How does the Google algorithm work?
Ever wondered how Google is always able to find the best results for your searches? How are they able to prioritize a handful of sites related to your search over the seemingly endless amount of pages that are even remotely related to any given search? How can you make your own website more relevant in a Google search? The answer is through multiple algorithms and programs that do a lot of the leg work. This article will not cover how exactly these algorithms work, but it will cover how these algorithms make the Google experience better for everyone. This article will discuss how Google’s search algorithm organizes search results, the metrics by which it ranks search results by relevance, and steers users away from potentially malicious websites.
How Google organizes its search results
Google’s results are always accurate and relevant, which is something staggering to think about because Google has billions if not trillions of possible results on the Internet to consider and categorize. Without the work that goes into the organization of potential results, Google would be a mess, and it certainly would not be the Internet titan that we know it to be. How are they able to manage such a colossal work? The answer, shockingly, is quite simple. They have a system of automated programs to check websites and find out what information they provide. These programs, called “crawlers,” comb through every website publicly available on the Internet, page by page and word by word. These crawlers take note of what each website provides in terms of information and content, looking for anything that indicates what the site is about, like topics, headings, and keywords. Based on what the crawlers take note of, websites are then categorized in Google’s search index, a publicly available archive of every single possible website and result that Google provides in its searches.
Crawlers are not the only thing Google relies on to gain information about websites. They are known to use other online resources, such as sitemaps, to help with categorization. Sitemaps are basically comprehensive lists or charts that detail every single feature a website has to offer. This includes a site’s pages, articles, videos, and pictures. Think of it as a summary of any given website. Website owners can provide these sitemaps to Google, which will naturally assist them in their categorization efforts, since their sitemaps give Google everything they need to know about their website. While crawlers do a lot of the impossible grunt work, website owners are encouraged to help Google with their indexing process. In turn, website owners can ensure even a little bit of search engine optimization for their website, since Google knows when to appropriately list their website as a search result.
Google’s most important ranking metrics
Using its comprehensive list of automatically indexed sites, Google then provides the most relevant results for any given search. This relevance is determined by a ranking system. Websites that are deemed more relevant will be one of the first few results for any given Google search. Google reportedly has hundreds of metrics it uses to rank its search results (some of which are speculated online), but most of them can be boiled down to these five core metric ideas:
- Meaning: The simplest ranking metric to grasp by far. Results are deemed to have “more meaning” than others if they answer whatever question you searched for more directly. This metric is simply determined through keywords and other such details that have been indexed by crawlers. If your exact question appears anywhere on any of Google’s indexed sites, either word for word or some variation of it, then those sites are obviously deemed relevant and become candidates for first page results. Google has even implemented a complex system to detect synonyms, so that even if you don’t search the exact words used on an indexed site, relevant and accurate results will still be provided.
- Relevance: Think of this metric as the natural next step from “meaning.” Once Google ascertains exactly what it is your search is asking, Google matches keywords from your search to those from indexed sites to provide results that either directly answer your question, or are indirectly related to your question in some way, shape, or form. For example, if you searched “How to change a lightbulb,” the results will not only be guides on how to replace a lightbulb, but other such related results, such as lightbulb companies, product listings for lightbulbs, and pictures of lightbulbs. The search will have provided everything you need to know about lightbulbs, including the answer to your question. Google is giving you the most out of your search, so you can have your question answered, and have your interest piqued in other ways.
- Quality: Like any other sources of information, some websites provide more accurate and trusted information than others, and Google takes this into consideration when they provide you search results. Google has a couple of ways to ensure that they are providing you with the best results. If a website that has information you’re looking for references or links to another, more credible website, the linked website will most likely be prioritized in a Google search. The quality of a website is also determined by user reviews and feedback, along with an official evaluation that Google runs. Whenever you look at the top few results of any Google search, you know that they are the best sources of information related to whatever you looked up.
- Usability: Google wants to ensure that any user on any device has the best experience when using their platform, so a website’s usability is also considered when it comes to the ranking of search results. Factors such as load time and mobile device friendliness are considered, so that no one user can have better search results than any other user. Google believes that the website itself needs to match the quality of the information you’re searching for, and that’s why usability is a metric that’s considered for search relevance.
- Context: Google prioritizes sources and websites that pertain to your data and physical location. Searches for food or shops will always point you to locations in your immediate area and nowhere else, because those outside your area are obviously deemed irrelevant. They know to prioritize results that matter to you and your daily life.
As you can see, Google has many metrics of quality that they use when providing you search results. There are apparently hundreds of niche metrics Google uses, but if a website has got these five general ones covered, they’re sure to hit the first page of whatever search they’re related to. Knowing these simple metrics is helpful in two ways. First, knowing even a little bit about how Google’s ranking system works can help you get the most out of your searches. You’ll know why the results that appear first were ordered that way, and why those results will provide you with the most relevant information. Second, if you have your own website, knowing these metrics and implementing some of them could potentially help more eyes reach your site, and eventually garner lots of online traffic. If your business is looking to improve their search engine optimization, then knowing how one of the biggest search engines works will certainly be beneficial.
Keeping Google users safe from spam sites
Obviously, not all websites are made with the best intentions in mind, which Google understands and takes very seriously. Knowing even a little bit of how Google’s algorithm and ranking system works could help shady website owners game the system and get more unsuspecting Internet users to fall prey to their malicious intents. Thankfully, Google has a few systems in place that prevent these sites from getting their way. Google has both automatic and manual spam detection systems on their platform. Automatic spam detection makes up for the bulk of this system, since, similar to crawlers, they scan countless websites for potential spam and other such malicious features and make sure they do not appear in any search. Once the automated work is done, Google employs a team that manually checks and flags websites that could potentially host spam. If a website owner feels like their website has been falsely flagged for spam, they can make an appeal and correct the mistake. Google has everyone’s online safety in mind, so the measures they take to ensure that safety naturally have to be as intricate as some of its more complex algorithms.
Every single intricacy of how Google’s search algorithm could not be covered here for the sake of brevity, but knowing even just this little bit of algorithmic information can improve both the quality of your personal or professional searches, and the SEO of your company’s website. As mentioned earlier, Google is one of, if not the biggest search engine on the Internet, so arming yourself with some knowledge about how it works will only be beneficial.