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The Google Algorithm

There is no easy way to guarantee a top listing in the Google Search Engine ( and their partners ). However, isn't that the point? First and foremost, websites must be worthy of a top listing, with site content and architecture that is designed in a meaningful way, both for end users and for the complex mathematical formulas used by Google ( and the other top search engines ). While it is still possible to "cheat the system", the consequence of doing so is becoming more severe from a business perspective, and the chances of being detected and dealt with accordingly are increasing daily.

Google developed a system to archive and rank websites based on mathematically studying well over 100 factors on each indexed page for every search query performed. In the future, we expect to see linguistic analysis, an increase in website theme mapping, a possible rating factor based on originality of content, and virtually any other factor that can possibly be calculated by a sophisticated computer program.

Below are some highlights outlining what makes the google search engine tick.

" Academic citation literature has been applied to the web, largely by counting citations or backlinks to a given page. This gives some approximation of a page's importance or quality. PageRank extends this idea by not counting links from all pages equally, and by normalizing by the number of links on a page. PageRank is defined as follows:
We assume page A has pages T1...Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))...

"...PageRank can be thought of as a model of user behavior. We assume there is a "random surfer" who is given a web page at random and keeps clicking on links, never hitting "back" but eventually gets bored and starts on another random page. The probability that the random surfer visits a page is its PageRank. And, the d damping factor is the probability at each page the "random surfer" will get bored and request another random page. One important variation is to only add the damping factor d to a single page, or a group of pages. This allows for personalization and can make it nearly impossible to deliberately mislead the system in order to get a higher ranking."

- quote from "The Anatomy of a Search Engine" - Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, Standford University

With Page Rank, there are two considerations:

More on: Website Architecture

Therefore, a linking strategy, both internally within one's own website, and developing links externally, is an important consideration with regards to the Google Search Engine.

The Google Search Engine: Content is King

If Page Rank were the primary consideration in search engine results, not only would new websites not have a chance to rank well, but existing giants would have pages that ranked highly for irrelevant search phrases. The entire index would become useless and could be easily hijacked by aggressive Page Rank manipulation.

Therefore, the primary consideration for ranking, all other things being equal, is still supreme content and superior website architecture. Proper and rich content writing and masterful website architecture are the only two elements that will stand the test of time.

Important Elements to Consider for Google Ranking Purposes

Back to: Search Engine Optimization

...did you know?

...that Google now has a very complex "trust" sandbox filter that, month by month, is becoming more successful at filtering out artificial linking methods?