Relevance or Speed, What prioritizes in Google Search Ranking?

by | Jun 28, 2021

Google ranking systems are designed to find the most relevant content that is close to search queries in a fraction of a second, sorting through hundreds of web pages and presenting them in a way that helps you find what you’re looking for.

Google uses a special trademarked series of algorithms called PageRank to generate its SERP results. In response to a query searched by the user, it displays the search results based on a large index of keywords. It also assigns each web page a relevancy score or rank to determine the order of these pages displayed on its search engine results page.

Depending on the nature of the query, these search algorithms look at many factors to fuel ranking and prioritize the search results. Some of the factors include fresh content, page relevance, backlinks, website speed, HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, domain age, authority, location, content length, the usability of pages, keywords volume, and social signals. For example, in queries about current news topics, the freshness of the content plays a more prominent role than other factors.

Google has almost 200 ranking factors, and every year they keep changing or adding more to the list. It is not possible to focus on every single Google ranking factor, but the fundamental factors always remain the same and cannot be ignored. If you want to rank higher, focus only on those factors that will make a significant difference to your website. As of 2019, backlinks with quality and relevant content remain among the most important Google ranking factors.

IMPORTANCE OF RELEVANCE IN SEARCH RESULTS RANKING

Ranking higher in Google search engine can make business. So how does it work? High ranking content refers to value-added content relevant to its respective subject that you are looking for. When a user searches for a query, Google scans its index and checks for the relevant content to instantly display the most updated and relevant web pages.

For example, when you search for “cakes”, algorithms assess if a page contains relevant content about the keyword “cakes”, like pictures, videos, or recipes. If those keywords appear on the page, the headings, or the text’s body, the information is more likely to be relevant.

So, Google gauges the quality and relevance of the content for displaying more relevant results for the search queries and distinguishes it from other search engines.

IMPORTANCE OF SPEED IN SEARCH RESULTS RANKING

Importance of speed in search results ranking

How can you expect a good user experience if your website loads slow? Studies show that delay in the average loading speed can impact the users and thus leaving the website after about three seconds. This provides a bad user experience, and Google doesn’t like ranking these websites. Since 2018, page speed is a direct ranking factor, especially on mobiles where visitors are more likely to bounce from a site that takes too long to load. Google also recommends using the newly updated PageSpeed report and other tools like LightHouse to measure the site speed and make necessary improvements for a better user experience. Therefore, page speed is considered one of the essential factors in Google’s ranking algorithm.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is a fact that both relevance and speed make a priority, playing a significant role in increasing website ranking, which improves business and helps keep up with competitors. Also, paving the way for fast loading websites with quality content provides a better user experience.

To watch the latest Google SEO Office Hours, please check out the video below:

Durga

Durga

About The Author…

Durga has a master’s degree in engineering. Technological advances in digital space interest her a lot. Digital marketing is her forte and she passionately follows latest trends in the digital marketing space. She has written many trending articles on various social media platforms. Her areas of interest include SEO Optimization, structured data, SMM, Keywords research and analysis etc. She is focused, resourceful and dedicated.

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