How to rank well on Google?
We fully understand this desire, because there is hardly any website owner on this planet who does not want his site to be on the first page of Google results.
The “small” problem here, however, is that there are billions of website owners in the world, and the first page of Google contains only a dozen results. There is no room for everyone!
In this article, we will try to clarify the principles and mechanisms behind the ranking of sites in Google searches, as well as what is most important in 2022 for your site to have a chance of reaching that coveted “first page of Google”.
First page on Google in 2022
What does Google ranking depend on?
When you talk to an SEO or other web professional today, you’ll inevitably hear a list of complicated-sounding terms like “keywords,” “backlinks,” “link building,” “referrals,” and more.
Yes, with no doubt, these are factors that over time had a serious impact on the ranking of any web page on Google. They are still relevant today.
In 2022, however, Google is far from the one it was in 2012 and has practically nothing in common with what it was in 1998 when Google first appeared on the Internet.
Therefore, it would be useful to talk a little about the development of Google’s algorithms over time, which will undoubtedly make it clear what actually matters most for a site’s good ranking in Google in 2022.
Let’s recall history.
The first phase – keywords
In the early periods, after its launch in 1998, when ranking sites, Google relied primarily on the presence of the searched keyword or phrase on the site to be ranked. The more often the searched keyword or phrase was mentioned in the texts of the site, the higher it ranked in the corresponding search.
All this seemed to perfectly make sense, but the results of the rankings when applying only this criterion quickly began to be gradually distorted.
The reason for this was that some site owners started abusing these keywords and literally “crammed” their texts with such keywords. As a result, Google began to rank ahead of sites that were really crowded with the searched keyword or phrase but were not actually useful to users.
The phenomenon even got its own name – they called it “keyword stuffing” – and Google definitely did not like it.
Let’s remember that Google is the number one search engine precisely because it gives the most relevant and useful results, and Google quickly began to penalize these attempts to deceive by oversaturating the text with keywords. Sites found by Google to be using such methods were quickly “disqualified” and dropped from the results.
Obviously, however, another ranking criterion had to be added so that the search results reflect the actual relevance of the sites to the search term.
The second phase – backlinks
In the second phase of the development of its ranking methods, Google introduced another important criterion for relevance – the number of connections (links) from external sites related to the topic.
Google has considered that the presence of links to the searched site from external sites is an element that could hardly be manipulated by the site owner. In other words, it should not be abusable like the keywords.
The search engine assumed that the more external sites contain links to the ranked site, the greater the probability that the information on that site is really useful and relevant.
Unfortunately, however, site owners and “Google optimizers” again relatively quickly found a “trick” to be able to deceive the search engine here as well.
An activity called “link building” emerged, in which site owners or “optimizers” contacted authoritative sites and literally bought the placement of a link to their site. Based on this, an entire Internet trade developed, and whole new sites dedicated to this “business” appeared.
These were the so-called “link farms”, in which anyone could pay to publish a link to his site, thereby accumulating “assets” in Google.
Quite obviously, sooner or later Google had to respond to these attempts at cheating, simply because they harmed the interests of Google users. Let’s remind them again – to get useful and relevant results from their searches.
That’s why the next, really dramatic upgrade in Google’s ranking criteria came about …
The third phase – user reactions
To make it clear how dramatically this third (and currently active) phase of Google’s development really affected, it’s helpful to clarify a few aspects of Google’s overall role on the Internet.
As it evolved from a simple search engine, Google became a defining and deciding factor for the entire Internet.
As we know, Google developed the most popular browser at the moment – Google Chrome. They also became the owners of the most common operating system for mobile phones – Android, they have long been the owners of the most visited network for sharing video content Youtube.com, and the system for statistical measurement of visits applied in almost all sites is called “Google Analytics“, of course, is also fully owned by Google.
In this way, Google specialists gained access to truly unprecedented data sets about the behavior of every single user on the Internet. From this data, the experts at Google are practically aware of almost every action of every single Internet user.
Nowadays – in the 21st century – Google already knows not only which sites you visit, but also which search results you click on and how long you stay there.
In short, if your browser is Google Chrome, your mobile phone uses the Android operating system, you often watch videos on Youtube, and your website uses Google Analytics, Google knows more about you than all the intelligence agencies in the world put together!
Most importantly, however, Google uses all this data as the main criteria for ranking sites in its own search engine!
In other words, if, as a result of the presence of searched keywords and external links, Google has ranked your site in the top positions, but in searches, most users spend more time on the lower ranked sites, this is a signal to Google that it has made a mistake having ranked your site ahead, and will quickly move it down on the results page.
If despite being full of keywords, users stay on a certain page of your site for, say, an average of 10 or 15 seconds, this is a signal to Google that this page is of no real interest to users, and it will also be moved down in the rankings.
It has long been clear to Google that if users do not stay on a page for at least a minute and a half or two, that page is clearly not of interest to them.
Conversely, if the average time spent by users on your page (“Average page view duration” according to Google Analytics) is more than 2, 3, or even 4 minutes, this is a clear signal to Google that your page is of interest to users, it is a valuable Internet resource, and this will certainly positively affect its ranking in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
Apparently, finally, Google managed to find a genuine determining criterion for the real qualities of a given site – the reaction of users!
No matter how ambitiously optimized and keyword-rich your site is, its chances of consistently ranking well in Google are slim if it doesn’t provide truly useful information for users that they evaluate daily with their own reactions.
Fourth phase – artificial intelligence
According to the latest information, a new and complete “revision” of Google’s methods and algorithms for ranking sites in searches is currently underway.
In this phase, Google will already use methods of artificial intelligence (AI – Artificial Intelligence) to take into account practically all factors that could affect the ranking. For example, in addition to all the factors already listed above, the search engine now has methods to determine the true intentions and expectations of each Google searcher.
In other words, Google will now be able to distinguish whether, for example, the searcher wants to buy the searched product, or is simply looking for more detailed information about it. On this basis, Google could judge whether to bring forward online stores or information sites for the particular search. All of this, of course, is based on both the data from the particular user’s previous Google searches and his interests, according to data from his overall Internet activity.
Therefore, do not be surprised if, when searching for the same keyword or phrase, the results you get differ from those that your child or your neighbor gets on his computer.
In other words, Google now takes into account not only what is being searched for, but also who is searching for it.
This phase is still under development and testing. According to our information, Google currently even uses an “army” of real analysts (real people, not software bots) who read and analyze the content of certain sites according to set criteria. All this aims to compare the results of real, “human” analysis with those of artificial intelligence, with the ultimate goal, of course, being “fine-tuning” the ranking algorithms.
Summary
2022 is shaping up to be the year that the long-known Internet rule “Content is King” finally comes into full force!
Undoubtedly, the “good old” criteria, such as having the right amount of keywords and backlinks to your site, will continue to play a role in ranking. However, it will decrease more and more.
If your site doesn’t provide real, useful, and up-to-date information that keeps your users on your site and solves their problems, no amount of keywords and backlinks will be able to save it from declining in Google rankings.
Conversely, if your site provides your visitors with useful, up-to-date, and reliable information that meets your visitors’ expectations and solves their problems, don’t worry about your Google ranking. Sooner or later, your site will take the place in Google results that it really deserves.
The way to the first page in Google goes through purposeful, persistent, and continuous work to provide up-to-date, reliable, and useful information to your users. A shortcut or an easy way to the first page of Google no more exists!
