Google secured a patent earlier this month about how the search engine giant may rank some search results.

The first to get the news is tech website SEO by the Sea. The article cited that the patent is aimed directly at video content and it applies to how long someone stays on the page or watches a video right after they are redirected, even if the page doesn't have any videos in it. Images or audio will also work and the patented watch time will be tracked as well.

With regards to the video, it uses a scoring system that will dictate the ranking of the page depending on the duration of the view. The score will go up if people watched the video longer and vice versa. 

The watch time is a well-known tool for ranking on YouTube, explained Search Engine Journal. It uses an algorithm that promotes the videos that were frequently viewed or viewed longer than the videos who receives fewer or shorter views.

Google's patented watch time was summarized by Ultra Noodles and broke down the technology in a simpler and easy to understand way. The patent basically says that the technology that was developed by Google will adjust the score of a video content with regards to its position on the search query.

The score will depend on the user watch time. The system will boost the score for a search result if users tend to watch the resources for longer periods of time and will demote the score if users tend to watch the resource for a shorter period of time.

With the Watch Time patent, Google will be able to determine what videos and websites they can utilize in order to widen their reach and probably generate income from it. This innovation really establishes their position in the tech world.