Google for Business Information: Evaluating Web Sources

Search Ranking

Search engines use algorithms to sort the results and rank them according to relevancy. Presumably, the most relevant sites appear at the top of the list.

But how does the computer decide which sites are "relevant?"

Despite the magic of algorithms, website owners can pay to have their website rank higher in search results or even pay the search engines to have their web page appear high in the search results list.

Caution: Search results that appear on the first page of results are not necessarily an indicator of information quality!

Remember: If you use web sources in your project, be sure to compare the web information against supporting information that may be found in our Library Databases!