How Search Results Are Ranked

How Does Google Rank Search Results?

If you want your site to be ranked in Google and other search engines, it is important to understand the process and algorithms of ranking search results. Here are some things or factors that Google looks for:

Source: SEO Strategies & Tactics Course

Meaning

As a content creator, it is important to think about what people may mean when they search for something. For instance, searching for “pizza” can mean different things to different people. It can be the person is looking for a pizza place near him/her, a recipe for making pizza, the most popular kinds of pizza, etc.

If you want to use the word “pizza” as a keyword, be very clear about what you mean. You can write something about the top 10 pizza places in a specific area, or how to make pizza.

Relevance

What information do you have on a page that is relevant based on the meaning of the search? If your article is about “how to make pizza,” you can use this phrase several times throughout your content.

You can also add it to your title tag, meta tags, meta description, title of an image or a video, and even to the URL of the page. So, when someone looks for content on how to make pizza, Google may give your page a high ranking in search results.

Quality

Quality refers to the trustworthiness and credibility of your content. Google determines if your site has quality content through the number of backlinks to the page.

The quality of the content plays a big role in how your page or overall site can be ranked. In other words, aside from having high-quality content, you need to focus on earning backlinks.

Useability

How user-friendly is your site? Google considers useability in ranking websites. Make sure that your site is not cluttered, has nice fonts that are reader-friendly, and good images, as well as spacing. Also, the page should load quickly.

Context

Context refers to your location. It can be the city or country you’re in, as well as the language used to search the site. If you’re optimizing a local site, you may want to focus mainly on a specific city or area. If your target audience comes from different parts of the world, come up with a broader strategy.

These are the things that work together to make sure that your site ranks well in search results.

Additional Resources

Learn more about how to get better site rankings in our SEO Strategy & Tactics Course. For additional knowledge, check out the resources below: