How Does SEO Work? Ranking Choices

Search Engine Ranking is complicated. And only a few people at Google really understand how it works. But it's helpful to know the basic premise of search engine rankings and some key considerations.

Here's the list of the main criteria that affect how you rank on a Google Search:

• Backlinks: Google evaluates the amount of other sites on the internet that are linking to your page and the quality of those sites. If reputable people online link to your website, it is really good for your SEO. This is especially the case if their website has similar content to yours.
  ​

• Relevance: Put simply, this means that your site contains the same keywords as the search. However, since the same keywords can have different meetings (e.g. apple the fruit vs. Apple computers), Google also uses sophisticated technology to interpret the intent of the search and show results that meet the intent.
  ​

• Freshness: If the quality of search results are dependent on how recently the information was generated, then Google will show newer pages first. For example, if you search "Best Movies on Netflix", Google will prioritize a more recent article because Netflix rotates through content on a monthly basis.​
  ​

• Topical authority: Google prioritizes results from sources that have expertise and a strong reputation in a certain discipline. As the engagement and reputation of your site improves on a certain topic improves, you are more likely to rank near the top of the search engine results page.
  ​

• Page speed: Faster pages rank better! Another reason to reduce load times on your website!
  ​

• Mobile-friendliness: When you're searching on a mobile device, Google will prioritize sites that are mobile-friendly. If your site is not optimized for mobile devices, then you are not likely to rank well for people searching on their phones or tablets. Sine 65% of Google searches happen on mobile devices, this should be a priority!

Looking for more information on how Search Engine Ranking works? Check out this ahref article here: https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-do-search-engines-work/​

As you generate content on your site with the intention of improving your SEO, keep these ranking criteria in mind to help guarantee you rank as high as possible!