Understanding Google and Page Ranking

We often take for granted where websites appear in our search results. How many times have you clicked to the second, third or even fourth page to find the website you were looking for? Understanding Google will help promote your website to the top of the search engines if you apply basic principles over time.

We want to find the website with the exact information we are searching for at the top of the search results. So what makes a website rank number one vs. number one million?

Google wants to understand exactly what you are searching for, and provide the most relevant search result at the top based on your search query. Google serves up this information taking into account approximately 200 factors. The more "in line" these factors are based on a search query, or how relevant the information is matched to a search, results in higher ranking.

In order for Google to recognize a website, the website must first have pages indexed. Being indexed is similar to the index in the back of a book. It tells search engines what pages contain the words that match a search query.

To get more pages indexed, you have to be active with your website. Submitting your site to the search engines should be as common as simply having a site map on your website. Creating keyword rich content, performing online PR (social networking) and maybe the most important of them all, link building, goes a long way in raising the number of pages indexed on a website.

Google also gives a website a PageRank. PageRank is a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best. PageRank reflects Google's view on the importance of the site. The higher the page rank, the greater the opportunity to be at the top of the search rankings.

Those websites that link back to your website essentially cast a vote for your website and help with your PageRank. Depending on the source of the website linking back to you, the vote can carry more or less weight. You want credible websites, in the eyes of Google, to link back to you. Those hold the most weight and will ultimately be more effective in helping you rank higher.

The content and hypertext (links) on your website also contributes to the ranking of your website. Google factors in keyword targeted content that is used naturally on your pages. Google accounts not only for the content on one page, but the relation of content of neighboring pages on your website as well.

So now you have pages indexed and understand what it takes to increase your PageRank. When you perform a search, Google crawls all of the websites indexed that relate to your search query. Google then pulls out each website from a server and ranks them in order based on some of the variables discussed above. These rankings are displayed to the searcher in a organized ranking system set by Google Algorithms.

The more pages indexed, the more opportunity to increase their rankings in Google. Writing content on your site, blogging, link building, and being active online help in the ranking of your website. Doing these consistenly over time will pay off.

Being ranked higher in the search engines means your website will likely result in more traffic. The more traffic to your website results in a greater opportunity to engage with people who are actively searching out the content you want to provide.

If you are performing the appropriate work of writing content, link building and online PR while analyzing data based on the performance of your website consistently over time, you will see a measurable ROI. After all, if your website isn't generating new customers, what's the point of having a website? Keep reading up on understanding Google. It will go a long way.

Good luck and keep promoting!