How Search Engine Works: The Basics of Search Engine

Search engines function by crawling billions of web pages, indexing them, and showcasing them in front of you. 

When you type a particular search query, web crawlers (spiders or bots), crawl thousands of web pages in their index, select which are highly relevant (based on several ranking factors), and deliver an answer. 

A search engine scans the web by downloading web pages and following links on the respective pages to come up with new pages that are currently available. 

The Basics of Search Engine Functionality

Search engines are powerful tools created to help users come across relevant information online. Basically, search engines are known to perform the following functions:

1. Crawling: Search engines are automated programs known as spiders or crawlers that come across web pages throughout the internet. These crawlers follow links from one web page to another to collect data about every page they visit. 

2. Indexing: Once crawling is done, content analysis takes place. Eventually, this content is stored in an expansive database known as an index. The index serves as the library that helps in organizing and categorizing information to ensure ease of retrieval.

3. Ranking: When a user enters a query, search engines go ahead with sorting the index and presenting results based on factors like quality and relevance. This is where the role of algorithms comes in. 

How Search Engine works Step by step

1. Crawling

If you want search engines to rank your web page, it is important for them to discover your web page first. It is estimated that there are 1.7 billion websites on the internet, resulting in billions of web pages. There is no fixed place where all websites go live. Therefore, search engines constantly keep looking for new pages and adding them to the index. 

There are several ways in which search engines find web pages. One way is to follow a link from a page that has already been found. Another useful way is a sitemap. A sitemap can be defined as a file containing information, including videos, images, or pages on the site, organized in a manner that makes it easier for search engine bots to comprehend. 

Once search engines come across a page, they eventually crawl. This implies that their bots look at these pages and evaluate what they are about. 

2. Indexing

Indexing is defined as the process of going through a web page, storing it, and categorizing it. Once a page has been found and crawled, its relevant information is indexed. All indexed information is kept in a dedicated search index. 

Search engines are designed to map such indexes to URLs. This makes it easier to make a search while receiving billions of searches in a few seconds. To map these URLs to respective search queries, the index also stores relevant information about the URL content, including:

• Type of content on the page
• Keywords used on the page 
• When was the content updated?
• User interaction with the page

3. Ranking

Once pages have been crawled and indexed, they should now serve in the SERP or Search Engine Results Page. The relevant results listed on the SERP are ranked subsequently. 

There are several ranking factors that seaerch engines use to rank different web pages. Some of these factors are authority, relevancy, quality, location, devices, and so more.

How Google Search works to Deliver Results

Leading search engines, including Google, make use of complex algorithms to come up with accurate and relevant results for user-specific queries. These complex algorithms are responsible for going through different ranking factors to rank web pages and make sure that the most relevant content appears on top of the SERPs. 

Google’s Algorithm: The Heart of Search

Google’s algorithm studies the following core factors to determine a website’s rankings:

1. Usability: Specific elements related to the user experience (UX), like mobile-friendliness, page load speed, and intuitive navigation, play an important role in a page’s ranking. 
2. Authority: When you obtain high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites, it is a sign of reliability. In turn, it boosts rankings.
3. Relevance: Search engines analyze how well a page’s content matches the queries of users. Google’s algorithm looks into factors like semantic meaning, intent, and keyword usage.

Google Search Updates that Shaped SEO

Since its advent, Google has come up with several algorithm-based updates that impact its SEO practices. Some of these updates are:

1. Panda in 2011: This update focused on quality of the content.
2. Penguin in 2012: This update focused on spammy link-building strategies.
3. BERT in 2019: This update modified Google’s overview of user intent and user language.

Search Engine Common Misconceptions

1. Myth #1: Keyword Stuffing Improves Rankings

While keywords are crucial for improving relevance of your site, when you overuse them, they could affect your site’s SEO negatively.

2. Myth #2: Paid Search Boosts Rankings

Paid ads, including Google ads, do not function under the supervision of search engine algorithms. When you invest in paid ads, they can boost visibility temporarily, but will not boost organic search engine rankings.

3. Myth #3: Meta Keywords are a Ranking Factor

While meta-keywords once used to depict relevance of a site, Google no longer considers them as a ranking factor.

The Future of How Search Engines Work

In the coming future, the world of search engines and their algorithms will significantly depend on high-end technology like Machine Learning and AI. The integration of these advanced technology solutions will deliver a precise overview of user context and intent. 

To adapt effectively, SEO tactics should focus on the development of more user-centric, high-quality content while leveraging rising trends like conversational keywords and structured data. 

Conclusion 

Search engines like Google utilize complex algorithms to crawl, index, and rank web pages. Crawlers systematically explore the internet, following links and discovering new content. This information is then indexed, creating a massive database of web pages.

While the exact workings of these algorithms are constantly evolving and kept confidential, understanding the basic principles can provide valuable insights for website owners.