Signals Search Engines Use to Determine Website Importance/Popularity
Many webmasters and company owners have lost the battle of web marketing solely because they couldn’t figure out the almighty search engines. Indeed, why is it that sometimes quality content is ignored? Why is it that no SEO company can guarantee a #1 result?
Importance and Popularity of Links
The answer lies in considering the signals that search engines use and provide to determine the popularity and importance of a website. First, what is the difference between importance and popularity in a search context? Popularity refers to quantity of links, whereas importance implies relevant results as deemed so by major search engines.
What are search signals? In short, this refers to specific user data that helps to filter search engine results. Contrary to popular belief, search engines do not have one “algorithm” or methodology. The algorithm is constantly changing, and the company makes changes according to user data and user requests. Internet users are always on a quest to find relevant information, and to get rid of SPAM links, low quality links and irrelevant pages.
Figuring Out Those Mysterious Signals
Interestingly, we don’t know exactly how each company’s algorithm works (companies never say explicitly), but we are assured that filters are based on user satisfaction or search or ranking signals. We do know what some of the signals are, and the most commonly suggested signals include the number of quality links and also social media linking, a relatively new phenomenon. Facebook has its “Like This” while Twitter has its “Retweet” option, and search engines are now taking into account popular social media shares that have gone “viral” across the Internet.
However, there are even more search signals that are considered, all of which are related to the ultimate user experience. These factors might include page loading time, number of clicks, web references, and other user-centric data. In coming years, more emphasis may be put on the “personal user” with information considered such as search history, location, the browser used, the computer used, language, time spent searching and typing, operating systems, time of day, types of ads most often clicked on, frequency of searches, your sex and age, where you click on the screen, typos and related search queries. Kind of scary how much your Internet is “browsing you”, isn’t it? No, the search engines will never make it easy on you, but you do have the basics thus far.
User Satisfaction—Still the Most Important Factor
The happier the user is in his/her search, in theory, the higher ranked your pages. The primary goal of search engines is to keep their traffic and they do this best by offering precisely the type of pages the user wants, minus SPAM and other distractions. As algorithms continue to evolve, we also have to consider factors such as demographical information. After all, is it fair that a teenage magazine for girls would be provide just as popular a keyword search as a magazine for retired adults? No, there needs to be a balance and “context” in order to make these search signals as accurate as possible.
User satisfaction is the key here, as the audience sends the signals out in the first place. Keep abreast of the latest happenings in SEO and search engine science so that you can stay one step ahead of that constantly evolving algorithm!
