Google says that the key factors they consider to determine search results to rank include:

1. Meaning of a query

Google says that one of the fundamental quests they have is to establish the INTENT behind a user’s search query or keyword. They are constantly building language models that help them decipher what strings of information the searcher is actually expecting in the results.

They therefore will try understand spelling mistakes, and similar words that mean different things (synonyms).

Hint: Let your information be as concise as possible. Avoid ambiguity.

They’ve given this example: the word “change” can have different meanings in these sentences:

Change a lightbulb, change foreign currency, and change a laptop’s brightness. By all means, therefore, avoid ambiguity with keyword use.

They also try to determine how specific the query’s intent is. Therefore, words like “reviews”, ”opening hours”, ”pictures”, and so on, are highly specific according to Google.

Even the language used in typing the query gets their system trying to decipher if you needed the results served in that language.

2. Webpage Relevance

Google says that their algorithms assess relevance of information within a webpage compared to the visitor’s query. One of their most basic signals to determine this is if a webpage has within it the same keywords as was searched.

When they find similar keywords on the page as per the search query, or in the heading, they then determine that there’s a high probability of relevance.

They also use aggregation and anonymized interaction data for assessing highly precise relevance by transforming availed data into signals for their machine-learned systems.

3. Quality of Content

Google says their algorithm also aimsto give priority to topmost reliable sources that are available. Their systems are designed to look for and identify data signals that help them determine the results demonstrating expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in handling a queried topic.

Note: Any website can demonstrate the above using quality content, consistency, relevance, among other key components including visitor comments or input and sharing on social media platforms.

Indeed, Google insists on looking for those sites where many users seem to give value to when doing similar queries (demonstrated by comments and sharing).

Further crucial points to note: PageRank
i. In their description of what PageRank is, they say that a page’s rank will be based on, among other factors, the pages linking into (read backlinks) and out of it (read citations).

ii. They count backlinks and citations, anchor text, large and bolder fonts, and full raw HTML. This means that if other prominent sites would link to a page (backlinks), this would be a signal of trustworthiness, and if formatting is just right and properly prominent compared to competing sites, this would be a signal of great user experience.

See this research paper:

http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

4. Webpage Usability

Google says that they also check if pages are easy to use. Considering specific pain points and holding everything else constant, more usable pages are prioritized over less usable ones.

This has to do with site pages appearing correctly across different web browsers, design suitingall devices sizes and types (whether desktops, smartphones, or tablets), and whether or not loading times work efficiently for slow internet connection users.

To aid site owners, Google has provided tools like Webpagetest.org and PageSpeed Insights. An emphasis is made on mobile friendly usability.

5. Context and Settings

Google will use information such as location, history of search, and preferred search settings to deliver results for search queries to decipher relevance.

For instance, they give an example of a search query like “football”. If this is keyed in by a user in Chicago, they’re likely to get results that have American football first. However, the same search in London would likely give ranked results about the Premier League.

This also holds true for search settings- like SafeSearch or a preferred language.

What Should You and I Do?

Let's find out what action points to immediately embark on in the next page...