Do you know that social media signals like +1, Likes, etc are not included by Google search algorithms in ranking sites? The same is true of Google analytics data. It is ignored by the Google search algorithms.
These are some of the insights that the Google India Search Quality Team posted on its blog. The team was answering queries made by Indian Webmasters as part of India Webmaster Q&A exercise.
Here’s a gist of the answers that provide a glimpse into the working of the highly secretive Google search algorithms:
On Ranking
Google search algorithms use more than 200 signals to determine website rank.
On Social Ranking signals
Currently, Google search algorithms do not include social signals like +1s, Likes etc in their ranking. However, Google recommends that users should continue using social signals as they “build rapport and trust”. As for Google, it is still experimenting as to how to integrate these signals in its search rankings.
On Data from Google Analytics account
Google Analytics may be providing you valuable insights on your site’s bounce rate, page views, time spent by users on different pages, etc but its algorithms ignore this data. It is not used to arrive at your site’s ranking.
On Pagination and Crawling
Google does not mind webmasters publishing a single story across multiple pages. However, Google suggests that webmasters should include a “View All” page too. This page is valued by searchers more and the webmasters should list this as the preferred version. The “prev” and “next” links are useful hints for Googlebots. But the webmasters should note that “they are not absolute directives”
On Sitemaps and Site Structure
Google values breadcrumbs greatly. It helps Google search algorithms to understand and present the information on the pages more accurately in its search results.
Besides breadcrumbs, Google also suggests that webmasters must ensure that urls are logically constructed and the links structure should help Google understand your site structure better.
Google also makes it clear that there is no point in submitting site maps multiple times. It does not help.
Another interesting point that the Google team makes is that “Submitting a Sitemap helps make sure that Google knows about all the pages on your site, including URLs that may not be discoverable by Google’s normal crawling process. However, it doesn’t guarantee that all pages of your site will be crawled or included in our search results.”
The Sitemap data is used to learn about the site’s structure, which in turn improves the crawler schedule and do a better job crawling your site in the future.
Click here to read the full blogpost titled India Webmaster Q&A: Search Quality Team answers your questions.
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