How does Google algorithm deal with website ranking?

This write-up is in continuation with our previous discussion on the nuances of Google ranking. Google ranking & algorithms always work together to give users the desired outcome. Let us further dive into the working of the Google algorithm and how does it have an impact on the ranking of your website.

Google ranking-a snapshot:

Ranking on Google is all about relevance. The more your content is relevant to the search phrase, the higher you will rank on SERP. Google works based on its algorithm- a set of predefined rules to sieve through billions of web pages which list down on keying a search phrase. This algorithm crawls and indexes to throw out the best suitable search results. The links on the first page of every search are supposed to be the most appropriate of all, most likely to be clicked and hence rank the highest based on SERP.

Read also: How important is Keyword Analysis?

A survey done by Internet Live stats says that Google receives approximately 63,000 searches per second, every day.

Going deeper into the working of Google algorithms, the way it works and what does it look for actually?

To understand the functions of google algorithm elaborately let us take case of – One entering a “phrase” or “a set of keywords” as it’s otherwise called on Google search tab and how it lists the search results:

As we see, the search phrase is “what are SEO techniques?” keyed into the search tab which gives us search results with the keyword “SEO”.

Crawling:

Google begins with crawling web pages looking for suitable, relevant answers to the search phrase. There could be infinite number of choices for Google to crawl through. The selection is based on the quality and significance of the web page content. Google crawls through web page links on the basis of the sitemap provided by website owners. The web spider looks for new links, changes made to links, links which have become non-existent and also the crawling history of websites to add it to the crawling index.

There are also webmaster tools which are available for the website owners. These tools help to either prioritize few links on their web pages for crawling or prompt the spider to omit few links during the crawling process by using the “robots.txt” file. However, Google does not accept any payment for websites to be crawled frequently. These tools are offered to all the websites alike.

The outcome of web crawling results are then fed into the search index and Google servers.

Indexing:

This is the accumulation of the best-fit content on the search index. It is done on the basis of keywords, uniqueness and suitability to search phrases. A search index contains numerous choices matching the search phrase which is thrown out when requested.

Having known about the search index, you should also explore instances when your web pages could be simply omitted or blocked for misbehavior on web. Webmaster adheres to few approaches and expects websites to strictly follow these guidelines.

Webmaster guidelines do not encourage website owners from:

• Attempting to generate content automatically
• Be a part of link schemes that is purchasing links from other sites to improve ranking
• Plagiarized content on web pages
• Including text and links which are hidden
• Cloaking of content and URLs
• Misguiding the users through sneaky redirects
• Including irrelevant keywords in content
• Being a part of affiliate programs which add no value
• Generating automated queries to Google
• Placing doorway pages with URLs of other websites or keywords. This action is an illegal way to increase the relevance of webpage.

Read also: 301 Redirects Rule Changes – Knowledge on Link Checker

Andrey Lipattsev, the Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google says that “high-quality content and link building are the two significant aspects considered by Google to allocate ranking for a website during search”.

Aspects you should be necessarily doing:         

• Checking out for spam generated by users
• Constantly evaluating your website and protecting it from hackers

Equipped with a deeper view of how the Google algorithm works and what it looks during ranking websites, we ought to comprehend that these set of rules keep changing from time-to-time and so does your web page ranking. To learn more about these changes and also tackling them with ease, do check out our next blog!

Read also: How link building will Influence Rankings?