Key Concepts
Quick definitions of the most important concepts from Google's patents.
A
Agent Rank
Score assigned to individual authors based on content quality. Patent: US 7,565,358B2
C
Content Clustering
Grouping websites by topic to create expert clusters for topical authority. Patent: US 10108694
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
Ratio of clicks to impressions. Directly influences rankings. Patent: US 10,229,166B1
D
DIPRE Algorithm
Dual Iterative Pattern Relation Expansion. Extracts structured data from unstructured content. Foundation of Knowledge Graph. Patent: US 6,678,681
Dwell Time
Time user spends on page after clicking from search. Positive signal when high.
E
Entity Centrality
How connected an entity is to other relevant entities in content. Patent: US 20160232149A1
Entity Salience
Mathematical measure of how important an entity is to a document's meaning. Patent: US 20150127617A1
I
Information Gain
Measure of unique information a page provides vs. existing content. Patent: WO2020081082
K
Knowledge Graph
Google's database of entities and their relationships. Multiple patents.
N
N-gram Analysis
Using word/phrase patterns to predict content quality. Patent: US 9,767,157
P
Panda
Quality algorithm that replaces low-quality results with high-quality alternatives. Patent: US 9,135,307
PageRank
Original link-based ranking algorithm. Links = votes. Patent: US 6,285,999B1
Phrase-Based Indexing
Indexing by meaningful phrases rather than keywords. Patent: US 7,536,408
Pogo-Sticking
User clicks result, quickly returns to SERP, clicks another. Negative signal.
Q
Query-Dependent Factors
Different queries trigger different ranking factor weights. Patent: US 9218397B1
R
Reasonable Surfer
Model that weights link value by click probability. Patent: US 8,117,209B1
S
Scaling Factor
Formula used to boost high-quality results: (R0+1)/R1. From Panda patent.
Site Quality Score
Pre-computed score classifying sites as high/low quality.
T
Topical Authority
Expertise demonstrated through comprehensive topic coverage. Related to Content Clustering.
W
Watch Time
Time spent consuming content. Ranking signal. Patent: US 9,098,511