The Google algorithm for ranking web pages is a complex ranking system and algorithm that uses several factors to determine the relevance and authority of a website and web page in response to a search.
The exact Google algorithm is proprietary and not known, it is constantly evolving.
Although the key components of Google's algorithm for ranking web pages are page rank, content relevance and content quality, user experience signals, technical SEO, authority and trust signals and search intent and content alignment.
Google's algorithm strives in understanding the underlying intent of a user's search query, and presents search results that best match the searcher's intent.
This can also influence the types of content and features that are displayed in the Google search results.
And other signals like reputation of the domain and quality of external links also contribute to a website's perceived trustworthiness and authority.
A website's structure, security, "HTTPS", and crawlability are also technical aspects which also impact how effectively Google can discover, understand and index a website and it's contents.
And factors that are related to how searchers interact with a website like page loading speed, overall site usability, mobile friendliness, also influence the Google rankings of a website and a positive user experience is often rewarded with higher rankings.
Also Google analyzes the content of any web pages and content to determine it's relevance to the search query, which includes keyword analysis as well as a deeper understanding of the content's helpfulness, depth and whether it addresses the searcher's intent.
Google also prioritizes content which demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness also known as EAT.
And finally the foundational algorithm, that was developed by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, assess the importance of web pages and content, based on the quantity and quality of backlinks that point to them.
Having a backlink from a high authority page or website carriers more weight than a backlink from a less authoritative page or website.
To improve your website ranking on Google and get Google to rank your website higher you need to create high quality and relevant content that solves the searchers problems.
Also use targeted keywords in your titles, descriptions and body and build quality backlinks from authoritative sites.
And ensure that your website provides it's users with a positive user experience by improving the site loading speed and ensure the site is mobile friendly.
You can also analyze your websites performance by using tools such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
And also use proper image optimization and a clear site structure.
Write content for users and not just for search engines as Google ranks websites that solve a users problems and not just content designed for the search engines.
And ensure you're writing original content and not just copying content that others have already written and integrate your target keywords naturally into the contents body text, headings, title tags and page URLs but don't use keyword stuffing as it can hurt your rankings.
Google uses at least 200 factors to rank websites.
Although the exact number of ranking factors that Google uses to rank websites is not officially disclosed publicly and the number of Google ranking factors still continues to evolve.
The factors that Google uses for ranking websites are also categorized into areas such as site quality, relevance of content, user experience, website authority, website trustworthiness, mobile friendliness, page speed, content quality and whether or not the content answers the searchers questions.
The main thing that Google uses to rank websites is how well the content matches the search intent of the search query and how well the content is written and if it's made for people and not just search engine optimized.
The first thing that Google considers when ranking a website is the quality of the websites content as well as the relevance of the content.
When ranking content and websites in it's search engine, Google seeks to provide it's users with reliable, helpful and comprehensive information and content which directly answers the searchers search queries.
Google rewards and ranks high content which is valuable and people first instead of just search engine optimized content.
If the content does not answer the searchers query it will either not rank or may be pushed down later in the rankings if Google detects that people are not finding the content helpful such as by bouncing from the content quickly.
For your websites content to rank high in Google search is needs to be unique and provide new insights and offer substantial value to the searcher.
The content must also be created for people, and solve real user problems and satisfy the search query's intent.
And Google also prefers to rank content higher that provides complete answers to someone's questions on a given topic they are searching for answers for.
Google is also now ranking user generated content like question and answer websites better including websites like reddit, quora and even this website higher than blog content that just writes content that's not helpful.
Blogs can still rank good and high in Google but the content must be of high quality and not just regurgitated content.