Understanding How Google Ranks Search Results
Understanding How Google Ranks Search Results
How does Google rank a website (Understanding how Google ranks and orders the search results
Many businesses and marketers worldwide spend a huge amount of time trying to figure out how Google ranks websites. We always describe the SEO process as a bit like solving a Rubix cube, where the pieces are constantly being reshuffled.
Now, the reason we say that is that how Google’s algorithm works is kept secret. So, it is up to various SEO experts globally to speculate on how Google’s algorithm works, which methods of search engine optimisation can improve a business’s visibility and which methods can actually damage a business’s visibility.
Written by: Ryan Walsh
Date: 08/01/2025
10-minute read
Getting a business ranked high on Google for highly competitive search terms with high search volume can help your business generate more sales. To boost your rankings, that’s to get your business onto page one of Google; that’s not straightforward. Plus, no levers can be pulled to create an overnight success.
We mean by this that improving any business’s search engine optimisation is one hard slog.
It involves improving the technical, the on-page and the off-page SEO.
How exactly does Google’s search algorithm work?
Relevance and content quality
So, Google is powered by complicated mathematical rules.
It works like a giant library in that it orders pages into categories. So, for example, it will then work out how good that page is, for example, how strong the business’s ranking signals are. Overall, a website’s SEO strength is calculated by over 200 various ranking factors.
This is why we give the example that Google is a bit like a giant library in that it sorts pages like books in a vast library. Then, it orders the books or the pages on a website that provides the best possible answer. Google uses its algorithm to sort the pages, yet this algorithm is constantly being improved and changed, so this is what keeps us SEO agencies very much on our toes.
Have all pages been added to Google’s index?
The answer is no; not all pages are added to Google’s index. This is because some pages are not deemed high enough quality.
What we mean by that is that Google has millions, if not sometimes billions, of pages that Googlebot has indexed. So, to answer a question, something along the lines of, how can I remove a scratch from my car door?
Google will have millions of pages it can select, and because copywriters and businesses globally are constantly writing and publishing new pages, Google can allocate only a limited amount of space for each page.
So, if a page isn’t deemed high quality, it’s not a high-quality page, and it’s simply not going to be placed in Google’s index.
Again, think of Google as a giant library. In that library, Google only wants to have the best-quality books or pages on a website. So if some pages/books don’t make the mark, they won’t make the library, which is Google’s index.
On-page SEO, NLP and Googlebot
It’s Google’s job to crawl and index new pages.
Then, Google’s algorithm is thought to use NLP, or natural language processing, to read the page and determine its quality.
Google then uses Google E-EAT, which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
It uses this concept to determine how well-written the page is and how much experience the author, for example, has with what they are writing about.
Some of the most important ranking factors include:
What are some of the more important Google ranking factors?
Content quality
As mentioned earlier, Google uses Google E-EAT to work out how well-written the page is.
Content quality and freshness
Keyword optimisation
You need to add keywords to certain pages, yet this needs to be done in a white-hat way.
What it does is it allows you to tell Googlebot and Google’s algorithm what that page is about. However, far too many agencies overoptimise the page; they overoptimise the anchor text, the internal links, the page title and keyword stuff on the page. This is a sure-fire way for the business to receive a Google penalty if the text has been keyword stuffed.
Number and quality of backlinks
Any company must start to earn a good amount of quality links.
Page speed
It is essential that your company website, which is the desktop and mobile version, is made super sonic fast. So don’t purchase cheap website hosting; that’s just a few quids each month, as it might not be fast enough.
If you want to buy dedicated hosting in the U.K., that’s supersonic fast.
Mobile-friendliness
It’s an absolute must that your website must work on smartphones, regardless of the operating system.
Again, one of the ranking factors Google uses is page speed, so you must have a mobile version of the website designed that is supersonic fast.
Google can flip the script at any time.
So, let’s say it’s Monday morning, and you check where your business ranks in Google’s SERPs.
You please as punch because you’re number one for a competitive keyword. Well done!
However, Google’s algorithm is a shape-shifter; it’s constantly changing and being perfected.
So, the business might have moved down a few places by Friday afternoon. So be aware that Google is constantly improving, refining, and perfecting is algorithm like a fine wine.
This is why various agencies, including marketing agencies, have to use the best SEO tools available to monitor the statistics. This is really important; it allows you to track where your business is ranked for important keywords.
