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Automatically generating and ranking results

Google’s ranking systems are designed to sort through hundreds of billions of webpages and other digital content to present the most relevant, useful results on the first page in a fraction of a second.

A person sorting through Google Search results

How Google Search continues to improve results

How Search systems work

To give you the most useful information, Search algorithms look at many factors and signals, including the words of your query, relevance and usability of pages, expertise of sources, and your location and settings.

The weight applied to each factor varies depending on the nature of your query. For example, when searching for current news topics, content freshness plays a bigger role than dictionary definitions.

Key Search signals include:

Meaning of your query

Illustration of search fields interpreting the word change in different contexts
To return relevant results, we first need to establish what you’re looking for - the intent behind your query. To do this, we build language models to try to decipher how the relatively few words you enter into the search box match up to the most useful content available.

This system took over five years to develop and significantly improves results in over 30% of searches across languages.
This involves steps as seemingly simple as recognizing and correcting spelling mistakes, and extends to our sophisticated synonym system that allows us to find relevant documents even if they don’t contain the exact words you used. For example, you might have searched for “change laptop brightness” but the manufacturer has written “adjust laptop brightness.” Our systems understand the words and intent are related and so connect you with the right content.

How Search determines context

Relevance of content

Next, our systems analyze the content to assess whether it contains information that might be relevant to what you are looking for.



The most basic signal that information is relevant is when content contains the same keywords as your search query. For example, if those keywords appear in the headings or body text of a webpage, the information might be more relevant.


Our systems look for quantifiable signals to assess relevance, but they are not designed to analyze subjective concepts such as the viewpoint or political leaning of a page’s content.

We also use aggregated and anonymized interaction data to assess whether search results are relevant to queries. We transform that data into signals that help our machine-learned systems better estimate relevance. Just think: when you search for “dogs,” you likely don’t want a page with the word “dogs” on it hundreds of times. With that in mind, algorithms assess if a page contains other relevant content beyond the keyword “dogs” - such as pictures of dogs, videos, or even a list of breeds.

Illustration of a magnifying glass examining search results for bicycles

Providing reputable results

Political leanings do not influence how Google ranks search results. We never manipulate search results, modify our products or enforce our policies to promote or disadvantage any particular political ideology, viewpoint or candidate. We conduct hundreds of thousands of experiments every year to ensure that we’re improving Search for everyone.

Independent studies conducted by Stanford and The Economist have all found no forms of political bias in Search and News results. As the Economist concluded: “Google rewards reputable reporting.”

Quality of content

Illustrating representing a number of competing pages, with one selected as having the highest quality for the user

Labeling ads responsibly

The results you see on Search are solely based on your query, and are not influenced by whether a business, individual, or organization buys ads.

Any advertisements will always be labeled with “Sponsored” or “Ad” and shown separately from search results. We never provide special treatment to advertisers in how our search algorithms rank their websites, and nobody can pay us to do so. The experience of our users comes first, which is why we only show ads that are helpful to people. Even for the fraction of search queries where we do show ads, we don’t make a cent unless people find it relevant enough to click on the ad. We invest significantly in our ads quality systems to continuously improve on our ability to show ads that are highly relevant to people, and helpful to what they’re searching for.

After identifying relevant content, our systems aim to prioritize those that seem most helpful. To do this, they identify signals that can help determine which content demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

For example, one of the factors used to determine quality is understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content. This is generally a good sign that the information is trustworthy. Aggregated feedback from our Search quality evaluation process helps to refine how our systems discern the quality of information.

Content on the web and the broader information ecosystem is constantly changing. We continuously measure and assess the quality of our systems to ensure that we’re achieving the right balance of information relevance and authoritativeness to maintain your trust in the results you see.

Search result with image of bicycle and green check mark indicating good usability

Usability of content

Our systems also consider the usability of content. When all other signals are relatively equal, content that people will find more accessible may perform better. For example, our systems look at page experience aspects like mobile-friendly content that loads quickly, an important consideration for mobile users.

Context and settings

An illustration of the globe showing different regional interpretations of the word football

Presenting personalized results

“Filter bubbles” are known as situations where internet users only come across content and opinions that reinforce what they already think or believe. Google Search does not put people in “filter bubbles.” Our systems are not designed to infer sensitive characteristics like your race, religion, or political affiliation. Anytime we personalize Search results to be more helpful, we let you know. With our “About this result” feature, you can easily see if your search history or other personal data was a factor in ranking a given result for that query, and you can get easy access to controls to turn personalization off altogether.

Importantly, people can search for anything they want on Google, and seek out a range of perspectives to better understand the world.

Search aims to connect human curiosity to knowledge as accurately as possible. To do this, we use information such as your location, past Search history, and Search settings to determine what is most relevant for you in the moment. For example, someone searching “football” in Chicago will likely see results about American football and the Chicago Bears; in London, that search might turn up results about soccer and the Premier League.

Our systems can recognize if you have visited the same page multiple times before and bring that page to the top of your Search results. Or, if you are using the same query, we may show new perspectives and top stories from across the web. As with all information on Search, our systems will take the same approach to surfacing high-quality information based on factors like expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

These systems are designed to match your interests, but they are not designed to infer sensitive characteristics like your race, religion, or political party.

We’ve made it easy to adjust your settings and stay in control, whether you’re following specific topics to get the most timely information, or looking for firsthand knowledge from creators and consumers. You can always see which results are personalized, and change your settings at any time.

Control your Search activity

You can control what Search activity is used to improve your Search experience, including adjusting what data is saved to your Google account. You can update or change the personalization settings or preferences in your account at any time.

You can also find content preferences like SafeSearch in settings. These help you make a choice about whether search results include graphic content that may be shocking for some users.

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