How Does Google Rank Web
Pages
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Search
Engine Optimisation
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This article discusses how Google
rank pages in order of relevance and importance. It is
not a secret or sure formula that guarantees good
ranking. However, understanding how one of the most
popular search engines rank pages will help you to
strategize your web pages to rank well. Ranking well on
Google need not be a shot in the dark exercise. All you
need is to understand Google's scoring system and work on
your web pages accordingly.
When someone performs a search query, Google needs to do
2 things before it presents the results according to
ranking. Firstly, it finds the pages that contain the
search query term and ranks them in order of relevance.
Secondly, it determines the importance of each page. The
final ranking results are a combination of relevance and
importance. Remember the 2 keywords relevance and
importance, which form the heart of Google's scoring
system.
Relevance
How does Google define relevance and rank pages for a
particular search query? Well, if someone do a search
query on 'internet marketing, Google will look up its
index for pages containing the words 'internet and
'marketing'. Web pages' relevance will be ranked
accordingly to the following criteria...
1. Pages that contain the 2 words 'internet' and
marketing will rank higher than those that only contain
either one of two words.
2. Pages that contain the 2 words 'internet and
marketing' right next to one another and discuss internet
marketing will be deemed more relevant than pages that
discuss marketing in general and only mentioning internet
marketing in passing.
3. Page titles that contain 'Internet Marketing' will
give Google a hint that they are more relevant than
others.
4. Also a page that contains the term internet marketing
several times is likely to be more relevant than a page
that contains the term once. (However, do not overstaff
your web page with your targeted keywords or else you may
be penalized for keyword spamming.)
Google uses your page titles, and content to determine
the relevance of your web pages for your targeted key
phrases.
Importance
After having retrieved pages from its index that contain
the search query, Google will now determine the
importance of the web pages through its Pagerank
algorithm. Pagerank basically evaluates 2 things: The
quantity of links to a web page from other web pages, and
quality of the web pages from which the links originated.
These two factors, quantity and quality determine the
importance of a web page. With Pagerank, emphasis is
placed on quality over quantity. Four or five quality
links from websites like adobe.com or cnn.com would be
valued more highly than twice as many links from less
reputable websites. And of course, a web page with a lot
of quality links will boost its importance significantly.
As a rule of thumb, Google uses relevance and importance
to rank pages. It will find pages that are relevant and
reputable. If two pages contain the same amount of
information that matches a search query, it will give a
higher ranking to the page that has more quality links.
Still Google has given higher ranking to a page with
fewer links or lower Pagerank because of its onpage
factors - page title and content. For example a page that
focused on 'internet marketing' is more useful than a
page in a reputable site like Time.com that only mentions
'internet marketing' in passing.
Once Google has consolidated a list of web pages with
their scores, it will select those with the highest
scores as the best matches for a given search query.
About
the Author
Gerrick W provides
information and tips to effectively market your Internet
business.Visit: http://www.1stinternetmarketingsolution.com
How Does Google Rank Web Pages © 2006 http://www.1stinternetmarketingsolution.com
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