How does Google’s algorithm work?
Author: Ryan Walsh
Date: 19/12/2024
Introduction
Perhaps you’ve just had a new website designed?
Perhaps you are just getting started with improving your business’s internet marketing.
Perhaps you keep reading about Google’s algorithms, yet you don’t know what this means.
Well, you have most definitely come to the right place. We are internet marketing experts and have people here who have spent over 10 years studying Google’s algorithm and figuring out how it works.
What are Google’s algorithms?
Algorithms are just that; algorithms fix mathematical formulas.
The algorithms are designed to determine an outcome, and different factors are weighted in importance.
For example, you might get a set of applicants who want to apply for a job. To shortlist the applicants, you might ask them to do a tick box exercise.
An algorithm might then determine the best of the bunch; who should you shortlist for an interview?
Different questions might be weighted differently, and this is similar to how Google’s algorithm works.
Yet instead of using tick box exercises, you use “ranking factors”.
Ranking factors are simply a set of values that Google considers important when evaluating a page’s quality.
Ranking websites
Therefore, Google’s algorithms are like a set of rules, and It has specified over 200 ranking factors that it uses to determine a website’s importance.
A website that has good and strong ranking factors ranks higher in the SERP’s.
Relevance and quality
It’s all about the page’s quality and the information’s relevance.
Therefore, Google’s algorithm determines what a page is about. For example, are you talking about soft drinks or classic cars?
Then, the Google Hummingbird update allows for previous knowledge of what that page is about.
So, for example, are you talking about organic soft drinks?
Are you talking about, let’s say, Aston Martin DB7 sports cars?
Then Google uses E-EAT, which is a set of guidelines for determining the author’s experience and expertise.
Then Google uses authoritativeness and trustworthiness to determine how high-quality a page is.
For those who are paying attention, they will have noticed that we mention Google’s use of over 200 different ranking factors in its algorithm.
So Google will determine the quality of the page and the SEO, such as the do-follow backlinks pointing to that page.
Like a Rubix cube that’s constantly changing
Imagine someone with a Rubix cube in their hands constantly switching and changing the squares.
So, it would be hard to guess how the Rubix cube will look in, say, 5 minutes, right?
This is like how Google’s algorithm works: It’s constantly shape-shifting, if you like, changing and becoming something new.
So Google employs engineers, as well as quality guideline staff; they’re constantly improving and changing the algorithm,
How does Google’s algorithm work out where to rank a page?
The page must be “crawlable”.
First things first, Google uses bots, to be precise, Googlebot.
Googlebot is like a giant spider that walks around the web. However, Googlebot doesn’t walk around the web; it walks around backlinks and websites.
Its job is to crawl and index new content marketing.
Therefore, its job is to read a page, find new pages, and edit existing ones. If the work is good, Google will index it.
Indexation
Indexing a website is like adding a book to a library.
Just as a library has a fixed budget, it can spend on books; Google doesn’t want to clutter its index—its library, if you will—with rubbish and spam content marketing.
So, it only adds quality content marketing.
The work that Google’s algorithm deems as high quality has a high Google E-EAT score, which Google’s algorithms deem high quality will get indexed. They will then be ranked by Google’s algorithm, depending on the page’s high quality.
Therefore, if a page offers the best possible answer to a question and has a very high Google E-EAT score, then it’s possible it jumps and occupies the very first position in Google’s SERPs.
Google Penalty
Google Penalties
People always look for shortcuts.
Have you ever been in a traffic queue and had a car drive on the wrong side to try to jump the queue?
Yep, it’s dangerous and just well bad manners.
Google doesn’t like pages or websites that cut corners or try to fool the algorithms into thinking the SEO is better than it is. This is called using “black hat” methods. Don’t use them; they will get your website hit with a penalty.
A Google penalty can take many forms, such as Google Panda, Google Penguin, and more.
Don’t use low-quality SEO methods.
Don’t cut corners; you will get a penalty. As a highly experienced SEO agency, trust us when we say it can take an extremely long time to recover from such a penalty.
What is the future of Google’s algorithm?
Two letters “AI”.
AI will change our everyday lives, and it is already starting to.
We think, yet we have to say we are just an SEO company speculating like everyone else, but we think artificial intelligence will become a huge part of Google’s algorithm.
We have already seen machine learning and Google’s RankBrain become part of Google’s algorithm.
But we think it will become an even bigger part of Google’s algorithm, perhaps like your very own shopping assistant.
If you’re shopping for, say, a tennis racquet, well, perhaps you’ll start by looking at the page with the strongest SEO ranking factors and the best user experience.
Yet, then, perhaps a virtual assistant follows you around.
If you start to specify more of what you’re looking for, perhaps a brand, maybe a tennis racket colour, possibly a price range, you switch to different suppliers/websites rather than switching back to the SERPs.
We can only speculate.
However, for now, if you want to hire one of the most cutting-edge, innovative, and knowledgeable SEO agencies in Wales, do give us a ring.
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