Search engines function by effectively scanning billions of web pages through their designed web crawlers, often called search engine spiders or bots. These search engine spiders traverse the internet by following links on newly discovered web pages to find more and so on.
The fundamental understanding of how search engines function is a crucial information piece that SEO beginners often overlook. However, comprehending how search engines function is essential. The reason? Because it’s crucial to understand the mechanics of the system to harness it to your advantage. You would only attempt to repair a car engine if you comprehended its inner workings. The same concept applies to all search engines.
Although, you can understand only some nuances of search engine algorithms.
Here we’ll guide you through the operations of search engines progressively. Let’s begin with the basic search engine principles to build the solid groundwork for a successful SEO career.
Deciphering Google's Functioning and Their Page Ranking System
Google’s search engine revolves around two core operations:
- Crawling
- Indexing
We’ll delve into these more thoroughly shortly.
Search engines employ their distinct search algorithms; thus, securing top ranks on the search engine results page for one engine only guarantees the same for some search engines.
Grasping what a search engine prioritizes is vital for your success in the SERPs. Some prioritize content quality, others focus on user experience, and others on link building. We’ll examine this more closely soon. For now, note that:
Google has pioneered many techniques you’ll see in this guide.
They possess 92.37% of the global search engine market.
Moreover, the English dictionary officially recognizes ” to Google ” as a verb.
As evident, Google governs the search engine universe. But how does this well-known and cherished search engine operate?
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It’s relatively straightforward and occurs in a two-step process –
- Crawling: Initially, Google “scours the web,” locating pages to incorporate into their database.
- Indexing: Then, the results are structured or “indexed” and included in their database.
At a fundamental level, picture it as someone building a massive library of books.
Crawling is like discovering new books to include in that library.
Indexing is arranging your books in a specific order (like by genre or author).
Crawling versus Indexing
The only difference between a library and Google – is that Google comprises billions of books.
Understanding Crawling
Upon inputting a search query in the search engine, it may seem that Google peruses the entire world wide web at that moment.
In reality, the search engine web crawler has constructed an immense database of pages, and your search is confined to this database, NOT the entire World Wide Web.
The database consists of pre-screened websites that Google has vetted and deemed safe for its users. Thus, you won’t see any unsavory ‘dark web’ content for your search query when using Google.
Why does Google Adopt this Approach?
It can access this database reliably
- It offers a swifter and more user-centric experience
- It enables Google to append its own “tags” to these pages and provide pertinent results
The initial stage of incorporating pages into this database is termed crawling. Google employs “crawlers” (or “spiders”) to scour the internet.
These web crawlers have two main tasks –
- Discover new web pages to index
- Extract information about each web page
I like to envision these crawlers as spies. They covertly infiltrate enemy lines to gather information and report back to HQ.
But how do they locate websites, gain access, and retrieve that information? to reduce length?
How Crawlers Discover, Access, and Retrieve Information
Here’s how these ‘spies’ operate:
1. URL Request Processing: Crawlers initiate their journey from a list of web addresses from past crawls and sitemaps given by website owners. They visit these URLs, identifying any links on these pages and adding them to their list to crawl in the future.
2. Robots.txt: Before a crawler accesses a website, it checks for a file called ‘robots.txt.’ This file, located in the site’s root directory, informs crawlers which pages or sections of the site they are allowed or disallowed to scan. If the robots.txt file disallows crawling a page, it will not be incorporated into the index.
3. Sitemaps: Sitemaps, typically in XML format, provide crawlers with additional information about the pages on a website, including when they were last updated, how often they change, and how important they concern other pages on the site. This information can guide crawlers on what pages to prioritize during their crawl.
4. Crawler Directives: Website owners can also use ‘crawler directives’ or ‘meta tags’ to provide instructions to search engine bots. These directives can tell bots not to crawl certain parts of the site or not to index a page, among other instructions.
5. Extraction of Information: As crawlers explore a webpage, they extract various types of information. This can include the page’s metadata (like title tags and meta descriptions), the type and quality of content, any internal and external links, and the site’s overall structure and design.
Understanding Indexing
Once a page has been crawled, the next step is indexing it. Indexing is the process of organizing and keeping the data collected during crawling in a way that allows the search engine to retrieve it quickly when needed.
When you index a page, it is added to a vast database of information that Google uses to generate search results. As part of the indexing process, Google will analyze the information collected by the crawlers to comprehend what the page is about and how it should be categorized.
Google also assesses the quality and relevance of the page. It evaluates factors like the quality of the content, the user experience offered by the site, and how several sites link to it (a signal of authority). This information is used to pinpoint where the page should rank in search results for relevant queries.
Final Thoughts
In summary, search engines use web crawlers to discover, access, and retrieve information about web pages. This information is then indexed or organized into a vast database. When a user searches, the search engine uses complex algorithms to sift through this database and deliver the most relevant and high-quality results.
In the SEO world, understanding these processes and how to optimize your site to get crawled and indexed effectively is crucial. It can distinguish between your site showing on the first page of results or being buried deep in the back pages where few users venture.
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