Chapter Two

Behind the Scenes of the Google Algorithm

What happens when you type a keyword or phrase into Google?

In a split second, the search engine returns a list of web pages relevant to the search query. But it's not magic returning the search results-it's a very complex and proprietary algorithm.

The algorithm scans all the pages in Google's index and decides which ones to display to you. It's the key to search rankings, and while the algorithm itself is complicated, here's a simple equation: a higher search ranking equals more traffic, leads, and revenue for your law firm.

In other words, if you understand how Google's algorithm works, you can leverage it to increase your rankings, sign more cases, and grow revenue for your firm.

The Algorithm Breakdown

Let's look at how Google's algorithm assigns value. Why does it rank one website higher than another?

When users have a good browsing experience, they stay on pages longer and view more ads. To that end, the algorithm values site elements that create a positive user experience, attract new viewers, and keep people browsing.

Google examines hundreds of variables and rewards websites that, among other things:

• Publish high-quality content on a regular basis
• Load quickly, preferably in under three seconds
• Deliver relevant information that satisfies the searcher's intent
• Offer a safe and secure browsing experience
• Use a responsive design that is user-friendly on both mobile and desktop

To rank pages in the SERPs and create its index, the algorithm looks at both the search term a user typed into Google and each page, which Google refers to as documents. Then, it asks questions, including:

• Do keywords from the search appear in the page's body copy, URL, or title tags?
• Is the page from a high-quality, trusted source?
• How old is the domain? When will it expire?
• How many links go to and from the page?
• How quickly did the page load?
• How much time do visitors spend on the webpage?

The algorithm considers the results and returns the pages that satisfy its criteria the best. As you'll see throughout this book, every aspect of your website factors into Google's algorithm to determine where your site ranks. Google is actually monitoring the user's experience and making adjustments to the search results daily. To rank highly, your website must meet the requirements listed above, deliver a great user experience, and continue to publish fresh content.

New Content Boosts Your Search Ranking

One of the best ways to get Google to crawl and index your website, more frequently, is by publishing new content. Every time you update your website by publishing new content, Google will visit it to see what has changed. Google maintains a carbon copy of the entire internet, and it's constantly "crawling" the web to keep its index up-to-date. This maintenance takes place behind the scenes, but what happens on the user's end?

When a Google search returns a list of pages, you see a snapshot of the internet, not a real-time scan. Google has already used software programs called spiders to crawl the web, follow links, collect information on pages, and create an index. Google uses a very complex algorithm to organize and rank the data, and then determines what will best satisfy your user intent for that particular search.

Google wants its snapshot to be as accurate to the real-time web as possible, but it can't monitor the entire web simultaneously. It prioritizes where to send its spiders by looking at how frequently a website gets updated.

Publishing new content is a powerful trigger that draws Google's spiders back to crawl your website again and again. It's why Google crawls websites like CNN.com constantly-the unending stream of news reports feeds the algorithm's hunger for content. In turn, Google ranks the site highly.

Your website probably won't be as active as CNN.com, but you should aim to post new content regularly. The algorithm wants to promote current, actively maintained websites, not sites that haven't been updated in years. If you add new pages frequently, it signals to Google that you take your website seriously, and you are rewarded with higher rankings and more traffic.

Technical Elements Make Your Website Crawlable

Publishing fresh content keeps you on Google's radar. It's critical to your overall web strategy, but your website won't benefit from your efforts if Google can't index your pages. Your website must also be technically sound, so Google's crawlers can scan it for information without any blockers.

What is Google looking at when it crawls your website?

A few of the most important technical elements that impact your Google search ranking include:

• Secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate, which indicates whether your website is secure or not
• Site speed, which is how fast your website loads
• Server-level performance, which is whether your pages load without error
• Domain age, which is the length of time your website has existed
• Domain expiration date, which is how much time remains before your website's registration expires
• Internal and external duplicate-content problems, which occur when a site plagiarizes content already indexed on Google

Technical Website Problems to Avoid

Many websites fail to rank highly because they have poor technical SEO-any element that impedes Google's ability to navigate the website. Some examples include:

• Broken internal links
• Linking out to pages that no longer exist
• Large, uncompressed images that slow down the website

These problems detract from your website's ranking, because they waste Google's resources. Google crawls the web, by traveling from link to link, so when it tries to follow a broken link, the algorithm doesn't gain any useful information. It hits a dead end. For example, if you've ever loaded a webpage and seen "404 Error," it means the page no longer exists. Google penalizes this inefficiency by docking the offending website's search ranking.

Know Whether a Feature Helps or Hurts

It's easy to add a feature to your website, thinking it will improve the user experience and boost your search ranking, but sometimes these additions actually do just the opposite.

For example, chat services have become a popular feature on many law firms' websites. The feature works by opening a chat window on your website, where potential clients can ask questions about your firm. Sounds useful, right?

Yes, but only if it's a reputable chat service that's been implemented correctly. Many chat companies get paid for every chat they deliver. They're incentivized to get as many people using the feature as possible, so they'll make the chat window a large popup.

The problem is that large popups may be annoying, intrusive, and lead to a bad user experience-and Google knows this. Google calls features like this "intrusive interstitials," and may lower your search rankings.

Companies selling chat services or other features might not mention these potential issues, which may cause a Google penalty, so it's up to you to think about whether a feature helps or hurts the user experience. Don't get me wrong: there are plenty of chat services that adhere to Google's guidelines and provide amazing benefits and services. Some are much better than others, though, so do your homework before signing up for one of these services.

The Algorithm Assigns a PageRank

Google's algorithm examines hundreds of inputs, including the ones described above, and uses the data to calculate different scores. One of the most important is called "PageRank." PageRank-named after Larry Page, Google's co-founder alongside Sergey Brin-measures the popularity and relative value of a webpage, which factors into the webpage's overall placement in a list of search results.

PageRank estimates a webpage's importance by looking at the quality, relevancy, and number of inbound links pointing to it. For example, if a prestigious law school links to your firm's website, it will have a much greater impact than a link from your friend who owns a locksmith company. One is more popular and relevant to your website's content, and the other is not.

In the past, Google made PageRank visible so website owners could see how their webpages scored, but they have since obscured these scores. Fortunately, there are tools like Moz and Ahrefs that will approximate PageRank, so you can still get a good estimate of how your pages compare. Google's PageRank score ranges from zero to ten, becoming exponentially higher (a logarithmic scale) as the score rises, but many of the third-party tools function on a 1 to 100 scale.

Before you start making any changes to your website, I recommend using a tool to approximate its PageRank. This will give you a baseline for tracking improvements to your website's popularity and...