How Google works: Mystery of Google’s search algorithm revealed

Google wants to provide users with useful information as quickly as possible

The goal of Google’s search engine is to offer its users the best possible information in a quick and uncomplicated manner. To do this, the ranking systems “search through billions of websites in the search index and present you with the most relevant and useful results in seconds,” explains the company. There are many factors involved in this search: “[…] the words used in your search query, the relevance and usefulness of pages, the expertise of sources, and your location and preferences”.

Continuous improvement of the search algorithm

The search algorithm is constantly being revised and optimized by Google. While around 10 years ago only one change was made per day, the number of changes to optimize the search algorithm last year was 3,200. As t3n recently reported, Danny Sullivan, Public Liaison for Search, has now published a detailed report on the adjustments on the Google Search Blog. Accordingly, the organic search results are basically determined solely by the algorithm, which is based on hundreds of variables and is highly complex. As a rule, there is no manual intervention in the display and the ranking of the search results. “As we’ve said many times in the past, we don’t manually tweak a specific search result to change the ranking. There are a variety of reasons for this. We get trillions of searches every year. ‘Fixing’ a search solves the problem not fixed or improved the search for the many other variants of the same query,” Sullivan explains in his blog post.

However, there are a few exceptions: Google intervenes manually and revises additional elements such as the knowledge panel, legal violations or spam sites.

3,200 changes to the Google algorithm in 2018

New features were introduced in 2018, but regular updates were also carried out. These changes are always implemented according to a specific schedule, as Sullivan writes in his recently published article. First, areas for improvement are identified. Possible changes to the Google algorithm are then developed and tested using our own test procedure. In addition, the results are also evaluated by external quality inspectors. “To ensure that the search algorithms meet the high requirements for relevance and quality, we have a strict process that includes both live tests and thousands of trained external evaluators to assess the quality of Google searches,” Google explains the process. This is done according to strict guidelines in which the goals for the company’s search algorithms are recorded. The changes made are ultimately rated as positive if a significant number of search results become more helpful and at the same time there are no significant deteriorations.

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