What determines the page order of site:domain?
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Whenever I use site:domain.com to check what's index, it's pretty much always in the same order. I gather from this, the order is not random. I'm also reasonably certainly it isn't related to any page strength signals or ranking results. So, does anyone know why the pages are displayed in the order they are? What information does the order of the pages tell me?
Thanks,
Ruben
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I appreciate the responses. I guess that makes sense for why about 1/2 the pages are displayed highly, but not the other half. Our "What is an arrearage? q/a" video doesn't get much traffic, and it certainly isn't all that strong of a page for being the second page listed. However, I guess I've got some work to do on changing how google sees our site.
Thanks again,
Ruben
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Ruben,
In the past, it was generally accepted that the order was directly related to page strength and as far as I know, that's still the case. It may be a little fuzzier now though, as I guess that there is also a relevance quotient thrown into the mix--or something to that effect--which gives some priority to those pages that relate most directly to the overall theme Google has assigned the site/domain.
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Nothing is ever random with Google (unless it's a bug). I think those pages are ordered by how important Google sees them, meaning if a particular services page is a more searched term Google will weigh that higher than say your main services page.
Also if people seem to flow through your site a certain way and end up on certain pages more often than not Google will use that to show relevant site links. For example Google will make out when someone is looking for lawyer that they might be interested in your contact details and office location.
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