Search engines make the World Wide Web go round. They are the medium through which the majority of internet users experience and consume online content and as a result they are powerful. However, it can often seem that these portals to the online world work in somewhat mysterious ways.
Through this article we will be unpicking the workings of search engines and the algorithms that power them. We will break down the website ranking process into three steps, demonstrating how a good knowledge of search engines and their inner workings can be essential for SEO success.
What is a ‘Search Engine’?
A Search Engine is a gateway to the internet. Taking users’ search terms they serve up relevant websites to try and offer the answers visitors are seeking. The most dominant search engine used today is Google, receiving and directing 78% of all internet traffic globally. Other search engines include Bing, developed by Microsoft or Yahoo. Whilst they may have slightly different algorithms powering their systems, all search engines operate in much the same way, serving up content that is deemed ‘relevant’ and useful to users.
How Search Engines Work
Websites are discovered, categorised and assessed for relevance in three stages; crawling, indexing and ranking.
Crawling
Search engines scan the internet, discovering and ‘reading’ websites through programmes referred to as ‘web crawlers’. These crawlers are also given names such as bots or spiders – Google has ‘Googlebot’ and Bing has ‘Bingbot’ – but they essentially perform the same task.
Upon visiting a website, the crawler downloads the URL. Crawlers can discover URLs through a variety of methods. Primarily, pages can be found through existing sitemaps but they can also be found through links, internal and external (this is why strong linking strategies can help your site to be crawled and indexed with increasing speeds, ensuring your updates are noticed by search engines!) Social media pages and shared links are another way in which bots can discover new URLs. Interconnected and well structured websites enable easier crawling and quicker indexing as a result.
Indexing
Once the bot has crawled your webpage and deemed it indexable (we will cover this later), the page will be indexed and added into search results. All the content on your website, images and videos included will be included in this index.
There may be pages on your website that you do not want indexed. In the case of duplicate or similar content, canonical tags can be used to indicate to search engines which ‘master’ page should be indexed while the other content can be ignored. Using Robot.txt within your sitemap can indicate to crawlers where you want them to index and can also block them from pages not intended for indexing. Sometimes these elements may be used incorrectly and can actively harm your site’s crawlability so ensuring you consult with experienced SEO technical specialists will be a helpful measure to take.
Ranking
The final act of the search engine algorithm is to rank your website for searches. Ranking is determined by a number of factors that have developed over the lifespans of search engines all with the same express goal, to produce results that searchers want to see.
Here are the factors that influence search engine ranking:
Content Quality – Google has adopted the E-E-A-T model for describing content deemed to be high quality for users. This Involves demonstrating expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. These factors work to distinguish AI generated or poorly made content from writing that demonstrates personal experience, connection with the topic and helpful insights and suggestions. Equally important is the inclusion of relevant keywords within your online writing, helping search engines to better understand what connects your content to a user’s search.
Working with experienced SEO copywriters can help boost the rankings of your website’s content.
Backlinks – Another important ranking factor for web pages is the number of quality backlinks pointed towards them from external sites. Each link represents a vote of confidence in the content you have created as well as signalling that another user found it helpful.
SEO specialists can consult on how to acquire good quality backlinks in order to strengthen your pages rankings.
Technical Elements – The technical elements of your website will also dictate how it is ranked in searches. Fully enhanced website speeds, mobile friendly design and site structures that crawlers can understand all help your site to be ranked higher.
Collaborating with Technical SEO specialists can be crucial in ensuring that your websites inner workings are optimised for search engine algorithms.
When Will My Website Be Crawled?
The speed and frequency at which your website is crawled can be key in increasing its place in search rankings and is determined by a number of factors. Certain high-authority websites that constantly output new pages, for example news sites, are guaranteed to be regularly crawled. The frequency with which you produce new content to be indexed will be noted by the search engine and considered in crawl frequency.
Working With Search Engine Experts
Here at StudioHawk, we live and breath search engines. With years of experience working in the world of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), we can work with your business to ensure that your online content is enhanced to better be found, collected and categorised by search engines.
If you want to learn about the world of SEO and Search Engines, you can explore our bank of resources and guides. To discover more about the very foundations of Search Engine Optimisation, take a look at our Basics of SEO blog where we cover everything from keywords to technical SEO! StudioHawk also offers a more intensive SEO training course in the form of Hawk Academy, where you can learn detailed strategies from our SEO experts.