When talking recently with Ron Z, founder of CodeGeek.net, about Google he reminded me, “Remember Rule #1: It doesn’t have to make sense.” Never is that sentence more true than when it comes to Google’s ranking system.

I conducted hours of research in an attempt to discover why Google Maps (formerly known as Google Local) returned only one map marker for a particular keyword search phrase instead of the usual ten. Directly underneath that one business listing was a link that read “See all 103 results for…” When I opened that link, there was the list of 103 qualified businesses that met the keyword search phrase criteria.

Why is it that some Google map business listing results return three business markers (in the form of pink balloons/markers titled “A”,”B”,”C”), some ten business markers, and in this case only one, when clearly there are other businesses that meet the criteria??!!

While searching for a definitive answer to that question I did, discover some interesting pieces of search ranking result information and resources that I’d like to share with you.

Google Maps (Google Local accounts)

If you have a brick and mortar location to your business, make sure you have created a Google Maps account by visiting the Google Local Business Center, https://www.google.com/local/add/. It is possible that Google may list your website under Google Maps, even if you haven’t yet created an account with them, yet your ranking in those results with be positively impacted by the creation of an account. Once your Google Maps account is up and running (which can take up to 6-8 weeks), solicit some of your clients to create a customer review for your listing. Although not confirmed by Google (since they are so secretive about all the details that make them tick), it is strongly believed by many SEO professionals that customer reviews influence your Google Map ranking (i.e. local business listing). Also, it is believed that the number of stars awarded help increase the Google Maps rank.

Google PageRank

Here are a couple items to understand regarding Google PageRank. First, be aware that the PageRank you see is based on information that is 3-5 months old. This is an effort to limit the ability of the general public from gaining too much insight about the Google ranking algorithm. Therefore, no assumption or action should be made based solely on PageRank. Second, note the following, as written on Jerry West’s Tips page, that when a Webmaster is requesting link, s/he typically looks at the PageRank of the home page which may have a PageRank of 5 or 6. But the link isn’t going on the home page. Instead it goes on a ‘links page’ that has a PageRank of 0 which means that the link is probably worthless in terms of raising your PageRank. It is most beneficial to gain “inbound links” from web pages that have a higher page rank than yours. In sum, ensure that your link building campaign includes getting viable, worth-while links from viable, worth-while pages.

For more insight into Google PageRank, read Jerry West’s entire article at: http://www.webmarketingnow.com/tips/google-pagerank-uncovered.html

Google Results…
are CONTINUOUSLY fluctuating.

Part of the reason for this is, as Google Engineer Matt Cutts stated, “…at different data centers we have different binaries, different algorithms, different types of data always being tested…” Google has many data centers, all data centers are NOT identical - and their search and sort results WILL differ from one another. This means that 2 different people, using 2 different systems, but using the identical search term may get different results. Additionally, the location of your IP address can affect search results. User data (such as the time spent on page, or click-throughs in the SERP’s) influence Google Rankings to some extent. Also, the type of device that a person is making the query from, such as a mobile phone verse a PC, may now be a factor in the return results.

Recently, there has been speculation that Google sorting search results are based upon what tasks it thinks you are trying to perform. As Bill Slawski points out in a recent blog post on SEO by the Sea, “Notice that when you search for some queries at Google, that the top results that you see might be mostly local, or mostly news, or scholarly, or images, or financial.”

What this means is that it does appear that Google is trying to show pages to searchers that may be the best match for what Google thinks searchers want to see. Google is all about providing the best services possible to the end-user.

In conclusion, while I have not yet cracked the code to fully understand Google Ranking, we have experience with many activities and resources to help optimize your website. To continue on your own journey of understanding the World of Google, here are two other amazing articles worth reading:

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#f23

http://www.webmarketingnow.com/tips/google-pagerank-uncovered.html