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How do you think that internet search engines rank their results based on your input? Google’s search algorithm is not just the words you type into the search box that decides where a site appears on the list of results. A general rule of thumb is for every word in a web address, there may be between two and three other sites with matching contents to provide competition.
But how does the search engine decide which are the top sites? How does Google’s Search Algorithm work?
The approach of search engines is to use the combination of words or phrases to form what is called a ‘keyphrase’, and then use that keyphrase as the basis on which it ranks sites. White label digital marketing companies offer White label SEO services to go a step further by working with clients to identify the ideal keywords for their client’s website and incorporating them into the navigation and content.
Ranking in Google doesn’t happen by accident. It is a system: a set of rules. Let’s examine how search works to understand what happens behind the scenes.
Google Search Algorithm Stages
– Crawling
– Indexing
– Serving search results
Let’s examine these stages in a little more depth. We’ll explain with words, concepts, and examples how Search algorithms work
Crawling
Google Search Algorithm uses this process for finding new information on the web and making the content available for indexing.
Search engines like Google use crawlers to follow a set of links from one webpage to another until it comes across something new, at which point it adds the page’s URL to its index. This process continues in cycles until the entire domain is indexed.
When Google crawls a page, it sees the HTML code behind the page and picks out certain keywords based on a set of rules that it uses for this purpose. Keywords on a given webpage are not just important to help that page get picked up by Google; they are also important in helping users find relevant information when they search.
For example, Google will pick out all the keywords in a page’s content and in the anchor text of links pointing to that page. Keywords that appear often within a page, or the pages it links to, are more likely to be picked up by search engines. So, in addition to using keywords to determine pages to crawl, Google also evaluates the frequency of use of those keywords throughout a page in order to learn more about its usage and relevance.
Using information gathered during crawling, Google then generates a set of queries that will match the keywords on pages it has already indexed. The crawler then uses these queries to find the links between various pages. In this way, Google learns not only about the pages on which these keywords appear often but about other pages on which they appear less frequently.
[bctt tweet=” The best search results have many factors, including location, relevance, rating, language, and more. Google search algorithm and “best” result can change in the blink of an eye.” username=”ThatCompanycom”]Indexing
Indexing is the process by which search engines produce and store indices—specifically, documents (or files)—for users to find content relevant to their queries. In general terms, the index is a giant database containing basic information on every document that’s been crawled and how pages link to each other. The index is updated every time Google crawls the web.
The index can then be searched or browsed (although Google does not make this service as easy to access as it might be). A user can search the index to find a document that matches her query. In addition, she can view the content of the document, or she can ask Google to show her related pages based on keywords. Google will tell the person how many pages are relevant to her request and give her links to those pages. The person can then follow these links to find the exact content she was looking for.
Google Search Algorithm uses indexing to provide users with relevant results. When searching for a phrase, Google will examine the documents it has in its index and determine how many of those documents match the query. In some cases, it may decide that the best result is one of these documents. In other cases, it may decide that some result pages are more relevant to the user’s search than others.
Serving Search Results
The process by which users receive information relevant to their queries. When people enter a query into Google, the search engine takes the user’s request and finds a way to match that query with its giant index of documents. The result is a list of pages that contain the keywords in the user’s query, ranked based on how closely each page matches the keywords in the user’s query. Google uses several different processes to perform searches and rank the results, most notably PageRank, which is a type of algorithm used to rank pages by importance.
In order to calculate PageRank, Google mathematically analyzes the links between pages. The more links there are between two pages, the higher their PageRank will be. Keywords are also considered. To calculate the PageRank of a page, Google considers the number of words on the page and the number of words in other pages that link back to it.
Google’s search algorithm considers many factors, from keywords to links between pages. The Google search algorithm changes frequently, and behind the scenes, it is a complex process that involves a number of steps. Keyword searches are the most visible part of this process, but they represent only a fraction of what is going on behind the scenes at Google.
The “best” search results have many factors, including location, relevance, rating, language, and more. Google search algorithm and “best” result can change in the blink of an eye. Google is constantly improving its algorithm to bring results more relevant to user’s needs and therefore has shown to be at least as accurate as some other search engines.
What Google Search Algorithms Can Do for You.
Algorithms are computerized processes that use mathematical formulas to solve problems. Search engines use algorithms to determine where your results should go, based on what you type into the search box and what other sites with similar contents you have in your own index (your search results).
It may sound complicated, but computers need only analyze what you enter and determine where your query has the highest chances of coming up in a list. For example, you decide you want to buy an inexpensive digital camera. You go online and start searching for one. If you type “digital camera,” the search engine will generate a list of relevant pages for you to choose from – i.e., pages that include that keyword in their content. But if you look for a “digital camera under $300”, the search engine will bring back a different set of results, tailored specifically to your needs.
The google search algorithm determines things such as whether the page has a name similar to what you’re looking for, whether the web page has been linked to by other sites that have been previously indexed by the search engine, and so on. Since this depends on how often other people visited that page before you, or whether someone else decided to link their website with that page, these numbers can change very quickly.
