages to the top of search for the most competitive search phrases, it can often mean the difference between first and second position when all else is equal.
Core Web Vitals are among the most critical metrics to target for page experience, as they’re what Google uses in its algorithms. You can check these measurements easily with the following tools:
- Google Search Console
- PageSpeed Insights
- Chrome DevTools
- WordPress plugins
In addition to optimizing Core Web Vitals, you should improve your site’s accessibility where possible. You may need help from an experienced web developer if you’re unfamiliar with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript and don’t have an in-house professional to coordinate the changes.
Off-Page Factors
While on-page factors relate to the content itself, off-page factors are the signals Google receives from external sources. These signals are more complicated and time-consuming to optimize, but they’re essential to how Google ranking works.
Some of the most vital factors include:
- Backlinks: Of all the off-page factors, backlinks are probably the most crucial to how Google ranks results, as they demonstrate a referral of trust and authority. When ranking pages, Google considers both the quality and number of backlinks to your site. However, backlink quality carries the most weight, with links from established and highly trusted websites holding the most value.
- Google Business Profile: Creating a Google Business Profile helps build trustworthiness and authority for your brand. While this tactic is more important for local marketing, it can also benefit your overall SEO efforts by improving your E-E-A-T score and attracting backlinks from other sites.
- Domain and Page Authority: Domain authority measures the value of your site’s overall backlink profile, while page authority provides a similar score for individual URLs. Both metrics are third-party measurements Google doesn’t explicitly use as a direct ranking factor. However, these metrics can help you track the overall effect of your off-page SEO over time, allowing you to measure the success of activities like link-building efforts.
Off-page SEO is tricky because Google penalizes websites for black hat tactics such as comment and forum spam. Generally, it’s best to build links as naturally as possible. Some common strategies include:
- Publishing link-worthy content that serves as a valuable resource for businesses in your niche.
- Collaborating with other relevant websites guest posting and social media campaigns.
- Creating highly linkable multimedia content such as infographics and videos.
- Building relationships with influencers.
- Issuing press releases.
- Partnering with a reputable link-building service.
How Does Your Website Rank on Google?
Google Search Console gives you valuable data on how your site performs in search, showing which queries drive impressions, clicks, and average rankings for specific pages. While it’s not the most robust tool for tracking rankings, it’s the only Google-provided way to do so. You can use it in conjunction with Google Analytics to learn more about your site visitors, though keep in mind Analytics doesn’t include ranking information.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to note that when it comes to how Google ranks search results, most ranking factors are relative, and your competitors’ efforts can affect how well your own site ranks on Google.
Suppose a competitor makes sweeping improvements to their content and expands their link outreach program. In that case, you might experience keyword rank changes even though you haven’t changed your own content or marketing strategy. The best way to avoid this is to continuously improve your website even when you’re already on top.
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