How does Google order and rank search results?
Google has a collection of algorithms such as Hummingbird, Panda and RankBrain that are responsible for deciding how to order and rank search engine results.
The machine-learning based algorithm RankBrain builds off Hummingbird and works by:
If RankBrain sees a word or phrase it isn’t familiar with, it uses artificial intelligence to understand it better by connecting it to similar search queries through word vectors – in other words, understand ‘search intent’.
It allows Google to understand these queries by converting keywords into known topics and concepts, meaning it can provide better search engine results – even when queries are unusual.
Rather than attempting to be the best keyword optimized result, RankBrain rewards websites that provide user satisfaction (by measuring it) and return the result that the user expects.
For ranking, you should also consider Google’s EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) framework which may not be a ranking factor but it’s a component of its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.
