Ranking factors: How does Google decide the order of its search results?

This is an easy question to ask - but a hard one to answer! It’s the £500 million question behind the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) industry.

Whilst the algorithm that Google uses is a closely guarded secret, we can go a long way to answering this question by studying search results in-depth. That’s exactly what searchmetrics have done.

They've recently released their annual ranking factors report comparing the top 30 results for the 10,000 most searched for terms on google.com.

In today’s blog post we’ll summarise the findings of their report including the factors which show the strongest correlation for search engine success. If you have a website for your own business, please read on as there’ll be some tips that you can implement to help your SEO.

First of all, what is a ranking factor? 

A ranking factor is an aspect of a website which affects where it will be positioned in search engine results. These factors are combined and weighted by Google’s very complex algorithm to determine the ranking of that website in its search results.  Some examples of ranking factors are: relevant keywords, back links, site load speed.

Types of ranking factors

In their report, searchmetrics divided the ranking factors into four groups:

Onpage technical: These factors describe the technical build of the website. For example how long the website takes to load or how the website is structured.

Onpage content: These factors look at the content of the website. For example word count, or the number of relevant keywords.

Back links: These factors measure different aspects of a websites back link profile, for example, the percentage of nofollow links and how well those websites giving a link back rank in Google.

Social: These factors measure how much the URL has been talked about on social media. For example how many times a website has been shared and liked on Facebook.

User signals: These are factors that describe the users behaviour, such as how many searchers click through to the website from the search results page or how long they spent on the website. These factors tell Google how useful or relevant users found a particular website for a particular keyword.

The results

Now on to the actual results from the study in chart form. How to read the chart:

• The numbers next to the circle show the average value across the top 10 results for that ranking factor.
• The longer the bar, the higher the correlation between the factor and a high Google ranking.
• A negative bar is best interpreted by reversing the statement.

What we can learn from these results?

Onpage technical tips

• Make sure your website loads quickly, average load time for a website on page 1 of Google was 0.99 seconds.
• 98% of the URLs studied had a meta description. Make sure your website has expertly written meta descriptions and titles.
• Internal linking structure is important, it should be easy to navigate.
• Make sure you keep your website up to date.
• These factors are a basic starting point if you want your website to be ranked high up on Google because if they are absent they will have a negative effect on your rankings.

Onpage content tips

• Write your content for the user. All copy should be easy to understand and well written.
• Top results had longer content, the average word count for a page 1 result was 975 words.
• Images and video content are important whereas ads aren’t helpful.
• Include a range of relevant related keyword terms in your copy instead of repeating an exact keyword.

Back link tips

• Back links are still one of the most important ranking factors.
• Quality is more important than quantity. Back links from websites that are themselves positioned well on Google are more valuable than those that aren't.
• Anchor text, the clickable text of a link, should be brand or domain name based and not keyword based.
• Build a balanced back link profile with some links pointing to the homepage but with a larger number pointing to specific pages within your website.

Social tips

• Promote your content on social media. Social signals such as likes and shares tell Google that your website content is good. On average, a Google page 1 listed URL had 143 Google+ Plus ones, 1,690 Facebook signals, 162 Tweets, and 36 Pins. We've written a blog post especially on this topic.

User signal tips

• Making your website engaging to keep users on your website for longer is also important. The average time spent on a Google page 1 URL was 101 seconds.
• Encouage users to visit more than one page of your website. If a user only visits one page of your website this counts as a ‘bounce’. Websites with a lower bounce rate are on average ranked higher. The average bounce rate for a page 1 URL was 37% of users.

In summary, high quality content along with a balanced, quality back link profile are essential for websites wishing to be ranked prominently in Google. Technical factors such as page load speed are crucial but will not get your website positioned if you don’t have great content.

SEO takes time and consistent effort. So keep adding useful quality user focused content to your website whilst you apply these tips.

You can find the original report by searchmetrics here.

Personalised Google Search Results and how they affect your website

It might surprise you to hear that no one sees exactly the same search results even if they type identical words into a search engine. The search results we see are personalised to suit us 'better'.

