Early information retrieval systems were fairly simple—they attempted to understand search terms and then provide matching documents where those terms were found. These "on-page" clues were paramount in the ranking of documents in search results.
With the advent of the web, additional "signals" arose, giving rise to additional "off-page" factors that were combined with on-page factors to determine relevance. Google popularized the best-known of these off page factors, link analysis—simplistically, counting the "votes" for each page represented by links from other web sites.
Today, hundreds of on-page and off-page signals are considered by search engines when ranking web pages. Today's Search Illustrated graphic illustrates this concept:
Early information retrieval systems were fairly simple—they attempted to understand search terms and then provide matching documents where those terms were found. These “on-page” clues were paramount in the ranking of documents in search results.
With the advent of the web, additional “signals” arose, giving rise to additional “off-page” factors that were combined with on-page factors to determine relevance. Google popularized the best-known of these off page factors, link analysis—simplistically, counting the “votes” for each page represented by links from other web sites.
Today, hundreds of on-page and off-page signals are considered by search engines when ranking web pages. Today’s Search Illustrated graphic illustrates this concept:
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