How Search Engines Work

If you're receiving this newsletter then you already know plenty about search engine optimization (SEO). As a major marketing technique, SEO is the focus of many businesses looking to increase their internet presence and raise profits.

While basic SEO strategies may be common knowledge among business folk, exactly how search engines work is not. Search engines like Google remain shrouded in mystery for most people, who constantly wonder about the exact formula for a perfect ranking.

The truth is, there is no exact formula. Learning more about how search engines work, however, can greatly increase your chances of an optimal rating.

An Intro to Indexing

Every search engine has a specific index of information that they pull from when a search is made. Ideally, search engines attempt to scan all of the available websites for a match. This literally means that they are constantly scanning the web in order to add relevant websites to their index, and then presenting them on search pages when appropriate. If your website has been published for a decent amount of time, chances are it has already been indexed by the biggest search engines.

How do Search Engines Know What to Show?

Now that you know that search engines have billions of pages to choose from, the obvious question is how do they decide what to post? There are two answers to this question:

1. Your website content: While scanning pages for indexing, engines will take note of any clues as to the gist of your site. They consider back-end coding, tags, descriptions, and anything else that can contribute to a topic.
2. Your link networks: Search engines give a lot of credit to websites that have a lot of inbound links, because it speaks to their reputation. The more backlinks that lead to your site, the more authority your website has. Those backlinks from prestigious sites will carry more weight than an unknown site. This is sometimes called “link juice” in marketing lingo.

Using these two criteria, the search engine ranks sites from most relevant to least.

The Algorithm

Each search engine uses a different algorithm to calculate relevance, but they all consider content and link juice. Other things may also be considered, however, such as specific location, link quality, and history of performance. The type of link may also be considered, such as a social media link, news link, or blog link.
To learn more about search engine optimization, call us, 877-247-3843 ext. 400.