To Google, the accurate tailoring of search results to each user is a huge part of being the 'best' search engine and it's has been the driving force behind Google Now.

Many users will see very similar results, but there will be differences due to factors such as search history, location, device and even someone’s social contacts.

How much does personalisation change search results?

A 2013 study showed that:

• 73% of personalised #1 ranked results originated from position #2.
• 93% of personalised #1 ranked results come from the first page - in other words the top 10 ranked websites.
• 82% of original rank 1 results remain somewhere on the first page of personalised results.

Google doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to personalising results. Websites that are ranked high up in Google will still be ranked high up in personalised results but their position is not absolute. This is reassuring considering the hard work that goes into achieving a #1 ranking.

What factors are used to personalise our search results?

Personal search history

The primary way that Google personalises your search results is by using your search history. Put simply, Google will rank websites you've visited and found useful higher up in search results as they think that you will find them useful again.

It’s important to note that your search history is used by Google whether you’re signed into a Google account or not. If you’re signed out Google can still see up to 180 days of search history collected using anonymous cookies stored on your web browser.

Location

This is the most obvious and understandable customisation, we’re all shown results depending on country and locality. Google uses your IP address to tailor your results when you search for keywords associated with places such as ‘restaurant’ or ‘zoo’.

These types of search queries will bring up Google maps and Google+ local business pages according to where Google thinks you are located. This creates a great opportunity for local business owners who can set up a Google+ business page and more easily appear in local search results.

You can easily see and change your location by clicking on Search tools, entering a location and clicking ‘Set’.

Additionally, some keywords mean different things depending on your location. For example, ‘football’ would bring up American Football in the USA but in the UK we would expect to see results like the premier league.

(What’s an IP address? – Your IP address identifies the location of your computer. Check out What's my IP to find out your IP address.)

Type of search query

Different categories or types of search terms have a higher degree of personalisation. We’ve already mentioned personalisation due to location. Brands are another category for which search results can differ dramatically depending on the above factors, whereas factual queries starting with ‘what is….’ are far less personalised.

Justin Briggs tells us that 82% of results for ‘what is…’ queries are identical, while only 43% of results for ‘gadgets’ are identical. Politics, places, gadgets and brands are all types of search queries which show a high degree of personalisation.

Device

Google also recognises when you’re searching with a mobile and will favour responsive websites and local search results for the mobile user, different to the results that a desktop user may see.

Social signals

Finally, since 2012 Google has been personalising your searches to be influenced by what your friends on Google+ are saying. Who you know, what they’ve shared and what you’ve shared - these ‘social signals’ are used by Google.

When commenting on Google collecting of data to personalised search results Fast Company said this:
“Some might call that a creepy amount of shared data. Others might call it the future.”

How do you stop your search results being personalised?

By now you’ll probably be thinking how am I supposed to know where my website is positioned if my results are personalised.

Well, Google has provided these instructions themselves:

Pause your Google account history

You can pause or delete your web history. Start by going into your Account Settings > Account History and then click ‘Pause’.

Delete and turn off your Google search history

• Visit your Search History page at google.com/history.
• In the top right corner of your Search History page, click the gear icon then Settings.
• Click Delete all, then click the Delete all button to confirm.
• Finally click Turn off to stop future searches being stored.

Delete your browser history

Your searches may also be stored in your browser or the Google Toolbar. Learn how to delete your history on Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.

Turn off results customisation 

• Sign out of your Google account. 
• Go to google.com/history/optout.
• Click Disable customizations based on search activity. This will turn the setting off for anyone who uses the same browser and computer as you until someone signs in.

Use ranking software

If you’re an angelfysh client, the easiest way of seeing non-personalised search results is to sign into our SEO ranking software at clients.angelfysh.com. If you've lost your logins, just email us and we’ll send you new logins.

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Hope we've helped you to find out where your website is really positioned in Google search results. If you’d like to speak to someone about getting your website ranked higher up in Google, that’s what we do - it’s called SEO and we have a 100% record of success. Give us a call on 0191 276 6904 or drop us an email to hello@angelfysh.com.

