How does a search engine work?
Understanding how search engines work can help websites rank higher and enhance their online presence. Search engines follow a systematic process involving three significant steps: crawling, indexing, and ranking. Now, let’s get a deeper understanding of this work.
Crawling
This is the first step; search engines use automated bots, also called spiders or crawlers, to discover new and updated content across all the sites. For example, a Google bot starts with a list of known URLs and follows these links to find new pages. If it visits a blog post about Best Coffee brands, it will follow the related links and create a comprehensive internet map. There are 8 million Google searches daily; efficient crawling can provide more up-to-date search results.
Indexing
In the next phase, it enters indexing. It involves storing and organising content discovered during crawling in a massive data database. This is just like categorising books in the library. Imagine you have published a new product on an e-commerce website. Once the Google bot crawls this page and indexes it for the content, keywords, and metadata, if someone is searching for the best running shoes, the indexed data allows search engines to determine if the product page is relevant to the query.
Ranking
The final step determines the order in which these search results appear. Search engines use complex algorithms to analyse various factors and rank the results accordingly. Key ranking factors include relevance to the query, website authority, page load speed, and user engagement metrics. On average, 30% of clicks are received by the first results and decrease as per the positions. Slight differences in the ranking can significantly impact the traffic.
How to Get Indexed by Google?
Indexing means that Google has found your site and saved your webpage in its database. These indexed pages can be displayed in response to relevant queries. Understanding how search engine optimisation works can help you in indexing the website. According to the data, the Google index is estimated to contain billions of web pages with 100 terabytes of data.
With such a vast amount of data, it is essential to have effective indexing that ensures users can find the most relevant data quickly. Here are a few factors that you have to take care of if you want your website to be indexed by Google:
- Create High-Quality Content: The foundation of getting indexed is creating high-quality, relevant content that encourages users to spend more time on the website. Keywords should be strategically used so that they match the user intent. Approximately 65% of marketers say content marketing is a top priority to drive traffic.
- Optimise Your Website Structure: The website’s structure should be well-optimised to make it easy for Google crawlers to explore and index the site. URLs should be clean and include relevant keywords. Internal linking can help crawlers and users to go through the website and improve the user experience.
- Submit a Sitemap: The sitemap should be submitted to Google and include an overview of all the pages you want indexed. Various tools are available to generate a sitemap, such as Yoast SEO for WordPress or Screaming Frog. Websites that submit sitemaps have higher chances of getting ranked.
- Use Google Search Console: Use this to maintain and monitor the site’s performance in Google search results. The search console provides valuable insights about which pages are indexed and if there are any issues with crawling and indexing. 90% of Google’s web pages see no traffic due to poor optimisation.
- Ensure Your Site is Accessible: Optimise website load speed and mobile-friendliness, enhancing the user experience. As the studies show that approximately 50% of the web traffic comes from mobile devices, it is essential to rank significantly better. 90% of people are unlikely to return if they face issues while browsing the data.
How does Google determine ranking?
When determining a site’s ranking, Google considers over 200 factors. A complex algorithm works, fetching the site’s relevance and performance. Google’s primary aim is to deliver relevant content to the specific search query. Websites should include well-researched articles and an engaging format of comprehensive information with appropriate backlinking, which can notably influence the site’s authority and relevance.
Technical SEO should be taken care of; 91% of content gets very little or no organic traffic from Google because of lacking quality backlinks and poor optimisation. If a visitor leaves your site quickly, it may signal to Google that the content isn’t relevant to the query. This can, in turn, affect the site’s ranking. A bounce rate of more than 55% is considered flawed. This indicates that glitches must be fixed on the site, which can help websites rank higher.
Conclusion
Understanding how search engine optimisation works is essential. Crawling, indexing, and ranking can appreciably enhance your online presence. All these steps assure that your content reaches the intended audience. Search engines rank the websites higher if they match the user’s query intent.
Rankingeek Marketing Agency helps you achieve a better ranking and online visibility. Our experienced SEO professionals stay up to date with algorithm changes and best practices. A comprehensive approach helps in performance tracking and increased online visibility. Contact Us Today!
