What does it mean to rank? - Understanding rankings in search engines

What does ranking mean?

"To rank" means to hold a specific position in an order of precedence. The term ranking is commonly used in the context of search engine optimisation to describe how high or well a website is positioned in the search results: from the first to the last search result.

What is a good ranking?

What constitutes a good ranking depends on what we are talking about. When it comes to search engine rankings, position number 1 is the best, as this is where most people click — meaning the most traffic. The further down you are ranked, the worse it is.
How do you rank well in search engines?
Many businesses want to rank well in search engines such as Google, as this is where people search and where you can gain free traffic to your website.
The path to ranking well in search engines is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), also known as søgemaskineoptimering in Danish. This involves optimising the website itself (technically and on-site) as well as external signals to the website (link building), with the goal of increasing the website's ranking in search engines.