We recently read an excellent article from Danny Goodwin on SearchEngineLand.com (https://searchengineland.com/google-search-ranking-documents-434141). He outlines several key documents related to Google Search ranking revealed during an antitrust trial. Key takeaways include:
1. The 3 Pillars of Ranking: Google’s ranking is based on what a document says about itself, what the web says about the document, and user interactions with the document (including clicks, attention on a result, swipes on carousels, and entering a new query).
2. User Interaction Signals: These play a significant role in Google’s ranking mechanism, with Google using interactions such as reads, clicks, scrolls, and mouse hovers to gauge the quality of search results.
3. Google’s Interpretation of Documents: The documents reveal that Google doesn’t “understand” documents in the human sense but rather “fakes” understanding by memorizing how users react to documents. Positive reactions indicate good content and negative reactions are the opposite.
4. Search Induction: Google uses data from user interactions to continuously improve search results, highlighting the importance of designing user experiences that allow Google to learn from these interactions.
This is excellent actionable data and reinforces the need for having a lightning-fast responsive website that provides a great user experience. Generating non-relevant spamming traffic to your website will hurt its SEO. It’s not the amount of traffic a site gets that’s important; it’s about the UX and engagement.
