Googlers Talk About How They Shortlist Results For Ranking

In the second part of the Search Off The Record podcast released this morning Gary Illyes from Google explained how Google does ranking. In short, he said Google first cuts down the pages that can rank for a specific query to a short list of let’s say about 1,000 pages. Then the magic happens where Google will apply ranking signals or as he calls it “magic signals” to that cut down list. It is on that level where the true Google ranking magic happens, Gary said.