No matter what kind of business you are in, having a good ranking on Google can be the difference between success and failure these days. So, it's important from a marketing standpoint to at least have a basic understanding of how the Google search engine works. With that information, you can make some smarter choices about your website and social media presence to improve your chances of being seen. The rules and algorithms that Google uses change as the industry evolves, which means that it can be tricky to keep up with the latest views on search engine rankings. Google Search Engine Indexing This is the first step to getting Google's attention, and often applies to new websites rather than established ones. That makes it a good place to start for this discussion. You can't be ranked in any Google's search results if Google doesn't even know you exist. New sites are discovered and index by web crawling bots (computer programs) that move from site to site via links they find on the web. So in order for a bot to find you, there needs to be at least one link from an existing website to yours. Eventually, a crawler will follow that link and find you. This is not the same as you creating links from your site, just to be clear. Offer to write a guest post on another site that has a link back to you, or even post articles on open sites like Hubpages. Google's Process for Ranking Web Pages Once your web page is discovered, that's when the real work begins in order to keep your pages ranked highly. How does Google decide which sites are the best results for any given search? It's not a simple answer, and many different factors are taken into consideration. First is the well-known issue of keywords. Does your page contain the same terms that a person is searching for? For example, if you sell widgets does your site include information about widgets and that uses the word "Widget"? This is mostly common sense, but it can be a fine line between having the right number of keywords in your content without overdoing it. Too many instances of a word or phrase will negatively impact your ranking as it looks like "stuffing". There is a new element to Google's content analysis these days, and that is whether or not your page answers a question. People have changed how they search, and don't use stand-alone keywords anymore. They are far more likely to pose it is the form of a question, and Google will analyze your pages to see if you are proving an answer. That is to say, in our widget example, does your site answer the question "Where can I buy the best widgets?" And you also need to consider those links back to you that we mentioned already. Any link will help get you indexed in the first place, but you will want "high quality" links to impress Google and show that your page is popular and contains worthy content. Getting links to your site from highly respected sites, through guest posting or other means, is the way to improve your rank. Back to our widget example, a link to your site from "WidgetAuthority.com" will provide your site with more "juice" that a link from "Cheaplinksareus.com". The authority, or accepted expertise of the linking site is a factor considered by Google. This is just a rough introduction on how Google's search engine works, and how to use their algorithms to your best advantage for good results placement. Want to learn more? We LOVE to help. Drop us an email or give us a call to arrange a discussion. Click here for our contact information