How do search engines work ?

This is the second lesson of search engine optimization lessons, in which we will explain how search engines work in an easy and simple way.

Understanding how search engines work is the first step, and the key that will enable you to properly and effectively optimize your site for search engines.

In order to begin to properly deal with anything, you have to understand that thing and how it works.

Note: Since Google is the number one search engine in the world, which controls almost the majority of the market.

So we will talk about the Google search engine in particular in a lot of aspects.

Search engines work stages

The work of search engines, led by Google, depends primarily on three basic functions. These functions or stages of work are interdependent and interdependent.

Also Read : Secrets of Google Search (How to Get Exactly What You Want Easily and Quickly)

Stage One: Crawling

The word Crawling literally means “crawling”: it is a process that takes place through intelligent computer programs called (spiders, bots or Crawlers).

Search engine spiders visit every web page they encounter in order to collect data about it, to index it in the search engine's database.

It also monitors new sites and pages, and understands updates to existing sites and pages. Search engine spiders rely primarily on links, to move from one web page to another.

The spiders start the crawl process by relying on the links of the pages already in the database, and from there they move to the links of the newly created web pages.

It is worth noting here that search engine spiders understand web pages from the used code, such as HTML.

Second stage: Indexing

Indexing is the process in which: storing data and information, which is collected through the crawl process.

Each web page is archived according to its content. Google's search engine database contains an index of billions of web pages, videos, images, documents...etc.

Not all web pages are actually saved to the database of search engines, but certain parts of each web page's content is saved.

For example, each web page is linked to some of the words and phrases that express it. which are used in search results afterwards.

It is worth noting that the indexing process is an intertwined process with the crawl process, so there are many people talking about crawling and indexing as one process.

The third stage: providing research results

In this process, the search engine will show the results to the user, according to the search words (Query). Of course, the source for the search results is the database, which was collected during the previous stage.

It is worth noting that search engines have huge databases around the world, run by a group of huge high-speed machines, and this makes the process of appearing search results in Google takes less than one second.

The ranking of search results comes according to pre-prepared algorithms based on many factors and criteria called Rank Factors.

The search engine represents the eye or the guide that guides the user to the appropriate path, in order to reach what he wants according to the search word he entered.

To understand the idea in a simple and easy way, imagine the world of the Internet, with all its websites, as a collection of stations. And Google as a search engine, for example, sends its bots continuously to roam between these stations, to know what each station contains.

And what is added of new stations or new content within each station, and what has been removed and renewed as well. After that, it draws through its database a complete map that includes each station, and the things it contains inside.

When you tell him as a user that you want to go to a particular station, or even tell him what you want to get anyone, he will guide you through his map with the paths (links) that you have to follow in order to reach the station you want.

It will also provide you with the internal path inside this station to get exactly what you want (ie the page that specifically answers your question)

Some information and statistics for search engines

51% of visitors to all websites come from search engines.

By the end of 2016, there were 130 trillion web pages in Google's search engine database.

1 billion users use Google search engine every month

The average number of words in search results on the first page exceeds 1500 words.

Google accounts for more than 70% of searches made on the Internet around the world, and more than 90% of searches made through smartphones.

87% of smart mobile device users use Google search engine at least once every day.

There are more than 63,000 searches done every second through the Google search engine.

These statistics are global statistics, and the numbers may differ somewhat, according to the nature of the Arab Internet user.

On what basis does Google rank search results?

We explained above that the function of search engines is: to guide users to the paths that answer their questions. Search engines perform this function through three basic operations: crawling, indexing, and provisioning of results.

But the question here is: On what basis does the Google search engine rank these search results.

In the beginning, when someone types a search word in the Google search box, and presses the search button, the search engine program filters its database, and arranges the results based on two basic criteria in general:

Relevance

Of course, the results that appear when you type a keyword, must be appropriate to what the user specifically wants. In the past, the concept of relevance was no more than matching search words with the words on the web page.

But now, after the tremendous technological and technical development that search engines are witnessing, and Google in particular, has become a relevance after another.

Clever factors are now shaping the concept of matching between Query and search results.

Among these factors:

Also Read : YouTube SEO: 7 steps to make your videos appear first 2022

1- RankBrain

It is a name given by Google to a new system based on artificial intelligence technology or machine-learning, Google announced the application of this technology in October 2015.

Two years earlier, in 2013, the fact was revealed, that every day Google receives keywords that it has not tested before, at a rate of 15% of all searches. This is a large percentage, and it is a problem for Google.

RankBrain's job here is to help deliver relevant web pages for these search words. This is done by trying to understand the new long and ambiguous search phrases, and linking them to other search words that may be different in appearance, but related in some way.

And also by measuring the visitor's experience with the search results for these new search phrases.

Finally, RankBrain's technology, by applying its own self-taught algorithms, is able to deliver more relevant search results to the user, even when receiving a search phrase for the first time.

