Is Google’s ranking algorithm really that complicated?

It’s easy to take Google for granted. The majority of us conduct searches daily, and some of us conduct dozens or hundreds of searches every day. Every time we search, we are presented with hundreds or thousands of relevant results that provide us with the information or places we require. We don’t give much thought to what happens behind the scenes since it’s so straightforward, intuitive, and accessible. However, if you work in the search engine optimization (SEO) field, you’re aware that a lot is going on behind the scenes. And if you want to use the Google algorithm to rank higher and create more organic traffic, you must first grasp how it works. Therein lies the issue, as well as a significant challenge for most SEO beginners. Google’s ranking system is highly complicated, as practically any SEO expert can tell you. Is it, however, as difficult as they claim? What’s more, how can you make it clearer?

Transparency of the Google search algorithm

Google wants to build the best technology in the world. There is no way to hide or deny it. But Google isn’t necessarily interested in making sure everyone understands exactly how that technology works. The company is known for keeping its core search algorithm shrouded in secrecy. It doesn’t officially publish the algorithm, but it gives hints about how it works. Why the secret? There are some good explanations. For starters, their search algorithm is proprietary and they don’t want other people copying exactly what they’re doing. These are basic trading fundamentals that shouldn’t surprise anyone reading this. But it’s also important because search optimizers are often looking for the fastest way to climb the rankings and generate more traffic, sometimes at the expense of their users. Because Google wants a trustworthy user experience, with consistently authentic and trustworthy results, it doesn’t want full information about how its ranking algorithm works to be officially disclosed. Because of this, it’s almost impossible to say exactly how complicated Google’s ranking algorithm is because we’ll probably never take it into account.

Google ranking factors and what we know

Let’s focus on what we know. Due to Google’s lack of transparency, we cannot say with absolute certainty how Google’s search algorithm is coded or how it works. But by running our experiments and collecting data, we can put together a list of Google Ranking Factors. The process is something like this. Using a variety of tools, we can find out which websites and pages are ranking for which keywords and queries. We can study the correlations, rule out certain possibilities, and finally, narrow down a list of factors that are likely to be responsible for allowing a website to rank high. There are some problems with this. In particular, it is difficult to separate correlation from causation. For example, we know that web pages that have high user engagement rates, as indicated by factors such as time spent on page a, are more likely to rank highly, but is that because Google preferentially ranks web pages? pages with that factor? Or do people naturally spend more time on the page because the page ranks as high as it does? The safe game is to optimize for every correlative or causal factor we can find, ultimately positioning your website and pages to rank as high as possible. The problem is that there are hundreds of Google ranking factors. Some of these are more important than others, and some of them are trivially easy to accomplish, but this is still a huge list that is difficult to parse, especially if you have limited experience in this field.

Starting with the basics

Many of the ranking elements that we are familiar with, however, can be merged. There are varying reasons for the inclusion of keywords in different heading tags and different places throughout your body copy, but the bottom line is that it is critical to incorporate relevant keywords throughout your text, especially in spots where visitors are likely to notice.

If we zoom out far enough, we can effectively boil down Google’s ranking algorithm to two main factors:

• Relevance. Relevance is simply a measure of how appropriate a web page is for a user’s query. Is there content on this page that answers the user’s question? Is the keyword or phrase used by the user present on this web page?
• Authority. Authority is a measure of how trustworthy or competent the source is. If Google finds thousands of results that are hypothetically relevant, it wants to preferentially select the results that are most likely to provide reliable and trustworthy information.

You can achieve more relevance and more authority by focusing on the following:

• On-site technical optimization. How well is your site technically optimized? In other words, how do you build, code, and organize your website? Technical optimization means making sure your website is easy to crawl and discover, while also making sure it loads quickly and efficiently for users, providing the best possible user experience. It means making sure you’re website is safe for users. It means optimizing your website for mobile devices. It means optimizing your site for load speed and dozens of other variables.
• Content on the site. What type of content do you have on your site and what is the quality of that content? Websites with deep and trustworthy content consistently ranked better than websites with no content or bad content. The relevance of your content also matters; the content on the site is your best chance to optimize for specific keywords and phrases.
• Content and external links. You’ll also need to think about your compensated content and links. This is another opportunity to optimize relevancy, but the links themselves are indispensable to building your trustworthiness and authority, as sites with more incoming links tend to have more authority than others predictably and measurably.

Additional Google Ranking Factors for Complexity

After reading this simplistic breakdown, you can breathe a sigh of relief that you’ve figured out Google’s ranking algorithm. But remember, there is much more complexity lurking below the surface, and it goes beyond even the most comprehensive lists of ranking factors.

• semantic search. Google no longer considers keywords in isolation or strict one-to-one relationships. Now use semantic search, understanding the context and meaning of keywords and phrases. It makes it much harder to optimize for specific phrases using old-school techniques.
• User behavior. To what extent does your behavior play a role in search rankings? We can make estimates based on measurements, but it’s hard to tell how much of this is correlation and how much is causality.
• Personalization. Optimization is about helping users find what they are looking for. That’s why Google employs many tools to personalize search results. Depending on your location, your profile, and even your search history, you may end up seeing very different results than someone else searching for the same keyword phrase.
• Changes in progress. Google search is not a stagnant entity. It is constantly changing, with new updates, UI tweaks, and more. As such, the half-life of knowledge in the SEO industry is relatively short.
• Industry-specific variables. Not all industries are treated the same by Google’s search ranking algorithm. Certain industries require additional strategic considerations, and certain industries simply have a harder time ranking than others.
• Machine learning and AI. In recent years, Google has tried to automate as much of your search engine (and as many search engine updates) as possible. Its primary way of doing this is by incorporating machine learning and AI algorithms to better understand users’ search behavior and automatically apply updates based on what they learn. Because these updates sometimes happen in a “black box,” it’s impossible to understand all the minute details, even for the engineers who designed them.

Google’s algorithm is very complex

So, what’s the bottom line in all of this? If you measure Google’s ranking system only on its raw sophistication, the truth is that it is exceedingly complicated. However, if you’re searching for practical outcomes, it’s simple to outline some of Google’s “wide” operations. We’ve covered a lot of the essentials in this short post, and with a few hours of additional reading, you should be able to comprehend most aspects of how Google’s ranking algorithm works. Even Google’s top programmers, though, are unlikely to comprehend everything about it due to automated AI updates, which is fine.