Google engineer Gary Illyes explains how search results are served and ranked

In a recent video, publisher this week, on the Google Search Central Youtube channel, Google engineer Gary Illyes provides a fascinating glimpse into the complex processes behind Google Search results.

Illyes emphasizes the importance of understanding user intent when interpreting search queries. Google systems clean up search queries by removing non-essential words and expand queries with synonyms to ensure the most relevant results. User location, language, and the device they're using are also factors that help shape results.

When it comes to ranking results, hundreds of signals are analyzed. Content, the webpage's quality, and the overall website's authority are among the most important ranking factors. Factors like the content's uniqueness and the webpage's role within the larger web also play a role.

Illyes concludes by explaining that search result features, such as local or image results, are also dynamically included based on how well they match the user's search intent.