1.8 How the Algorithm Sorts Pages

When a user submits a query, the algorithm gets to work sorting through the index of pages to find results that might be what the user is looking for. How, exactly, the algorithm chooses which pages to rank in the first spot isn’t entirely known.

What is known is that the algorithm uses over 200 pieces of data to determine where a page will rank. These pieces of data are referred to as ranking factors. They’re metrics which, if improved, will give you a better chance of ranking higher.

While not all the metrics are known, many of the most important metrics are. In no particular order, they include and are not limited to the following:

  • Number of and quality of links pointing to your website

  • Number of and quality of links pointing to a particular page on your website

  • Relevance of content to a user’s query (is the keyword present?)

  • Relevance of meta tags to a user’s query (is the keyword present?)

  • Content length and comprehensiveness

  • Page loading speed

  • Usability

  • Security

  • Trustworthiness

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