How are Search Engine Results Ranked?

SEO

63% of consumers believe that Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s) are ranked by spend, relevance, or they don’t have any idea how SERP rankings occur. So how are search results ranked?

In order to understand how search results are ranked, you must know the basics behind your search. Let’s use Google as our platform. When typing in a search term on Google, you’re not searching the web, rather you’re searching Googles index of the web. Googles search index is formed by using spiders. These spiders crawl the web, and through links on pages copy, Google accumulates several billions of pages to store in their index. Once in their index, they will be given a ranking search result based on how your searches relativity to the indexed pages.

 

How does index relate to your search result ranking?

With a multitude of digital marketing companies out there, research must be done to choose the right one. Unless you thought of Top Floor first, then you’ve already chose the right one. To find the best digital marketing company, you can Google “digital marketing companies near me”. After searching, Google will take your terms and surf through their index to find every page that includes those terms. In this case it will look for the specific words, “digital marketing companies near me.”

The order in which these pages appear in Googles search are based on several questions Google searches for; such as your search terms consistency on a page, where it lives on a page, if it is a reliable webpage, etc. Once your results have loaded, which takes roughly a couple seconds, there are notable features to each website. Each website has a title, pertaining to your search term, a URL linking to the page your searched term appears on, and a brief description explaining what you will find on the webpage you are choosing to access.

It is important to note that most often, paid advertisements live at the top of your Google search. Advertisements will only appear if companies are bidding on the terms you have searched.

 

What does bidding have to do with SERP ranking?

When you type in a search to Google, most often the top results will have a green box to the left of the URL reading “Ad;” indicating an advertisement. Advertisements, while most good, can sometimes lead a user estray. If a company, such as Top Floor is currently bidding for the term “top floor digital marketing company,” and another digital marketing company is trying to compete, they can choose to bid a higher monetary value on the term “top floor digital marketing company” to ensure there search result is the first one in Googles index. Thus, leading the user, you, to a website other than Top Floor’s website. In simpler terms, bidding, for your SERP ranking, allows those paying for advertisements to be placed higher in the search results, than your company.

Your organic SERP ranking may vary based on the amount of advertisements ranking for your search result. This does not mean that you should be afraid of advertisements, or not click on them, it is just a way for Google to make money, and a way for companies to optimize their business through succinct keywords.

It is important to note that Google is one of many search engines that all use similar techniques to provide the most reliable and aligned ranking search results. Moving forward, with your search results, look around and begin to understand the components on the search engine and how they are being used to entice and inform you.  So next time you search a term, company, or digital marketing business, such as Top Floor, remember how ranking search results are computed.