Discussion continues of potential new signals for making search results even more relevant.
Christine Pepin
Media Coordinator
Although the search engines will never spell out how they evaluate our sites, we know that the bottom line behind the complex algorithm is their focus on producing results that satisfy the user. This week, I ran across some interesting information on new ranking factors up for consideration. These signals are always worth noting due to the evolving nature of how engines define site value and relevancy.
Matt Cutts, an engineer at Google, discussed Google’s consideration for making page load time a ranking factor. Since pages that load quickly improve a user’s experience for finding relevant content efficiently, Cutts indicates that Google could start using this factor within the next year.
In another interview, Josh Cohen, senior business product manager at Google, discussed the ranking processes that occur for news stories on Google News. On one end, they are relying heavily on which stories the editors deem the most important, as well as the credibility and circulation of the online publication. But another signal that has been weighed heavily in recent quarters is the user’s behavior with respect to click-throughs. Data has shown that the first link typically receives the most clicks, then the second and third and so on. But, what Google considers in this news ranking is that if over time the third link becomes more popular it speaks to the relevancy and source of the article, according to users. Thus, this behavior could cause the link to move up in the SERP. Also, interestingly enough, inbound links aren’t really a factor in the Google News ranking.
Social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook, include a multitude of signals due to their fresh content and popularity. As activity on these sites increase, they become even more of an excellent environment for search engines to evaluate what topics are important. In addition, the real-time responsiveness of these sites will help to validate one story over another achieving a high ranking.
