Name the broad factors Google says it uses to rank results and give an example of each.
A parent in Tampines types "P5 maths tuition" into Google on their phone (P5 is primary 5) and gets ten results back, plus a map with three centres pinned on it (an invented example). Search results always come back in a set order, and someone or something decided that order. Some tuition centres in the area appear in those results and others do not.
Priya runs a small maths tuition centre in Tampines (an invented example), and you may remember her from the course Digital marketing foundations. Her centre was not on the list, and she wanted to know why the other centres made it and hers did not. She read three blog posts on the subject. Each answered with total confidence, and they disagreed with each other. One gave an exact percentage for how much backlinks count, one said page speed was the biggest factor and one said word count mattered most. None of them said where its numbers came from. Many posts about ranking factors are written this way.
A better starting point is Google's own explanation, published in its "How Search works" material. It describes the broad things Google's ranking systems look at. That gives you a frame you can trust, though it is not a formula you can plug numbers into. Google lists five broad factors:
Meaning of the query. Google first works out what the person wants. That includes correcting spelling, recognising that phrases are close in meaning, such as "maths tuition" and "math tutor", and telling whether the person wants to learn something, buy something or find a place. Relevance of the content. Google checks whether the page actually deals with what was asked. Quality of the content. Among the relevant pages, Google looks for the ones that seem most helpful and trustworthy. Lesson 1.3, "Helpful content and E-E-A-T in plain words", covers how Google describes content quality. Usability. Google says that when other things are roughly equal, pages that are easier to use may do better. A page that loads properly on a phone, or one that does not bury its content under pop-ups, is an example. Context and settings. Google uses the searcher's location, language, past searches and search settings to make the results more useful.
The simplest sign of relevance is that the page contains the words in the query. If a page never mentions Tampines, primary 5 or maths, Google has little reason to think it fits the parent's search.
Google says it goes well beyond matching keywords, though. It looks at whether the page covers the topic in a way that suggests it really answers the question. Picture a weak page that repeats "P5 maths tuition" eight times and says little else. Set it beside a page that covers P5 maths tuition fully: what is taught, when classes run and who teaches them. The repetitive page matches more words, but the page that covers the topic fully looks more relevant.
Filling a page with the search phrase is called keyword stuffing, and it does not help. It breaches Google's spam policies, as Lesson 1.4, "What gets a site demoted or removed", explains.
The same search run in different places gives different results. Google uses location to show local businesses and results from the searcher's own country, so a parent in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, typing the same words sees Malaysian tuition centres, while a parent in Singapore sees Singapore ones. Google also uses language settings to pick pages the searcher can read.
A searcher's own history can shape their results too, and this matters when business owners check their own rankings. If Priya searches for her centre every morning on her own phone, Google may learn that she likes her own site. What she sees could then be quite different from what a stranger sees.
To check results for your business, sign out of Google or use a private browser window. If your customers search on their phones, check on your phone as well.
Google does not publish how much each factor counts. Ranking comes from many systems working together, and there is no single score behind it. Any article that says links make up a fixed share of ranking is guessing, however precise the number looks. The same goes for long lists of ranking factors with percentages attached, including the backlink figure in the post Priya read.
You can still learn a great deal by studying what ranks for your searches today and asking why. Each top result has some mix of relevance, usefulness and trustworthiness. Looking at that mix query by query teaches you more than any percentage table, because it shows what Google currently rewards for the searches your customers actually use.
Priya did this for "P5 maths tuition Tampines". The top three results were all centres with a page made for that exact level and area. Each listed its class schedule, showed real teacher names and had recent reviews. Her own site had one general page covering every level from P1 to Sec 2. She came away with a much clearer idea of why her centre was missing, and none of it had to do with secret factors.
Now do the same for your own business. Pick one search your customers really use, and open it on your phone while signed out if they search on phones, or in a private browser window. Look hard at the top three results. The activity below asks you to note, for each one, what makes it look relevant, useful and trustworthy, and then to compare them with your own page to see what is missing.
Log out, pick up your phone and search one query your customers use. For each of the top three results, note what makes it look relevant, useful and trustworthy.
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