How to rank your website on Google: what Google looks at, and how to check where you stand
What Google says it looks at when it ranks a page, why your own search misleads you, and how to check where your website really stands.
To rank your website on Google, each page has to get through three stages. Google has to find the page, store it in its index, and then choose it ahead of the other pages that answer the same search. Nobody can pay Google for a higher place, and nobody outside Google can promise one. What you can do is learn what Google looks for, check where your pages stand today, and work on the gaps.
This guide covers both halves: how Google decides, taken from Google’s own pages, and how to check where you stand without fooling yourself. If SEO itself is new to you, start with what SEO is, in plain English.
How does Google decide where a website ranks?
Google ranks pages with automated systems. For each search they weigh what the searcher means, which pages are relevant, which of those seem most helpful and trustworthy, how usable each page is, and the searcher’s context, such as location. How much each one counts depends on the search. Payment plays no part.
Google’s in-depth guide to how Search works describes three stages, and says that not all pages make it through each one:
- Crawling. Automated programs called crawlers download the pages Google has found on the web.
- Indexing. Google analyses what is on each page and stores the information in its index. The guide says indexing isn’t guaranteed.
- Serving results. When someone searches, Google looks in the index for matching pages and returns the ones it believes are the highest quality and most relevant to that search.
Ranking happens in the third stage, so a page that falls out at either of the first two cannot rank at all. If your site doesn’t appear even when you search for your own business name, read the usual reasons a website isn’t showing on Google first.
One more point shapes everything that follows. Google’s guide to its ranking systems says those systems are designed to work on the page level, with site-wide signals contributing to how each page is understood. So “where does my website rank?” has no single answer. Each page has its own position for each search.
What does Google look at when it ranks a page?
Google’s page on how it ranks results names its key signals: the meaning of the search, the relevance of the content, its quality, its usability, and the searcher’s context and settings. The weight of each varies with the search. Google’s example is that freshness counts for more in a search about current news than in a dictionary definition.
| Signal | What Google says | What it means for your site |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | It first works out the intent behind the search, and can match pages that use related words instead of the exact ones | Write in the words your customers use. You don’t need to repeat a phrase in every form |
| Relevance | The most basic signal is that a page contains the same keywords as the search, for example in its headings or body text | Give each service its own page, and say plainly what it is |
| Quality | Its systems look for signals of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. One factor is whether other prominent websites link or refer to the content | Show who you are and what you have done, and earn mentions from sites that matter in your field |
| Usability | When all other signals are relatively equal, content that people find more accessible may perform better, such as mobile-friendly content that loads quickly | The site has to work well on a phone and load quickly |
| Context | Location, past search history and search settings help decide what is most relevant to that person at that moment | Two people can see different results for the same search |
Content comes first
Google’s SEO starter guide says that creating content people find compelling and useful will likely influence your site’s presence in search results more than any other suggestion in the guide. It describes that content as easy to read and well organised, unique, up to date, and helpful, reliable and people-first. It also suggests thinking about the words a customer might search with.
For a business website, that means a page for each thing you sell, written to answer what a customer asks before buying: what it is, what it costs, and who you have done it for.
Trust, and the links that show it
Google’s page on creating helpful content says its systems look for content that shows experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, and that trust is the most important of these. It adds that this is not one specific ranking factor. It is what a mix of factors is trying to identify.
Links from other websites are part of that mix. Google’s guide to its ranking systems says it has systems that understand how pages link to each other, and that PageRank continues to be part of its core ranking systems. The links have to be earned. Google’s spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, and say sites that violate the policies may rank lower or not appear at all. Our article on which backlinks help, and why buying them backfires goes further.
Phones and speed
Google’s page on mobile-first indexing says Google uses the mobile version of a site’s content for indexing and ranking. The version of your site that a phone shows is the one Google reads, so anything missing from it is missing for Google too. Every site we build is fully responsive and works on phones.
Google’s page on page experience says its core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience. It says there is no single page experience signal, and that Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems. To see your own numbers, read how to test your website’s speed.
Why do you and your customers see different results?
Because Google’s results depend on who is searching. Google’s help page for the Search Console Performance report says search results are specific to the time, place, device and recent history of the person searching. Your own search, from your own office, for a site you open every day, is the least typical search your business will ever get.
Google’s page on how it ranks results adds a detail that catches many owners. It says its systems can recognise that you have visited the same page multiple times before, and bring that page to the top of your results. A site can therefore sit higher on its owner’s screen than on a customer’s.
Place matters too. Google’s in-depth guide gives the example of a search for bicycle repair shops, which shows different results to someone in Paris than to someone in Hong Kong.
So one search proves little. A useful check uses more than one method, and the record Google itself keeps.
How do you check where your website ranks on Google?
Use three checks, in this order. Search Google for site: followed by your domain name, to confirm that your pages are in the index. Search for your services the way a stranger would. Then open the Performance report in Google Search Console, which lists the searches your site appeared for and its average position in each.
| Check | What it tells you | What it can’t tell you |
|---|---|---|
| A site: search | Whether Google has pages from your site in its index | Where any of them rank. The list isn’t always complete |
| Searching as a stranger | What one person, in one place, on one device, sees today | What customers elsewhere see |
| Search Console’s Performance report | The searches that showed your site, with clicks, impressions and average position | Anything about searches where your site was never seen |
| A rank-tracking tool | A position for the keywords you ask it to track | What Google itself records. Google says third-party tools don’t have access to its internal ranking data |
Check that Google has your pages
Type site: followed by your domain name into Google, in the form Google’s own example uses: site:example.com. Google’s SEO starter guide says that if you see results pointing to your site, you are in the index. Google’s page on the site: search operator adds two cautions: the list isn’t always exhaustive, and an indexed page isn’t guaranteed to appear in it. If nothing from your site appears, the problem comes before ranking, and the article on sites that don’t show is the place to start.