There have been some massive, really seismic Google updates. Let’s talk about some of the more important ones.
Google Floride update (2003)
Google rolled out a significant Google update called the “Google Florida” update; this algorithm update was to target keyword stuffing.
Google Panda update
Before you start writing content marketing for your business, be aware of the Google Panda update.
It’s a very significant update. Websites that had a huge amount of duplicate content or, let’s say, content-thin pages would have seen a serious decline in their number of organic visitors during the rollout of this update.
Sounds a bit drastic. Mobilegeddon, however, is what many SEO agencies globally dubbed this update rolled out by Google.#
Back in 2015, Google rolled out this important update. Basically, if your businesses didn’t have a mobile-ready website, then your rankings would have suffered.
Therefore, it’s important to have a responsive website. Google then introduced “mobile-first indexing,” whereby Googlebot would crawl and index a mobile version of the website before the desktop version.
So, from an SEO perspective, a well-designed mobile version of your company website is a must.
Having a mobile version of your company website is crucial from a shopper’s perspective. Broadly speaking, it’s thought that over 50% of visitors now come via a mobile device, such as a smartphone or a tablet.
2022 UX
More recently, there’s been much more emphasis on user experience factors, such as how fast the website loads. So SEO has become multifaceted because there are so many elements to get right to get a business ranked high in Google’s results.
How exactly does Google rank websites?
First things first, don’t trust any SEO company that looks you in the eye and tells you they know exactly how Google’s algorithms work. Their nose is likely to grow shortly after they tell you that.
Google’s algorithm and how it works are closely guarded secrets by Google; they don’t tell people how the inner workings work or how the algorithm works. With good reason, SEO agencies like ours and others would focus less on offering quality information and helpful content marketing and try to focus too much on optimising for SEO ranking factors.
This means that the customer is put second place over SEO, which is not what Google wants, and in our view, that’s correct. Today, you must focus on people first, content marketing, and SEO, meaning you put the customer first, offering quality advice and a good user experience. By doing this, SEO falls into place naturally.
Do people like your website?
You could focus on improving your website until you’re blue in the face, yet if customers don’t like the website, the information, or the products, then the SEO will suffer.
What do we mean by that?
Google looks at metrics, such as dwell time, that’s time on site, bounce rates, etc., plus whether you were the last website visited to determine whether you offered the customer what they were looking for.
If somebody wants to buy a set of pink fluffy slippers and spends 10 minutes on average browsing your products, it’s obvious that they are interested in what you are selling.
However, if the bounce rate is 99.9%, shoppers are bouncing off your website in droves, which shows they are less interested in what you are selling.
So, you have to get the foundations right. What we mean by that is that the content marketing and architecture of your website must be good. There’s no point trying to optimise a website that’s been poorly designed and built. It has to be well-designed.
Relevance
It’s essential that the content marketing offered is relevant.
For example, Google uses location information to match shoppers with local businesses.
On-page SEO also can help match the right products and services to customers looking for those products.
Pages that are kept up to date are also considered more relevant. For example, you might have written an article on the best electric cars in 2018, yet unless you update it for 2025, it will be outdated, and the bounce rate will increase.
Content Quality
Content marketing quality should be of paramount importance.
You wouldn’t enter an old diesel car into a Formula One race? It’s going to get lapped.
It’s the same for content marketing. There’s no point in creating content marketing if it doesn’t stand a fighting chance of beating the competition’s work.
Pages with high Google E-EAT scores and quality links will rank high on Google. Therefore to be placed higher than that work, your businesses work must be better.
Usability factors
Google’s page experience and the mobile-friendliness Google algorithm updates mean that marketing agencies must also focus on work that offers a good UX that’s user experience.
Core Web Vitals
Google Search Console
We highly recommend obtaining a Google Search Console account, as it can help you improve your business’s marketing in many different ways.
PageSpeed Insights
You should make sure your website is as fast as feasibly possible.
WordPress plugins
Don’t add too many plugins, which may not be needed which may slow your website down.
Off-page signals
Generally speaking, you will need high-quality backlinks to rank right in the top 3 organic results on Google.
Google Business
It is essential to have a Google Business account set up and optimise it.
Partner with us
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With SEO packages starting from £500.00 a month, we can offer affordable marketing solutions to most businesses.