How Do Search Engines Rank Websites?

Search engine ranking involves a combination of proprietary secrets and public knowledge.

For instance, search engine marketing specialists know that each search engine company has its own algorithm. These algorithms are basically a way to automatically evaluate and rank websites based on a set of pre-defined criteria.

seo ranking What are these pre-defined criteria, you ask? Well now we're getting into the proprietary part of all this. Obviously, search engines companies do not want their competitors to know how they develop their algorithms.

Nor do they want SEO companies to know these secrets.

But with all that said, there's plenty of public knowledge about how to make a website more visible and better ranked. Let me caution you on something though. Don't ever do anything just for the search engines. That's a bad habit to develop. (See my article on SEO tunnel vision.)

Always put people before search engines. Make website improvements for your readers and customers first, and for the search engines second. Now with that disclaimer out of the way, here are some of the criteria that can improve search engine rankings.

1. Keyword usage - Let's say there are two websites about bee keeping. They are equal in all regards except one. Website 'A' uses the phrases "bee keeping" throughout key locations on the site.

bee keeping SEO But website 'B' hardly uses the phrase at all, often replacing it with "keeping" and "this practice" and other non-descriptive phrases.

Because of this fundamental difference in keyword usage, website 'A' will outrank website 'B' for bee keeping phrases.

2. Age of domain - How old a website is also plays a role in how well it ranks. This is especially true with Google, since the number one search engine tends to favor older, well-established site. So now let's assume that our two bee-keeping websites are the same size and have similar, keyword-rich content. But this time, website 'A' is 8 years old and website 'B' is 14 months old. Chances are, website 'A' will outrank the younger website.

3. Size of website - In this scenario, our two bee-keeping websites are the exact same age, have similar keyword-rich content, and are similar in most other regards.

But this time, website 'A' has 45 pages of content, and website 'B' only has five pages of content. Website 'A' will outrank the smaller website 'B' in the search engines.

4. Link popularity - This refers to the quantity and quality of inbound links (hyperlinks from other websites to your website). There's a lot to "link building," as it's known. But for this tutorial, suffice it to say that inbound links build link popularity, and link popularity increases search engine ranking.

So if our two bee-keeping websites are equal in most regards, but website 'A' has three times as many links coming in as website 'B' ... website 'A' will once again ranking higher than website 'B.'

5. Usage Data - When people find your website through a search engine, the search engine company can track the visitor long enough to see how they react to your website. Do most people who find your site through search engines go on to read several pages, or do most of them hit the back button upon reaching your home page? This is usage data, and it gives search engine companies another tool in measuring website quality and relevance. Lear more about usage data.