Find out how Google Decides the Rank of Your Website

Seek, and you shall find isn’t necessarily the constant case when it comes to the way Google search functions. Years ago, businesses sought to corner the market through vastly different approaches, varying from word-of-mouth to flyer hand-outs and TV commercials. Nowadays, 2.14 out of 7.7 billion people have purchased a product or service online instead of walking up to the shops.  

Website ranking is a complex topic, and a cogent mass of interconnected variables influence how Google rates websites and pages. Google considers the websites that appear on the first page of its search results for any particular search word to be the most important and valuable. They use a complicated algorithm to decide which websites are the most efficient and significant, factoring over a couple of hundred variables.  

How does the Google magic happen?

Google sends "Google bots" (also known as crawlers or spiders) to websites to examine the content and assess its accuracy. Consider Google bots to be robotic website reviewers who examine the site as if it were a press release briefing, review it, and report their conclusions to the public — in this case, Google users.

Google considers two items when ranking the site: authority and relevance. Based on the performance of the algorithm and details collected by search engine spiders, Google will assign a score to a website. The order in which these websites appear on search result pages reflects their ranking. The fact that a page ranks higher than another indicates how important it is to the search query.

There is no golden SEO order that can guarantee you the top spot for any of your chosen keywords. Still, by paying attention to the variables that the algorithm values and consistently trying to boost them, you can rest assured that your website's Google rankings will improve.

What determines Google search rankings?

Search engine optimization (SEO), in layman’s terms, is modifying a website to score as high as possible in organic search engine results. Organic, in this case, refers to non-paid search results. This is not to be confused with pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising, which is a method of generating traffic for a fee.

Both paid and organic Google rankings are calculated by algorithms that recognize different characteristics and metrics deemed relevant by Google—these are your ranking variables. We'll never know the exact weight of each, since Google doesn’t make that information public, but we do know a lot of them thanks to what they have shown us and what we've discovered by continuously experimenting.

Since ranking factors and algorithms change, consistency, trustworthiness, and efficiency are the characteristics Google is attempting to discern through its algorithm.

Here’s a quick rundown of the main ranking criteria Google keeps a keen eye on:

• Off-page ranking criteria: These are factors that Google considers outside of the site and mainly include backlinks.
• On-page ranking factors: These are mostly concerned with the pages' keywords and informational quality.
• Technical ranking factors: They are often calculated on the web, but they focus on the general success of the site rather than individual sites.

The foundations of SEO growth are keyword analysis and keyword policy. If you appreciate the essence of keywords, you're well on the way to understanding how search engines rank web pages.

Rank better by knowing these principles

There are billions of Google searches a day, so you'll need to follow Google's rules to rank high enough for prospective users to find your site. Improving your search engine optimization habits is one of the easiest ways to ensure that you are getting the most out of your content.

To keep ahead of today's data-driven environment, businesses need a way to assess and view their SEO efforts. To do so, 73 percent of advertisers use SEO software to improve content scores on Google and optimize their content. You will increase the chance of attracting organic website traffic by making minor changes to the website content.

1. Keyword Optimization

The keywords and phrases you use that allow people to find your site through search engines are known as SEO keywords. With SEO keywords that help link searchers to your domain, a website that is well suited for search engines automatically relates to its future visitor base.

To put it differently, you need to understand how users search for the goods, programs, or resources you have in order to make it simple for them to locate you—otherwise, they'll end up on one of the many other sites in the search results. Using keyword SEO can make the website score higher than its competition.

SEO keyword analysis should be a continuous and ever-changing aspect of your work. Old keywords can be reevaluated on a regular basis. And high-volume, competitive keywords, or "head" keywords,, should also be substituted or supplemented with longer, more precise phrases that are intended to pull in the best audience.

2. Image Optimization

Visual content, like written content, can help with SEO. Image optimization improves the site's exposure while also helping the posts score higher on Google Image Search. When it comes to image optimization, though, there are a few things to bear in mind.

Picture optimization is, without a doubt, one of the most underappreciated aspects of SEO; however, this does not have to be the case. It's not unusual to see photos on a website with large file sizes and nondescript file names that are presented on the blog at far smaller sizes than the original image.

And don't forget that image search is a big deal in and of itself and will bring a lot of traffic to your pages. One of the biggest triggers of sluggish web pages is poorly optimized photos, and making changes can have a significant effect on how quickly your site loads and your PageSpeed ratings.

However, optimizing alt tags always comes at the end of picture SEO practices. And while this is undeniably an integral aspect of the case method, it is just one in the pool of many.

3. The Backlink Portfolio

When it comes to making the website become more accessible in search engine results pages (SERPs), backlinks serve multiple interrelated purposes.

You must ensure that Google (and therefore people) will locate your website after it has been created. Backlinks are amongst the most effective methods for putting your website on the chart of the web. Google sends out robotic "spiders" to scour the Internet for new websites to index.

Backlinks direct traffic to your website. A link to your website can be found every time someone lands on a page connected to your website, whether it's a social media post, a guest post on an industry magazine's forum, a listing in a local archive, or anywhere else. When anyone clicks on the page, it increases the amount of traffic to your blog.

How can SearchData assist you today?

We’re more than happy to support you in your SEO endeavors. SearchData is hoping to grant thousands of companies the power to improve their products with secure, precise, and fresh data by using an API-led approach to data collection. You can claim 100 free searches to test out the API and find out how it can help you.