---
title: "Figuring Out Search Algorithms [Organizing Content 10]"
date: 2010-05-27
description: "Findability / organizing content   1.0 New Series: Organizing Content [Organizing Content 1]   1.2 Introducing Project..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/27/figuring-out-search-algorithms-organizing-content-10/
---
# Figuring Out Search Algorithms [Organizing Content 10]
Notice that I said "organize." You're still organizing your content, but on a smaller level. Rather than organizing topics within groupings or folders, you're organizing the words within the topics. To make the topic visible, you have to organize the words in a way that maximizes visibility in the search.

But here is where things get confusing. Almost no one understands how search works. Google's search works differently from Flare's search. Flare's search works differently from WordPress's search. I'm guessing that the search in RoboHelp differs from the search in Author-it, which differs from the search in DITA-produced Eclipse help, and so on.

Each search engine has a unique algorithm that sorts and ranks information based on a set of variables and other factors, much more than simple keyword frequency. Here's the key point: you can't optimize search until you understand the search algorithm you're optimizing for.

### Google's search algorithm

Although Google's search algorithm is complex, it's unquestionable that Google's search results are based on some of the following factors:

- The number of links pointing back to your site

- The authority of the sites pointing back to your site

- The text used in the links pointing back to your site

- The location of the keywords the user is searching for, especially in the title and h1, h2, h3 tags

- The frequency of the right keywords that the user is searching for

- Your own site's page rank

What about meta keywords and title tags? Not that important. You could stuff a ton of keywords into the header of your topic, but Google has been gamed with that trick long ago, so it ranks these keywords low. The genius of Google's search stems from the collective wisdom of hyperlinks.