Google SEO Training - Page Ranking

Webmasters typically want their pages to rank higher in Google’s search results. Pages get listed in the search results based on relevance and importance. A page is considered relevant if it matches both the interest of the user and the query, which is relevant to the phrase that’s typed into Google.

How Google Determines The Importance of Each Page

Because there are so many web pages out there and for many queries there are literally millions of relevant pages, Google has to narrow it all down and prioritize results. And this is done by determining the importance of each page. Google’s original algorithm set that determines page importance was termed page rank. However, it is now only one of over two hundred elements that goes into how pages get ranked by Google. It does however, still have a major role in page rank.

Google Page Rank

The quantity as well as the quality of pages that link to the page (relevant to what the page is about) is what the each individual page’s score will be based on. Attempting to buy and sell page links is a violation of the Google Webmaster Guidelines and will potentially harm your site’s page rank and presence in Google. The best way to increase your site’s page rank is to create quality content, participate in relevant online communities and acquire quality links through natural measures. If you do sell or buy online advertising, you will want to make sure those links don’t pass page rank by using a no follow tag.

Page Rank Fluctuations

As Google periodically updates it’s index, rankings will fluctuate. Sometimes they will fluctuate a little and sometimes quite a lot and it can happen for various reasons. The fact is, the web is constantly changing. The changes in your site in combination with the content and constant link updates around the web can affect your website’s presence in Google. In some cases, a site can fall to a lower ranking because Google determines that it is in violation of the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Many times, violations are caused by someone who previously worked on your website or could even be caused by a hacker who’s added covert links to some of your pages. 

Thinking Like Your Users

Think like your users and provide quality content for them rather than focusing your content for the search engines. You want to treat search engine bots just like other users, never sending them different content. You also want to carefully consider how your users are likely to search for this content. If you have a product, for example, that has a nick-name or acronym that is more popularly known for that, then that’s what users are likely to search on. And you will want to make sure that text visibly appears on your relevant pages.

As you interest users with the content and links on your site, make sure that they’re not disappointed in what they actually find. You’ll want to regularly check to make sure that all of the links on the pages are still pointing to relevant resources and that they reflect well on you and your business.