Search the way a stranger would
Write down the searches a customer would make before they know your name: the service, and the service with your town or suburb. Run them yourself, and ask someone in another suburb to run them on their own phone. Treat every result as one sample. Note the date, the place and the position, and repeat the same searches monthly.
Read your positions in Search Console
Google’s introduction to Search Console describes it as a free service that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google’s results. You don’t need it to be included in those results, but Google says business owners should be aware of it even if they never use it themselves.
Its Performance report shows clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, grouped by search, by page, by country or by device. This is the closest thing to an official answer to “where do I stand?”, because it records what real searchers saw.
Every Business and Professional website we build is set up with Search Console, so there is a record to measure against from the first day. If someone else built your site, ask whether Search Console was set up, and who has access to it. Our guide to Google Search Console for business owners covers the reports worth checking each month.
What does the average position number mean?
In Search Console, position 1 is the topmost result and 2 is the next. The report takes the topmost position your site held each time it was seen, and averages it across searches. Google’s help page on impressions, position and clicks calls position a complex metric, and recommends watching how it changes over time as well as the number itself.
The same page explains what sits behind the number:
- Ads don’t count. Ads do not occupy a search position, so a page in position 1 can still appear below sponsored results.
- Blocks share a position. An AI Overview occupies a single position, and every link inside it is given that same position.
- Only seen results count. A position is recorded only when the result was seen. If your page is on the third page of results and the searcher only views the first, nothing is recorded for that search.
- The same number can mean different things. Google’s examples for position 11 on a desktop search include the first result on page two and the top right position in a knowledge panel.
It also answers a common worry: the report says position 5, but your own search shows your page at 8. The report’s figure is the average for all searches, and your search is one of them, shaped by your history and location.
For an owner, the trend is the useful part. A sudden drop across many pages is a reason to look for a cause.
What improves a ranking, and what doesn’t?
What can improve a ranking is work on the page and the site: content that answers the search better than the pages above it, a site that works on a phone, and links earned from other sites. What doesn’t is anything sold as a shortcut. Google’s SEO starter guide says there are no secrets that automatically rank a site first.
The same guide lists things it believes you shouldn’t focus on. Three are worth knowing when you read an SEO proposal:
- The keywords meta tag. Google Search doesn’t use it.
- Repeating a keyword. Keyword stuffing is against Google’s spam policies.
- Keywords in the domain name. On their own they have hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs.
Guarantees belong on the same list. Google’s page on whether you need an SEO says no one can guarantee first place on Google, and tells readers to beware of anyone who claims a special relationship with Google. Our guide on how to choose an SEO company lists the questions to ask before you sign.
Are map results ranked the same way?
No. The map results that appear when someone searches for a business or place nearby have their own ranking. Google’s guide to local ranking says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and how well known the business is. It also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
Relevance, in that guide, is how well a Business Profile matches the search. Distance is how far the business is from the person searching. How well known a business is draws on information such as how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has.
This is why a business can hold a good position in the ordinary results and be missing from the map, or the other way round. They are two rankings, checked separately. Our articles on local SEO in South Africa and on setting up a Google Business Profile cover the map side.
When should you get an SEO audit?
When you have done the checks above and can’t see why your pages sit where they do, or when positions have fallen and you can’t find the cause. Google’s page on whether you need an SEO says an audit should give you realistic estimates of improvement and of the work involved.
Our SEO audit costs R6,500 incl. VAT, and half the fee is credited against the first month if a retainer starts within 30 days. It takes about a week. We read your Search Console data through read-only access, and the audit ends in one prioritised fix list, with an estimate of the work for each fix. What an audit should contain, from any supplier, is set out in what a proper SEO audit covers. See a sample audit report (a fictional example).
Our SEO service in Johannesburg starts with that audit, and the page lists what the audit and the monthly work include. Tell us which searches you want to be found for: Book an SEO audit. We reply to new enquiries on the same business day.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to rank a website on Google?
There is no fixed time. Google’s SEO starter guide says some changes might take effect in a few hours and others could take several months, and that in general you likely want to wait a few weeks before judging whether your work had an effect. It also says not every change will make a noticeable difference. Judge by the trend over months, not by one search.
Which website is rank 1?
No single website holds first place. Each search has its own results, and Google’s in-depth guide to how Search works says relevance is determined by hundreds of factors, which could include the searcher’s location, language and device. The question that matters for a business is narrower: which page comes first for the searches your own customers make, in the places where they make them.
Can I pay Google to rank my website higher?
No. Google’s in-depth guide to how Search works says Google doesn’t accept payment to crawl a site more often or to rank it higher, and that anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. You can pay for adverts. Google’s page on how it ranks results says adverts are always labelled and shown separately, and that advertisers get no special treatment in ranking.
How much does it cost to be at the top of a Google search?
In the ordinary results, nothing is paid to Google: Google’s page on whether you need an SEO says it costs nothing to appear there. The cost is the work. Advertising space is sold by auction, and Google’s page on Ad Rank says your bid is the most you are willing to pay for a click. For the work, see what SEO costs in South Africa.