Google as a search engine: Understanding its role

To fully appreciate Google’s ability to provide the most relevant answers at lightning speed, it is crucial to delve into the intricacies of the process of search engine. The process of search engine involves a series of complex algorithms that take into account several factors before delivering the most accurate results. Google’s technical complexity allows it to organize and index vast amounts of web data, making it easier for users to find what they need quickly. This indexing process is akin to using an index to navigate through a book, as opposed to flipping through every page. By using web crawlers, also known as spiders or internet bots, Google can efficiently scan and categorize information to provide users with the best possible results.

Here are the three stages of Google that explain the step-by-step functioning of Google as a search engine.

1. Crawling

A web crawler/spider/spider bot is a type of bot that systematically runs the web to list the website(URL) and the important key signals on the website content in the index so that these websites can appear in Google searches. Apart from the URL the other data that the index stores are:

• The keywords on the page
• The type of content on the page
• The newness of the page – recent updates
• The user engagement of the page.

Google search engine uses web crawling as a means to collect new data, record it, and store it. The crawlers work by following links from web pages to discover new content, which is why outbound links on a page are crucial in determining its authority. When measuring the value of a link, Google search engine considers both its number and relevance to the content. Therefore, having high-quality outbound links can improve the chances of a page being seen as an authority by the Google search engine.

2. Indexing

The Google search engine employs web crawlers to visit every page and understand its content. By analyzing text, graphics, data, and other elements on the page, the crawlers can determine the page’s topic. The information gathered by the crawlers is then added to Google’s search index, which contains billions of web pages. Every word on a page is indexed by the Google search engine, making it easier for users to find relevant content quickly. Thus, the Google search engine’s meticulous indexing process is what sets it apart from other search engines.

Proper website indexing allows Google to see all your important web pages. Google chooses to index your page either on the top of page one for the search query or on the bottom, depending upon how relevant the information provided by you is.

Here are a few things you can do to index your site better to improve its ranking:

• Google Search Console – This is a free tool that helps you track your crawl status and monitor your website’s presence in Google’s index. The reports help you to measure your site’s traffic and performance, fix issues, and improve your site.
• Update your content regularly – Since one of the criteria for Google to rank your webpage is ‘freshness’, you must update your web content regularly. This can be done by adding and updating the content in line with everyday evolution.
• Mobile-friendly web pages – With over 56% of web traffic taking place on mobile phones, you must optimize your pages to be displayed on the mobile index. There are many technical things that you can do to make your website mobile-friendly. For instance – Implementing a responsive web design, inserting the viewpoint meta tags, optimizing and compressing images, snd reducing the size of on-page UI elements.
• Add a sitemap – Adding a sitemap to the Google search console is important in indexing. Sitemap links to all the web pages on your site making them easily accessible for crawlers.
• Ask other sites to interlink – Build networks with people having similar businesses or guest blogging sites. This will enable you to share your content with them and get better recognized by Google.

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3. Ranking

After finding and organizing the web pages, now the next question is, how do we find these web pages? The google search engine ranking system uses a whole set of algorithms to give you the most relevant answer.

The search algorithm considers the nature of the query and the below factors before showing the highest quality results.

• User’s location – Some queries are dependent upon the location of the user. For instance, “malls near me” or “dinner times”.
• Language – If the language of the user can be detected, the queries will be answered in their regional language.
• Device – The device used to search a query may produce a different set of results. The results on a mobile device might be different from those of desktop ones.
• Previous queries – The search results of each query depend upon what users have searched previously.

All the above factors determine the most suited results for individual queries when using the search engine Google. The influence of each factor depends upon the essence of your Google search. For instance, the user’s location would play a major role in the search for a restaurant on Google. Google’s search engine algorithm takes into account the user’s location to provide the most relevant search results. No one can buy better-placed results on Google’s search engine. However, advertisers can pay to display their ads in a designated area on the Google search engine results page. This feature allows advertisers to target their audience based on their location and search queries on Google. So, when using the search engine Google, the location-based search results and ads can be highly useful in finding the most relevant information.

How to increase your SERP rankings with SEO?

Before understanding how to rank higher on search engines, let us first understand how Rankbrain from the search engine Google works. Rankbrain is a machine-based search engine algorithm that helps Google to process more relevant results. Along with content and links, Rankbrain is the third most important constituent in Google’s ranking algorithm. Understanding how the search engine Google utilizes Rankbrain can help website owners to optimize their content and enhance their SEO efforts.

Rankbrain deals with the below two most important things:

• Understanding the true intent of the search – Whenever you search a query, Rankbrain tries to interpret what you mean. It tries to match the keywords from your query to the keywords on a page.
• Observing user interaction with new search results – After showing the search results, Rankbrain pays close attention to your interaction with these results. If the page satisfies the user, the page gets ranked. However, if it doesn’t, on the next search, Rankbrain shows different results for the same keywords.

SEO can help you rank your website higher in the SERPs. The above two should act as a base for every strategy. Here are a few more suggestions to rank higher on Google:

1. Content Strategy

57% of the marketers believe on-page content development is the most effective SEO tactic. Publishing high-quality content is one of the best ways to rank higher on Google. Your crawling rate will increase if your content is original, unique and answers people’s queries. Without the right content, Google will not have enough information to index your web pages correctly.

2. Website’s user experience

User experience has a powerful impact on your SEO rankings. A good UX provides users with a pleasant user engagement. If your website is easy and enjoyable, it will attract more traffic from the search engine Google. Ultimately, more traffic from Google means better ranking on the search engine. You can enhance your user experience by using a responsive theme, improving the load speed and making the website mobile-friendly, which will not only attract more traffic but also improve your search engine Google rankings.

3. Matching the search intent

The search engine Google uses Rankbrain to match the search intent of users, which can help you create the right type of content. For example, when you search for the keyword “Chocolate cake” on Google, the top results are typically Chocolate cake recipes and videos. By analyzing these top results, you can determine what type of content to create and in which format. Creating the right content can attract more traffic to your website through search engine Google, helping you reach a wider audience and drive more engagement. So, optimizing your content for search engine Google is key to achieving success in online marketing.

4. Keyword optimization

Another major ranking factor on Google is Keyword optimization. It is important for your website to inculcate the keywords that users are searching for. A good keyword optimization strategy will help you constantly update your content with new keywords that will lead to increased traffic and sales.

Also Read : Low Hanging Keywords: The SEO Strategy You May Have Missed

5. Website structure

How your website’s pages are structured and linked together forms the structure of your website. This aspect is important for crawling and index purposes. A flat architecture is considered better for SEO because it lands the user on your website in 3 or less than 3 clicks. You can improve your website’s structure by creating a sitemap.

Conclusion

Google constantly tries to make its search better by testing it every day. Experiments and research are ongoing processes here to improve the search engine. Today, Google has become a household name that everyone is aware of. Thus, it has become even more important for businesses to level up their SEO game to grow online.