Google is revealing ‘secrets’ about SERP: Ranking Factors that matter while sorting and prioritizing search results are open secret for SEO experts

Google SEO SERP
Google reveals SEO secrets to educate users on how to search? Pic credit: Stock Catalog/Flickr

Holding top positions in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is every SEO (Search Engine Optimization) expert’s dream. Now Google is offering some clues about which Ranking Factors matter the most while showing and organizing search results.

Google now lists some of the most important factors that justify the position and presence of links in a search result. The feature is an expansion of the ‘About this result’ box that Google launched earlier this year.

Google Search offers justification about website links it offers on the SERP:

Google is rolling out a new feature for the ‘About This Result’ overlay. Previously, it offered more relevant information about the search result. However, moving ahead, the feature will also offer some justification about the presence of the link.

Google announced, “About This Result” will show searchers information about some of these most important factors used by Google Search to connect results to their queries.”

As for the reasons, the search giant said, “because just as these factors help Google decide if a result may be relevant, they may also help people decide what result is useful for them.”

Here are the factors that Google Search users will see:

  • Matching keywords: A simple, and most obvious as well as important factor Google uses to determine if the information is relevant. Basically, it checks if a webpage contains the same keywords as the string of words in the query.
  • Related terms: Google also looks for terms that are related to the words in a query. If a user searches for “how to cook fish in the oven,” Google will also look for pages that have terms such as “bake” and “recipe.”
  • Looking at links: When other pages link to a page using similar words as a query, that page might be relevant to the search. It can also be a helpful indicator of whether online content creators regard the page as useful for that topic.
  • Local relevance: Google will also look at factors like the language of search as well as the user’s country and location, to deliver content relevant for their area. For example, a search for “what day is trash pickup?” would get results that are applicable to the user’s city or state.

Google will also educate users into becoming experts at searching:

In addition to the page ranking “secrets”, Google will also offer users explicit tips on how to improve their queries. Users have to merely hover their mouse over the underlined words to activate the tips.

Google can reportedly offer a number of search tips that are specific to the query and the “About this Result” box for that page.

Google is gradually rolling out the new search features. For now, only a small percentage of U.S. residents will have access, but the search giant would obviously expand the scope to other countries and languages.

Google claims the ‘About This Result’ feature has been viewed hundreds of millions of times. But, the company hasn’t offered specific numbers. Nonetheless, the search giant is obviously interested in bolstering the feature.

Google may be openly revealing which high-level ranking SERP factors are the reason a particular page is ranking higher in the search results. While the information could be the holy grail for SEO experts, it is essentially an open secret.

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