A guide to Google Search Result Pages (SERPs)

Each time you enter a search on Google you are provided with Search Engine Results Pages, also known as SERPs. 

In Google’s quest to provide searchers with the best results, SERPs have evolved to be much more than a list of links. Alongside AdWords ads and organic results you will now often see local listings, maps, images, videos and shopping products.

In this blog post we want to guide you through Google SERPs. Let’s begin by searching ‘buy shoes in Newcastle’, these are the SERPs that I was given:

You can see that there are several ‘types’ of result that come up, we will explain them here.

AdWords Ads / Sponsored Ads

These are websites that are running Google AdWords campaigns. The website owner has selected keywords that they want their website to appear in search results for and they pay Google every time someone clicks on their website ad. This is why AdWords is also known as Pay Per Click (PPC). 

Interestingly more women than men click on PPC results but only 6% of searchers in total click on paid ads. On the one hand AdWords can be set-up quickly but on the other it can be expensive.

Local Listings

Google recognises that often local results are most useful to searchers... especially in this case, 'buy shoes in Newcastle', as I was likely looking for a shop which I would need to get to... so Google will often provide a map showing the location of several results. These results often appear above organic results.

Moz recently did an eye tracking survey where they monitored which parts of the results page were most looked at. It showed that local results can attract more attention than the top three organic search results.

There are a few things you can do to make sure your business appears in local search results, the first being to register with Google Places for Businesses.

Organic Search Results

Organic search results are the ‘normal’ search results. In general, SEO primarily focuses on improving a websites position in organic search results. These results often come below Google AdWords results, and normally there are 10 organic search results per page. 

In comparison between paid (AdWords) results and organic results, 94% of searchers click on organic results and just 6% on paid results. We all know from our own searching behaviour that the top organic results are most likely to be clicked on, but what proportion of people click the first result?

Google SERPs click through rate, Google Page 1, positions 1 to 10.

Shopping Results

As part of Google’s never ending mission to be the most effective and helpful search engine out there, they have introduced a shopping section. If you search for a particular item or product Google will sometimes provide you with images and product information in the SERPs.

These results do catch the eye of searchers but according to SEO Moz’s eye tracking experiment organic results attract more attention than shopping results. 

Google Image Results

If Google thinks you are searching for an image it will likely bring up images in the SERPs. You can improve the likely hood of your images appearing in SERPs by naming them with descriptive file names and alt tags.

Video Results

In my above example of a SERP there are no video results, because videos aren’t particularly relevant to 'buy shoes in Newcastle' because Google guessed that my intention was to find a product or shop. However, if I had searched ‘how to pick the right shoes’ lots of videos would have come up because my intention was different. Google is quite clever really!

News Results

If there is a recent news article relevant to your search query then this could also appear in the SERPs.

Rich Snippets

A rich snippet contains additional information about a listing such as a review. They provide searchers with more information about the website, with the aim increasing the number of people who click through that website.

There are many types of rich snippets including events, recipes, ratings and products.

 

Google Knowledge Graph

Another feature in Google’s SERPs is the knowledge graph. Think of it as a spider’s web of connected info relating to the search terms. Google’s aim with the knowledge graph is to provide information to searchers on the SERP without them even needing to click through to a website. Google knowledge graph aggregates a variety of information and displays it directly on the SERP page.

Authorship

The last feature of Google we’re going to talk about is Authorship. This a feature aimed at helping individuals build their online following, through Google+ (what does Google not do?). To make use of this feature you should set up a Google+ profile and start producing quality, interesting and relevant content!

The main reason for this feature is it provides another way for Google to index the internet, by identifying the authoritative figures who are producing quality content. One of the best content producers in the UK is Richard Branson - here is a second SERP example searching for 'Richard Branson'.

SERPs will continue to change as Google continues in its quest to provide the searchers with the best ‘answers’ to the 'intentions' behind their queries. We hope we’ve helped you understand what you see on a results page a bit better and given you a few tips along the way.