Google Confirms Site Wide And Page Level Signals Used For Rankings

The latest update to Google’s “Guide to Search Ranking Systems” confirms it also uses site-wide signals, removing the previous belief that it only uses page-level signals for its ranking systems.

Google`s updated ranking documentation

Google’s ranking systems guide now includes an important paragraph for site owners and publishers about the variety of signals it uses to understand pages and its ranking systems.

Here’s the updated paragraph:

“Our ranking systems are designed to work on the page level, using a variety of signals and systems to understand how to rank individual pages. Site-wide signals and classifiers are also used and contribute to our understanding of pages. Having some good site-wide signals does not mean that all content from a site will always rank highly, just as having some poor site-wide signals does not mean all the content from a site will rank poorly.”

Here’s a screenshot of the guidelines:

Important changes

The document change isn’t a new ranking factor but a clarification of what Google already uses.

Google’s “Guide to Search Ranking Systems” now confirms that it uses page-level content and site-wide signals for ranking.

The update also clarifies that having insufficient site-wide signals for every page doesn’t mean your site will plummet in the rankings, nor do strong ones guarantee it’ll rise.

Google says it will make things easier

Google said it changed the documentation to expand the language used in the March 2024 blog post-FAQ.

Google also said in Search Central it updated the guide to:

Make it easier for those interested to understand through our documentation that we have both page-level and site-wide signals used in ranking.

The takeaway

The update to Google’s “Guide to Search Ranking Systems” is another step in the tech giant’s efforts to make its documentation more concise and easier to understand and align with its standards of removing low-quality content.

While it isn’t a new ranking factor, the documentation now confirms that good site-wide signals and quality page content play an important role in your site’s rankings.

Terry O'Toole

Terry is a seasoned content marketing specialist with over six years of experience writing content that helps small businesses navigate where small businesses meet marketing - SEO, Social Media Marketing, etc. Terry has a proven track record of creating top-performing content in search results. When he is not writing content, Terry can be found on his boat in Italy or chilling in his villa in Spain.