How does Google® rank my website?

We get asked this question a lot. It's a very interesting question, and it also has a very interesting answer. But before we can fully understand the answer, we need to first go back and discover how page rank worked in the first place.

Back when the web was just for geeks like us, or to put it another way— before Google —there were two really big search engines around. Yahoo! and Alta-Vista. Back then, Yahoo! and Alta-Vista had a very basic way of searching information on the web. They used keywords and meta-tags—which nowadays—is very primitive. Basically, the more a website talked about a something, the better it ranked.

For example, Company X is in the business of selling shoes online. Their website probably mentions the word 'shoes' quite a bit. And the more times company X mentions the word 'shoes' in their website—Yahoo! and Alta-Vista would say "Hey! this company has mentioned the word shoes many times, so he must be important!"

So if someone searched for 'shoes' using Yahoo! or Alta-Vista, Company X would rank amongst the top results. Pretty simple.

keywords and meta-tags—which nowadays—is very primitive.

The problem was, it wasn't very intelligent and it was easy to trick. During the Dot-Com boom, it was all the rage to cram as many keywords into a website as possible. Some people even devised crafty ways to hide massive amounts of keywords in the website, which only search engines could see; which would trick the search engines into ranking them highly. During this period it was also preached that meta-tags were the way to increase your page rank. This system of keywords and meta-tag misuse caused widespread false search results.

Then around 1998, everything changed. A research project by two young men by the names of Larry page and Sergey Brin quickly transformed the internet. They created a new way to find information using a very intelligent and sophisticated technology. They initially called the technology BackRub. The company rapidly grew and in early 2000—Google was born.

Fast forward to today and Google has improved and refined their PageRank technology many times over. Yet the basic underlying principles remain true.

There was a reason they initially called the technology BackRub. It was literally describing the basic principle of their technology. It works by back-links. Back-links are defined as any links pointing to your website from another website. It will also analyse your website content as a whole and gauge if you are important. So if you are an expert in your field, and have many other websites linking to your website, you will increase your ranking. Quite simply, "You rub my back, and I'll rub yours!"

In Google's own words "Our search engine also analyses page content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), our technology analyses the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word. We also analyse the content of neighbouring web pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a user's query."

Essentially, Google will rank your website by analyzing it as a whole, and considers your content, plus links to and from your website. It will rank you based on what you are offering, and how accessible the website content has been designed and developed.

Google ranks by focusing on relevancy. And that's the key point here—relevancy. If your website is relevant to people, and you're sharing content—Google rewards your website by increasing your ranking. The technology will largely ignore meta-tags and keyword density due people tweaking their sites to induce false results. If you have a great website that is built to accommodate users, provide and share information or service, then you will most likely rank incredibly well.

Like to know more?

If you would like to know more about Google® ranking, or would simply like to discuss your website, get in touch. We are more than happy to answer any questions you might have.