2- Synonym System

Google search engine has a smart and efficient system for understanding synonyms between words. Thanks to this system, Google is able to provide more user-friendly results. By understanding what the user means, regardless of the vocabulary used, and then providing results that serve the meaning and not the vocabulary.

This is very important for the user and website owners as well.

On the one hand, this enables the user to reach the most appropriate results, in the case of using local languages and slang terms. And it gives the opportunity for site owners to have their sites appear in search results for more diverse search words.

There is also a well-known term in the SEO community related to this part, it is called Latent Semantic Indexing and it is abbreviated to LSI. Indexing means the semantics of words.

3- Other factors related to how people use search engines

There are other important factors that contribute to shaping the concept of relevance, related to how search engines are used by users.

Including, for example, voice search, and the use of smart phone devices. And the search history of each user separately.

Quality

The second primary criterion that search engines use in ranking results is quality. After determining the results that are most relevant to the search engine user, comes the quality criterion, which determines the correct order of these results.

There is no doubt that the primary goal of search engines is: user satisfaction. And of course the quality component contributes significantly to shaping user satisfaction.

And because we are talking about Google in particular. The popularity of the web page, and the trust that the site enjoys, greatly contribute to shaping the concept of quality. So in the SEO community you will find a lot of articles about concepts like: Authority and Trustworthy.

And how these elements are very important in the ranking of results in the Google search engine. From Google's point of view, the more popular and trusted a web page is by the public, and affiliated with a site that enjoys popularity and influence, the more it is evident that this page is of better quality than others. Respectful point of view however!

It's not that simple, there are more sophisticated and sophisticated algorithms that Google uses to rank search results.

What are Google's algorithms for ranking search results?

The word "Algorithms" is a word that fell on the ear suggesting difficulty and complexity. But it really isn't, and if you're looking to learn SEO, you don't have to deal with the idea of algorithms from its mathematically complex side.

But you just have to understand the idea and that's what I'm going to explain to you in a simple and easy way here.

Algorithms belong to the science of mathematics, and the idea of algorithms was first revealed by an Uzbek Muslim scholar, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, in the ninth century AD.

But the concept of algorithms is closely related to today's computer.

Algorithms are simply: a set of pre-prepared mathematical rules and laws, which allow solving a problem, or reaching a certain result with logical steps.

Computer Algorithms: A set of software commands that allow a computer to perform a set of graphical manipulations to solve a problem or reach a conclusion.

Google Search Engine Algorithms: A set of smart rules and codes, which work together to provide Google users with satisfactory search results.

As we know together, Google has a huge database of all web pages on the Internet, algorithms are the code commands that determine which of these web pages appears as a search result when you type any search word or phrase, and arrange these pages in the appropriate way to satisfy the user.

But on what basis are Google's algorithms built?

Ranking factors are the basis of Google's search engine algorithms.

What are Rank Factors?

Ranking factors: They are a set of criteria, or attributes determined by those in charge of search engines, to indicate the suitability and quality of each web page in order to appear within the search results for a particular search word, and in what order this page appears.

Sorting factors represent the informational inputs that the algorithms rely on, in ordering the search results in the correct order for each search word.

To clarify the idea and to untangle the entanglement between algorithms and ranking factors, we have to resort to an example in our real life:

Winter begins and we decide to buy some winter clothes and let it be a coat. Let these be your preferences:

1- Black is the best, followed by brown and yellow.

2- The price ranges between 500 and 1000 dollar.

3- Silk is your favourite, followed by cotton and then leather.

You take all of these factors, and put them into an equation based on the value of each trait and how important it is to you. It produces what are called algorithms.

You apply these algorithms to the coats in the store, let it be a hundred coats. It comes up with a list of just 20 coats arranged in a certain way according to your own criteria.

This is exactly the idea of Google's algorithms But in a more complex, intelligent and sophisticated way, and with a large number of ranking factors (Google has more than 200 factors to rank search results).

It is worth noting here that search engines, including Google, do not announce their own criteria or the factors they use to rank search results.

So on what basis can we learn many of these factors? On what basis is the SEO industry based?

The most important information sources on which the SEO industry is based

What information search engines provide

Search engines are not completely stingy with website owners. But there is some information that you share with them. There is a guide for Google on search engine optimization, and another for the search engine Bing.

Analytical tools

There are many important analytical tools, through which you can get graphic and statistical information about any website, including competitors' sites. With this information, you can access some adjustments that raise your site's ranking in search results.

SEO Experts

There are many search engine engineers who do not work for any particular search engine. And who, through their skills, intelligence and experience, can anticipate and arrive at some of the ranking factors.

Expertise and experience of site owners

Finally, there is the factor of expertise and experience, which is available to everyone. For example, you as a website owner can try and test some variables, in order to reach better results.

Also, as a regular user of search engines, you can with some thought and analysis of the initial results understand the common element between them, which you can apply in your site.