From the user’s perspective, search engines have become truly magical for them at the present time. Just enter any keyword into the search bar, and in a flash, millions of results from the web will be returned.

Today’s popular search engines, such as Google,  have begun to be able to answer queries directly right on the search results, helping users save both time and their clicks.

So, how do search engines like Google work?

What is a search engine?

A search engine consists of two main parts: Database and algorithms, which determine which results will be returned and the ranking order for a certain query.

Search engines like Google have a database that includes trillions of pages on a system of websites and algorithms that consider hundreds of different factors to find the most suitable results for the query keyword.

How do search engines work?

Search engines work by taking lists of links (URLs),  then going to create a schedule ( Scheduler ). Create a schedule that will decide when to crawl each URL. Next, the crawled page is passed to the parser, where the necessary information is picked out and indexed.

When you search for something, the search engine returns relevant pages and the algorithm ranks these search results by relevance.

First, let’s dive deeper into the mechanisms used to build and maintain a web index to make sure we understand how they work. Includes: Schedule generation, data collection, parsing and indexing.

Scheduling

The scheduler will evaluate the relative importance of new and old URLs. It then decides when to crawl new URLs, as well as how often to recrawl old URLs.

Crawling

A crawler is a computer program that can download web pages. Search engines discover new content by regularly re-crawling old pages, which will often contain new links added over time.

For example, every time we publish a new blog post, it will be pushed to the top of the blog page containing a link.

When a search engine like Google re-crawls this page, it loads the page’s content containing the recently added links.

The crawler then passes the downloaded web page to the parser.

Parsing

The parser finds the links, along with other relevant information, then sends the selected URLs to the Scheduler and the data is retrieved for indexing. ).

Indexing

Indexing is where parsed information (from crawled pages)  is added to a database called a search index.

Think of it as a digital library containing information from trillions of pages of content on the website.

What is a search engine algorithm?

Besides discovering and indexing content, search engines also need a way to rank relevant results when users perform search queries. This is the job of search engine algorithms. Each search engine has a unique algorithm for ranking websites.

How does Google work?

Google also works in the same way as above. It crawls websites and indexes the content it finds. Then, when you do a search, Google will find the results with the most relevant content and rank them according to the algorithm, judged by the relevance of the title.

Google works well as a search engine because of 3 things:

First, it crawls new and old websites on a massive scale, which has allowed Google to build and maintain the largest index globally.

Second, Google has invested heavily in linguistic analysis models, allowing it to understand the true meaning of misspelled, imprecise, or obscure search queries. It can even understand synonyms.

And the third, most important thing is that Google’s ranking algorithms can return users the most relevant results compared to all search engines today.

How does the Google algorithm work?

Google evaluates and considers hundreds of different factors to find and rank the most relevant content. In fact, almost no one can know what all those factors are, but we can know the following main ones:

Related topics

Google states that when a website contains search keywords, especially in prominent locations such as the title, the content will be judged as relevant.

However this is not all, Google also looks for the presence of other related words on the website.

Here’s how Google explains it:

“Think about it: When someone searches for the keyword “dogs,” that person certainly doesn’t want to see a website containing hundreds of those keywords over and over again. With this in mind, the algorithm will evaluate other related keywords on the page if there are any, such as: “picture of dogs”, video or list of breeds, etc.”

The presence of related words and phrases in addition to the main keyword will help increase trust with Google, this shows that the website is about what it is about.

Search intent

Google knows that people search with an intention, and understanding this intention helps Google return better search results and more satisfied users.

In other words, Google focuses on ranking content that users want to see and what they expect when searching for something.

The intention in each user’s search action is completely different. Google strives to deliver results that match the content style, content type, content format, and content perspective that users want to see.

Content Style

Content style can be divided into 3 types: Video content, images and text content (Text).

In most queries,  the search results will be quite obvious. In some cases, like the keyword “Pink Roses,” Google understands that user intent is a mixture of content and will return different types of content styles.

Content Type

Content types are often divided into four basic types: Blog Posts, Products, Category pages and Landing pages.

For example, all results returned for the keyword “professional website design”  will be in the form of blog posts.

Content Format

Content formatting applies to most blog posts, videos, and landing pages. For Blog posts, common content types are “how to..”, list posts, how-tos, and news types.

For example, results for the keyword “Blogging tips” will be in the form of List Posts.

Content Angle

Google’s Content Angle is a strategic approach that revolves around delivering diverse and relevant content to users based on their search queries. Operating on sophisticated algorithms, it considers various factors like user intent, context, and semantic understanding to ensure precise and comprehensive search results. The system assesses the quality and relevance of web pages, prioritizing those with authoritative and well-structured content. Google’s Content Angle emphasizes user satisfaction, aiming to provide valuable information while constantly adapting to evolving search patterns. This approach enables Google to refine its search algorithms, enhancing the overall user experience and maintaining its position as a leading search engine.

For example, most search results ranking for the keyword “blogging tips” are centered around newcomers.

Freshness

Google knows that freshness in search results is more effective for some queries.

For example, a query with the keyword “What’s new on Netflix”  will yield completely new search results. Google prioritizes the most recently published or updated search results.

Content quality

Google wants to rank high-quality content, above low-quality content. The problem is that content quality is difficult to understand, so Google considered coming up with something called E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authoriveness, and Trust.

Content is not the only thing that affects E-A-T, but backlinks (external links leading to the website) are also very important. important. In addition, these links need to be reputable and highly relevant.

For example: If your website has a topic about business, Google will appreciate backlinks from articles on a page about business administration pointing to your website, more than similar articles on a website about business administration. beautify.

Usability

Google ranks websites and wants users to be satisfied by returning the most relevant results. Besides that, the content also needs to be easy to access and use.

Here are a few confirmed ranking factors that will help with these:

Page loading speed

Surely no one wants to have to wait for a website to load slowly, and Google knows this. That’s why they created a page load speed ranking factor for desktop searches in 2010, and for mobile searches in 2018.

Mobile-friendly

65% of Google searches happen on mobile devices, and mobile-friendliness becomes a ranking factor for mobile searches in 2015.

From July 2019, “mobile-friendliness”  became a ranking factor for Deskstop search as Google prioritized mobile versions of content for indexing and ranking across all devices (Mobile-First indexing).

Personalized

Google states that “Information about location, search history and search settings, will help tailor search results to what is most useful and relevant to the user in that moment.”

Google’s Personalized Content employs sophisticated algorithms to tailor search results, ads, and recommendations based on user behavior, preferences, and demographics. By analyzing search history, location data, and online activities, Google refines the user experience, delivering more relevant and personalized content, enhancing satisfaction and engagement.

Example: A search query for “best Mexican restaurant,” using the user’s location to return search results at locallocal, even results outside this range (“map pack”)

Why should we care how Google works?

Knowing how Google searches and ranks content will help improve your ability to create content on your website that shows up in search results. And the effort to bring high search rankings on Google is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization ).

SEO is a top priority for businesses, because:

• Get free traffic from SEO
• Stable traffic month after month (As long as good search rankings can be maintained)
• Provides access to a wide audience

Conclude

There are many people who constantly look for loopholes in search engine algorithms in order to get high search rankings easily, however, it only works in the short term, otherwise it is very difficult to succeed. long-term success, because it is too dependent on Google’s algorithm.

The best method to achieve good long-term search rankings is to focus on creating the most useful and quality content for the chosen keyword and creating the best possible user experience. In other words, we create good content for users, not for search engines.