How Google’s Ranking Algorithm Works

When I was young, I enjoyed listening to music and news shows across the vast distance to US cities far away on our family’s antique radio.

As I turned the hand dial, there was no sound until I hit a broadcast frequency of a radio station. Suddenly, across thousands of miles, a voice or some music came through the speakers crystal clear.

You had to get the selection dial aligned with the actual signal, which because of weather, wasn’t always where it was supposed to be. Many times, it was off just a little and I had to make a slight gentle fine-tuning for it to come through. Some radio station signals from cities thousands of miles away were strong and true while others closer were weaker and noisy. Of course, I listened to the stations that wanted to get their broadcast out to listeners.

Tuning into Google’s Organic Ranking Algorithm

In the same way, Google scans and listens for website content that is tuned to their ranking algorithm. Those sites with the best match to their algorithm and user’s intent receive a high ranking in search results and the financial benefits.  The Google ranking algorithm is very complex with a base of more than 100 ranking factors, which is fine-tuned by their AI-based system called RankBrain. RankBrain is the dial on the antique radio.

But here’s the wrinkle. We, the SEO/Content Strategist are the human hand on the dial and we use it to get our content and SEO signals loud and laser clear.

The full Google search ranking algorithm is ingenious, and their engineers are careful to never to expose it to anyone. It’s their search system’s secret sauce.

SEO Expertise is All about Mastering the Ranking Algorithm

If you wondered whether you really needed an expert SEO/Content strategist, consider the complexity of aligning your content with what is more than 100 ranking factors in the algorithm.  That is a lot of signals to orchestrate content to and to beat endless numbers of strong competitors.  An SEO expert is tuned into this complicated mathematical algorithm, its weighting and how factors interact and how to get it just right.  There’s a lot of power in that.

Because Google sees content in a very complex way. Out of one million documents, it will select a few that best answer a searcher’s quest (in Google’s view anyway). And remember, an algorithm is an opinion and opinions can be manipulated.

When I doubled Delta Hotel’s web traffic from 1.2 million to 2.5 million per year, it was due to this tuning in of quality signals in content and backlinks. I’ve also created several million-visit blog posts which became “representative documents” in Google’s view.  Google’s trust of a particular page has a very heavy weight in the ranking algorithm.

Trust flow and pagerank then can be routed and recirculated to supercharge rankings further. Doing this naturally takes planning and editing. But such successful pages collect massive traffic and can also boost the rankings of other pages. The point then is that are different ways to compete for a keyword phrase you desire, and that advanced SEO techniques use every conceivable advantage to win it for you. Many times we win because our competition’s optimization is poorly tuned and thus gives weak signals.

Google’s Key Algorithm Components

Their page ranking algorithm uses these elements and more in a weighted mathematical formula and each is tuned to the others as a cluster of influences. You might think of it as a series of sub-algorithms that are optimized as a whole by something they call Rankbrain.

Advanced SEO then, would gauge the effect of each subalgorithm and how RankBrain might weight each of them in its final decision on which pages to rank. This is where experience, algorithm understanding and judgement comes in.

A crafty, wise SEO specialist would strategize how your text copy, links and topics resonate throughout your content strategy to then focus on powerful “representative content pages” which often rank higher on Google. These pages can generate enormous visibility and clickthroughs. Of course, Google’s engineers are vigilant to find any SEO technique that works and then nullify it.

These 12 ranking elements are the core features of the algorithm:

  • Text Content: The quality (EEAT), relevance to user intent, and the freshness of the content
  • Backlinks: The number and quality of backlinks linking to a page
  • Keyword match and semantics: The number and relevance of keywords and related words in the content
  • Anchor text: The quality of the anchor texts within liks for the page
  • Topics Context: Keywords and related words near links and headings that fine-tune the meanings
  • Unique User Intent: copywriting or content that resonates with each searcher’s unique interests.
  • Expertise: The expertise and experience of the author and the sources cited in the content
  • Usability and Page Experience: How mobile-friendly and fast-loading the content is, and how spam-free it is
  • Context: The geographical location, search history, and search preferences of the user
  • Structure: The organization/readability of the content and the structure and ease of navigation of the website
  • Domain authority/rating: The authority/trustworthiness of the domain that the page is hosted on and its topic reputation
  • Core Web Vitals: The page’s Core Web Vitals, which include things like secure HTTPS.

Advanced SEO Strategy

The key to mastering the algorithm for ranking gain is to improve the strength and quality of the ranking signals above that are contained in your pages. As we align more of these signals with your targeted keyword phrases, the message Google receives and the spidering journey of your pages is more relevant to it.  There is also less noise, distraction, and waste so Google isn’t confused about what it’s reading. We get to control what Google believes about your content and it’s all assembled.

Advanced SEO strategy refines this process and adds more relevance so your page is seen as more relevant to more searchers who may be searching for slightly different purposes and needs.  For instance, if a vacationer is searching for Mexico travel deals, they may be looking for flights, accommodation, meals, drinks, tours etc. but each has their own preferences in cities to visits and the experience they envision.

A larger travel site likely possesses more content (travel packages) specific to each city or region, or type of travel deal. In turn, that content can be search engine optimized to support some destinations or packages rather than others. Ranking power then is focused and not wasted on pages/packages that aren’t as profitable.

You don’t have to be bothered with all of this — it’s what you hire me to do!  Yet, I think you’ll be better informed if you know what goes into designing and optimizing content for search. It really is a thing.

Contact me Gord at 416 998 6246 to discuss optimization of your content for search dominance.

Are you located in Vancouver Canada, or Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Mississauga. I can help you as well if you’re in the San Jose/San Franciso, San Diego, Denver or Boston regions. I’ve served SEO and Content strategy to clients all over the world from Beijing China to London England to New York City, USA and California.

 * title image  Vintage Silvertone Console Radio, Model 4586A, AM-SW-Poli courtesy of via Flickr (commons license).

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