The Google Algorithm

Did you ever ask yourself how Google finds your Web Pages, how it indexes them, how it ranks them according to their relevance and authority, how it monitors their statistics…etc? For the sake of conversation let’s say that Google has a secret tool that helps it do this in addition to hundreds of others things. Let’s call this tool the Google algorithm. Here is an inside look at this algorithm:

The Google algorithm is a subject of discussion and controversy among all SEO professionals. It’s a mathematical formula that can estimate the relevance, importance and authority of Web Pages over the internet and gives them what we call “Google ranking”. A good ranking requires various Google optimization techniques. That’s why SEO or “search engine optimization” has been the subject of interest for Google optimization “gurus”. So how does the Google algorithm give Web Pages their rank?

The Google algorithm uses many factors to determine the importance of a Web Page comparing to other similar Web Pages. Each of these factors has a degree of importance to Google (there are factors that are more important than others). These factors are divided into 2 categories:

1- Off-page factors: these factors are very important for your Web Pages, and as the name refers to, Google checks the Web to see the relationship of your Web Pages with others; these factors are:
• Domain age (DA).
• Page Rank (PR).
• Page or Domain Backlinks: The Google algorithm calculates the importance of a backlink using 2 variables: the Page Rank of the pointing page and the nature of the backlink (Follow or Nofollow):
- Backlinks from edu/gov Websites or directories such as Yahoo and DMOZ may give you more ranking boost because they are authority Websites.
2- On-page factors: these factors are performed and found on Web Pages. They usually consist of the use of keywords such as:
• Keywords in title.
• Keywords in Meta tags.
• Keywords in domain name.
• Keywords in URL.
• Keywords in description.
• Keywords in internal links.

These are just a few of the factors that Google most commonly uses to determine the right ranking of a Web Page. Other factors may include:
- Time spent on Web Pages.
- Keywords in anchor text.
- Activity of Web Pages.
- Links age.
- Load speed of the website…etc

The specific details of the formula of the Google algorithm actually remain their little secret. This is to prevent webmasters from cracking its code and exploiting its weaknesses. That’s why when the Google team detects that spammers and “black hats” are using it illegally to their advantage; it updates or even rewrites it, in order to improve it and fixes its weaknesses.

Google has become the major search engine among its competitors. It has almost two-thirds of the market share (the total searches performed on the internet.) It is also the major source of traffic for most online business owners and that’s why you need to do the right Google optimization. If you do, your Web Pages will be search engine friendly and they’ll get their proper ranking easily. That’s where we come in.