Ranking is the ordered arrangement of matched results, determined by a scoring function that blends textual relevance with business and behavioural signals.
Matching decides what is eligible; ranking decides what is seen. Attention drops sharply with position, so on most result pages the first row carries the overwhelming majority of clicks — meaning ranking, not matching, determines commercial outcomes.
Typical signals combined into a score include text match strength, popularity or conversion rate, recency, availability, margin, and merchandising overrides. The craft is in weighting them so that commercial signals break ties rather than overrule intent.