SERP Ranking Factors: Special Algorithm Rules

What makes your website rank? Well we’ve talked about off-page and on-page factors in the past, but there are also a few special algorithmic rules in place that can affect what you see in the search rankings. These special algorithmic rules were created by Google to help users find what they needed in the search results. For example if you type in “Pizza place” Google tends to think that you’re looking for a pizza place locally so they tend to show you pizza places for your location. The following 9 factors are special algorithmic factors that might be affecting what you’re seeing in the search ranking pages right now.

1. Your Location. Your location greatly affects the Google+ Local listings and is often cached in your settings. For example if you type “pizza place” in Chicago, you might get different results than if you were here in Raleigh, North Carolina.
2. Your Browsing History. Google often remembers what website you had visited and uses your browsing history to affect what websites show up in the SERPs.
3. Your IP Address /Geo Targeting. Google gives preference not just to your location but to your IP address as well.
4. Your Google+ Circles. How many Google+ Circles are you in? Google’s gone out of their way to implement Google Authorship bios and Google Publisher with the rest of their services, including using these factors to affect the SERPs.
5. Freshness Factor. Google likes fresh new content and has shown a tendency to rank newer content higher than older content.
6. Safe Search. Google’s safe search or incognito mode often can show a user content that’s stripped of an IP address.
7. Domain Diversity. Google likes to show a diversified search as possible, this means including showing multiple domains when possible.
8. Shopping, flight, image, video and other special searches. Certain keywords have an idea of showing special objects in the search engines. This includes special items for shopping, image, video and pictures.
9. Knowledge Graph. Popular brands can often spring up using Google’s knowledge graph items.

Tags: Google • Search Engine Optimization