How Does Google Rank Websites

Google ranks websites using an algorithm comprised of over 200 variables. This is very technical and Google loves to change this algorithm all the time to give more accurate results to the end user. To make things easier to understand we will look at the two main components that Google looks at when evaluating websites- content and backlinks.

“Content is King” is a phrase that every internet marketer goes by. The basis for all rankings is the content on your own site and how it is formatted. Here are some of the things Google looks at in regards to content:

1. Keywords – Before you do anything you should decide what keywords you want to target. This is what you expect people to type to find your site. Sometimes its better to focus on a large amount of longer phrases than a small amount of highly competitive smaller keywords. Be realistic. If you have a brand new site you cant expect to immediately jump into first place. The easiest thing to do is pick a less competitive niche to start and work your way out.
2. Amount of text on a page and relevancy – Once sentence per page is not going to cut it. You need to have significant text on a page that includes some of your target keywords.
3. Number of Pages – Its obvious, the more pages you have the more content and keywords are out there for people to find you.
4. Tags – There are areas of code in your website where you have the opportunity to put keywords and phrases relevant to your content. Title, ALT, Description and Keyword tags are all examples of tags. These should all be different and relevant for every page on your site.

Backlinks are other websites links’ that point back to your site. Google uses backlinks to determine how much authority your website should have. This is basically Google’s popularity contest and unfortunately its not always the prettiest site that wins. Here is how Google looks at backlinks:

1. Website Relevance – How relevant is the website or page of content that is linking back to you. A perfect link will be relevant to your site.
2. Keyword – Websites can use a keyword to link back to you like Real Estate Brokerage Websites instead of a normal html link like http://brokerageleader.com – the former is much better.
3. PageRank – Google’s algorithm produces a rank from 0-10 which takes into account everything we have talked about and more. The higher the rank, the more pull or authority this website or page has to pass on to you. High PR (PageRank) website linking back to you is golden. Some say this is less relevant than in the past but I believe it is a good judge of a domains popularity.

There is a ton more to talk about but we will keep it simple to start. Look for future posts on more methods Google uses to rank your website.