Google Search Algorithm

Generally thought of as the “smartest” (and strictest) search engine, Google invented the link popularity system that many other algorithms are based on today.

Despite plenty of competition, Google has always managed to stay ahead of the game, delivering what are widely accepted as the most accurate and reliable results.

How Google ranks a site still depends largely on its incoming links, but the system has evolved and shifted a number of times over the years. It now depends a lot less on raw quantity of incoming links (pagerank) and more on quality, that is how targeted and relevant each link is to the site’s content. The anchor text of incoming links is also given a high importance.

Google’s algorithm is also very good at differentiating high quality content from spam, meaning that a page with little or no value won’t have much chance of ranking well, regardless of its incoming links. The system is designed to pick up red flags, such as abnormally high keyword density in a page’s title or content, and penalize pages that exhibit too many “spammy” attributes.

Another apparent trait of Google’s algorithm is that it is very tough on new and unestablished sites. When the engine first locates a new site, it often puts it under a temporary penalty called the “Google sandbox,” which prevents it from ranking for anything for the first three to six months. This doesn’t affect all sites, but is very common, and seems to be triggered whenever Google detects any red flags on a new website.

One thing that is know to trigger the sandbox is a sudden significant increase in your quantity of incoming links. In general, you’re much better off to build links to your site slowly and steadily if you don’t want to “spook” Google and incur the sandbox or another penalty.

All in all, Google’s ranking algorithm is one of the hardest to impress. Your site will probably need a good amount of high quality content before you can rank well for anything competitive, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get instant results.

Once you do earn some strong rankings in Google, you’ll probably find them quite stable and sustainable compared with other search engines. The trick is to write good content, get a few highly relevant links, and stick with your SEO strategy for the long term.