How google search works

Created: 2022-09-05
Tags: #fleeting

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/how-search-works#a-few-notes-before-we-get-started

Three stages of Google Search

1. Crawling
2. Indexing
3. Serving Search Results

Google’s most prominent ranking factors:

1. Backlinks

2. Freshness

3. Keyword mentions

4. User experience

5. Topical authority

6. Backlinks
   Link building is arguably one of the most important tasks you should do to get Google to trust and display your website.

You can determine if links may be holding your content back from ranking by comparing your page’s backlink profile to your competitors’.

2. Freshness
   This factor matters more for some queries than others. For example, if you search for something news-related, Google will typically rank results published within the last 24 hours.

However, if you search for a topic that doesn’t need to be updated as often, freshness isn’t quite as heavy of an influence. For example, the top-ranking results for “RV storage ideas” are from over two years ago. This is because good RV storage ideas today are largely the same as they were two years ago. Guides like this are what we call “evergreen content.” That is, content that will be good for years to come without needing many frequent updates.

Overall, when determining the importance of freshness for the keywords you’re targeting, you should always analyze the SERP for that keyword. Is Google seemingly ranking fresh content? If so, you will need to update the piece frequently to stand any chance of staying at the top.

3. Keyword Mentions
   One of the things Google cares about is “the number of times your search terms appear [on the page you’re trying to rank].”

In general, it’s good practice to try to include your exact keyword on the page several times in several places, including:

• The title.
• At least one subheading.
• The page’s URL.
• The intro paragraph.

Basically looking for subtopics that relates to the keyword:
Instead, pay more attention to making sure your page fulfills search intent and answers what the searcher is looking for. In other words, ensure that you’ve covered everything searchers may want to know.
Google highlights the importance of this on its ‘How Search Works’ page:

Just think: when you search for ‘dogs’, you likely don’t want a page with the word ‘dogs’ on it hundreds of times. With that in mind, algorithms assess if a page contains other relevant content beyond the keyword ‘dogs’ — such as pictures of dogs, videos, or even a list of breeds.

4. User Experience
   User experience (UX) encompasses a lot of different things, including the following:

• Page load speed (Google recommends under two seconds)
• No intrusive interstitials, like ads or pop-ups
• Intuitive navigation and internal linking
• Mobile-friendliness
• Website design
• Meta tags (having a meta title and description that match search intent)
• And more

5. Topical Authority
   Google wants to display “sites that many users seem to value for similar queries.” This means sites that have additional, valued content about queries relevant to the one being searched.
   For example, if you want to rank for “best protein powder,” Google may be more likely to rank you if people also come to your site for content on topics such as the following:

• Best time of day to consume protein
• Can pregnant women have protein powder?
• Where does protein powder come from?
  In addition to having content on these topics, you should also aim to acquire topically relevant backlinks to them.