How Do Search Engines Work?

Have you ever wondered how search engines, like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, are able to give you answers in a split second? It almost feels like magic, but it is all technology! Here we are breaking down how search engines work in simple and entertaining ways.

In short, if you're interested in how websites rank or just want to know what happens when you hit that "search" button, you're in the right place. Let's dive in!

What Are Search Engines?

An information seeker uses a search engine to locate specific information. It uses what you are inquiring or what you have typed in as a keyword and then gives you the list of results. The most common search engine is Google, but others also exist: Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo.

You may ask yourself how the search engine will determine exactly what you want. The answer lies in a series of complex processes that happen behind the scenes, mainly involving:

  • Crawling

  • Indexing

  • Ranking

Let's go step by step!

Step 1: Crawling

Crawling is where you learn how a search engine works. Well, think of crawling as an internet "exploration" that the search engine does.

How Does a Search Engine Crawl?

Special programs called bots or spiders are used by search engines. These bots explore across the web. They go from one webpage to another following the links. Think of these bots like tiny explorers, collecting information from billions of web pages around the clock.

What Do Bots Look For?

Each bot that comes across a page scans the text, images, and links and checks the metadata on the page, like its title or description. The whole information is then carried back into the search engine.

Step 2: Indexing

After crawling, the bot will index. Indexing can be considered as categorizing a humongous library.

Like how a librarian organizes books to find them quickly, the search engines classify the information that the bots collect. The data or "index" is, in simple words, the database of web pages by the search engine.

What Is the Type of Information Contained in the Index?

In the index, only the words in a page are kept; it holds more than that, that is:

  • The title of the page

  • Keywords used on the page

  • Images and videos offered

  • Frequency of updating of the page

The index updates in search engines because new pages are added or updated. That is why the results can sometimes change.

Step 3: Ranking

With the gigantic index achieved by a search engine, ranking kicks in.

What Is Ranking?

Every time you ask for something ("the best pizza places near me," for example), a search engine needs to decide which pages to show first. Ranking is the process to rank search results according to how relevant that page is to the question you have asked.

How Does a Search Engine Rank It?

A search engine uses algorithms to determine which pages rank higher. These are collections of rules and calculations. The following are in algorithms:

  • Relevance: Is that searched keyword present on the page?

  • Authority: Is this website trustworthy? Sites like Wikipedia tend to rank up high.

  • User Experience: Do pages load quickly and navigate easily?

  • Mobile-Friendliness: Does the site function well on a mobile device?

  • Backlinks: Good sources linking to this page? The more there tend to be, the higher they'll rank.

  • Content Freshness: The fresher the content, the more likely that makes it appear relevant compared to older material.

Why Is All This Important?

The reason why some pages rank to the top simply comes from understanding the way search engines work. It is crucial for that improvement to be made known to website owners. In this regard comes Search Engine Optimization.

What Is SEO?

It is otherwise referred to as Search Engine Optimization. In short, it involves modifying and readjusting the core functions of the website for better search engine rankings. That being said, if the right application of keywords improves the content and all that being user-friendly, then you'll top up the search results. SEO is available through professional SEO companies such as FullbeamSEO or individuals can look to do a bit of DIY.

Conclusion

So how do search engines work? Very simplistically, they tend to crawl the Internet, index the contents retrieved, and rank the outcomes based on several factors.

This should give you a good idea of what goes on behind the curtain every time you click through to a search query online. The next time you type into Google or Bing, you'll appreciate all that effort put toward finding the perfect answer for you. Isn't that cool?

Want your website, or just get Internet? Learn about search engines.

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