How are websites ranked?

When you type a search into Google, pages are selected from the index according to how well they match up to your query.

The following factors play a key role in the ranking process:

SEO.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ensures that your website is visible to Google bots and other web crawlers. This includes titles, keywords, headings, and alt image tags.

Domain age.

A web domain less than six months old is considered a “new” site, and therefore less trustworthy or reliable than an older website that has been thoroughly verified. New sites can still be ranked, but rankings are more likely to increase after the six-month window.

Keyword competition.

Words or phrases that are searched often are highly competitive, and more established sites in your industry have a head start on ranking for popular searches. If your site is new, it will be easier to build trust and rankings through keywords with lower levels of competition before moving on to more popular searches.

Content quality.

The Google bots are designed to identify characteristics like how often new content is published, whether the content is original, as well as the length and overall quality of your posts. Regularly adding new, original, high-quality content to your page will keep the search bots looking at your page and could lead to higher rankings as time passes.

Clean domain.

Google’s algorithm is also designed to spot when websites try to cheat the system with tricks like keyword stuffing or buying inbound links, or black hat marketing. These schemes may work for a while, but when Google catches on, your site will be penalized. Your ranking will suffer until you correct the problem, which can be a lengthy and difficult process.