This blog will discuss how search engines works and what steps they include in working.
But, first, let’s understand why it is important to understand the working of search engines?
Certainly, you are familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and perform several SEO tasks to help web pages get the top ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Yet getting the top rankings in SERPs is not easy as say, if you don’t know the working of a search engine.
Moreover, it needs an effective SEO strategy that qualifies the ranking algorithms of search engines.
But without knowing how search engine works, you can’t make an effective SEO strategy?
That’s why you need to understand the search engines working.
If you want to get the best SEO strategy for your website, you must contact the best SEO agency in Bihar.
Now, let’s see how a search engine works and start with its introduction.
What is a Search Engine?
A search engine is a complex software program designed to find the most relevant information from the world wide web according to the users’ query.
So, why search engines are called COMPLEX software programs?
Search engines, especially Google, have more than 27 billion gigabytes or 27 petabytes of data.
In simple terms, millions of web pages are available for a single query; however, google delivers only the top 10 results to its users on the first page.
Therefore, the search engines are called complex software programs.
Moreover, there are various search engines out there like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and more.
However, we primarily focus on Google as more than 80% of searches happen through google.
Yet, most search engines work on the same principle as google does.
In other words, major search engines follow a particular working pattern, usually similar to google.
So, getting the idea of the working of Google can help you understand the working of other search engines.
Now, let’s discuss the working of Google, i.e., how google works?
How Search Engine Works?
Search engines are complex, and understanding their work is not simple.
Indeed, major search engines, especially Google, always introduce new updates or algorithms.
So, to understand the working of a search engine, we have divided it into four major parts:
- Crawling
- Indexing
- Calculating Relevancy
- Retrieving Results.
Moreover, these are the steps that major search engines follow to provide the best result to their users.
Therefore, let’s start with the crawling part (the first working activity of google).
#1. What is Crawling?
Search engines like Google have scanners that are commonly known as bots, spiders, or google crawlers.
These bots scour the internet to find newly published or updated existing content.
During the scan, they collect all the information about the contents like structure, meaning, motive, and all.
Indeed, crawling happens through links (internal or external links).
In simple terms, crawlers follow links to go or find new or updated content.
And after doing so, it transfers the collected information (content) to the indexer, and the second activity of search engine (Google) working starts, i.e., indexing.
#2. What is indexing?
Indexing is a process through which Google organize, sort, and store the collected content on its main server.
In other words, Google arranges the collected content into particular manners or categories.
For instance, movie-related content at one place, baking-related content at one place, and so on.
Moreover, this way, Google can easily find the best result (content) in a fraction of a second.
So, this is the second step of search engines (Google) working.
Now, let’s see the third process of search engine working, i.e., calculating relevancy.
#3. Calculating Relevancy?
We know that Google alone has 27 Petabytes of data stored on its main server.
Moreover, finding the most relevant content from the data storage is like finding a needle from a haystack.
Therefore, to make the work easy, Google calculates content relevancy before showing it to users.
In other words, Google sees if the content is worth showing to users or not, according to the keyword.
Note– Keywords are usually the query that a user searches in Google (search engine).
Indeed, calculating relevancy ensures that the content is best for the users’ query.
In short, the content can fulfill the need of users or provide the best solution to users.
Therefore, making your content valuable, relevant, and informative for the users is vital to rank higher on SERPs.
Certainly, creating quality content can help your web pages rank higher in SERPs.
Now, after calculating the relevancy, Google heads to its final step, i.e. retrieving results.
#4. Retrieving Results
In the last activity of the search engine working, Google retrieves results from its main server and shows them to users.
Moreover, Google shows the most relevant, informative, and user-friendly results to users in the hope that the users will get what they want.
Furthermore, the result may be in various forms, such as direct answers, blogs/articles, images, videos, and more.
You can also see some related queries at the bottom of the search engine result pages (SERPs).
Note– Results depend on the user’s query.
Hence, this is how search engine works that you need to know to make an effective SEO Strategy to rank web pages.
Conclusion
Search engines like google are complex, and it is not simple to understand them completely.
However, they all follow these steps to show the best result to their users.
Pro Tip– If you want to rank higher on Google or any other search engine, you must create content focusing on users.
Moreover, every step of how search engine works is determined to provide more value to users.