Basics of How Google Search Works
Are you wondering how Google Search works? Google follows an interesting algorithm of looking through and organizing all the information on the Internet. In the end, giving you the most valuable and relevant search results.
Considering that there are more than 1.8 billion websites online today and with hundreds of new sites popping up every day – Google has a huge task in hand.
1.
How Google Search Works?
Do you know that Google is a fully automated search engine? Google uses software known as web crawlers that explore the web regularly.
This process helps Google search for new web pages and websites to add them to their index database. The vast majority of websites listed in their results are not manually submitted for including them. Instead, they are found and added automatically when Google’s web crawlers crawl the web.
Google undergoes an interesting journey to gather information from hundreds of billions of web pages to find, understand and present your website to Search users. To achieve this, it follows well-defined steps.
Google Search works in essentially three stages:
1 Crawling
Google has automated programs called crawlers which it uses to crawl the web. The program looks for pages that are new or updated.
Google stores those page addresses or page URLs in an extensive list which is easy to look at later. You can find pages by many different methods, but they only link pages they already know about.
2 Indexing
Once Google has visited the pages that it tries to learn about the pages, it has crawled. It then tries to analyze each page it has crawled.
Google analyzes the page content, images, and video files, to understand the page is all about. This information is then stored in the Google index – a vast database that is stored on several computers. Google images is a web-based product which Google has created and uses it to search for images online.
3 Serving search results
When a user like you searches on Google, Google will try to determine the highest quality results. The best results consider many factors, including the user’s language, location, device (desktop or phone), and previous queries.
For example, searching for “bicycle repair shops” Google would show different answers to a user located in Paris than a user in Hong Kong. Interestingly, Google does not accept payment to rank pages higher, Instead, it uses its algorithm to rank pages.
Learn more about Google Lens and SEO here.
2.
Interesting Facts About Google Search
There are typically hundreds and even thousands of different factors taken into account so that the search engine can figure out how to process information. The search engine developed by Google is technically complex.
Many consider the Google search engine a mysterious black box, and very few are aware of precisely what is inside. However, the good news is that the search engine algorithm is pretty easy to understand.
Google sees billions of searches every day, out of which 15 percent of those queries are ones they have never seen before. So they built ways to return results for questions that they could not anticipate.
Having a market share of above 90%, it is hard to argue that any other search engine serves better result page than Google. Google has an easy-to-use interface and personalized user experience, and that is what makes it popular.
When people search, they are not always quite sure about the best way to formulate a query. They might not know the right words to use or how to spell these words. Some come to Google Search or look for info they necessarily do not know about the topic, to begin with.
At its core, Google Search understands your language. Their job is to figure out what you are searching for and surface helpful info from the web. Irrespective of how you spell or combine the words in your query. Hence language understanding capabilities of Google Search is a very important area. Thus Google has advanced methods to deal with complex or conversational queries.
You may not know every single factor, but you also do not need to. Understanding the algorithm is important as it helps understand how your website page can rank higher and bring in more website traffic.
Some of the latest developments, like RankBrain, are a concept that helps Google guess what you are searching for by typing on the search page.
3.
Google Search: Be Local Think Local
Small businesses usually are the backbone of an economy, and Google took advantage of this info. They combined search capabilities with Geo-location – targeting to create local results for users.
Surprisingly one of Google’s biggest successes came from their focus on local search. The local search gave small and medium businesses a chance to rank better because of Google’s location-based searches.
Google’s local search helped businesses open up the competitive players in their domain. This was possible as Google provided users with better results based on their search and Geo-proximity of where the search took place.
Google’s local searches became a popular medium for local searches. After accomplishing this, Google took it a step further. It combined the local search results with the Google Maps platform making navigation easier. It also helped users explore their local businesses with their smartphones.
As a small or medium business, you can now rank higher based on your location. This is possible as there is lesser content at the national level than at the global market.
4.
Businesses Harness the Power of Google Search
Google is the dominant search engine, catering to billions of users each day. Hence as a business owner, you should make full use of this platform to reach your target audiences.
The Internet is constantly growing as more and more people, and businesses are creating websites and web pages. Google has simplified the whole web by creating an outstanding search engine that people can use and trust.
You should take advantage of the Google Search engine as a business especially for your target audience, even if you are not a marketer. Google provides simple, better results. Happy users convert into repeat users. Repeat users become loyal to the platform.
Google can provide higher-quality results for each user search in real time. They fully understand the search intent and find the most relevant and accurate websites that match each query. Because of this approach, Google stands out from the competition. Customer’s online satisfaction is a major part of their core business model.
As a business owner you should try to apply SEO best practices to your website as it is an investment. SOE optimized pages will help Google navigate your website or web page better. Thus bringing quality traffic to your business.
Once you know the basics, you will be better positioned to optimize your new website page. The important element of search engine optimization is to build links. If link building is good on your website, there are high chances that your page will rank better. This means more traffic, making it crucial to growing your business online.
5.
Search Engine Alternative to Google
As you might be aware, Google is the most significant and most dominant search engine. There are plenty of other platforms developed to suit different user needs. Here are the top search engine alternatives you might use.
Google indeed provides an easy-to-use interface with a personalized user experience. But Google tracks your activity throughout when you avail their services, maintaining a detailed search history of your search queries, the sites you navigate, and more.
Are you looking for an ad free search engine? If you are unwilling to trade privacy for convenience, then you might explore these:
DuckDuckGo
According to stats – in February 2019, DuckDuckGo had more than 35 million daily searches. DuckDuckGo is a search engine that focuses on safeguarding your privacy and avoiding personalized results. They are solely based on user profiling and history.
If you are looking for more privacy on the web, DuckDuckGo is perhaps the best search engine to use. However, you will probably see ads on the search page that are irrelevant to you because you would not be tracked. It might also be possible that you get lower-quality search results with your queries.
Bing
Bing, owned by Microsoft and is perhaps the second-largest non-Google search engine that users use today, especially in the US.
Yahoo
Do you remember Yahoo? Back in the early to mid-90s, Yahoo was the most-used search engine. But not anymore. In contrast, Yahoo does provide search results that are powered using Bing’s engine.
Yahoo has transitioned from being a search engine to providing web services. Their web services like email, answer forums, and financial assets are quite popular.
Baidu
Baidu is a search engine primarily used by Asian countries. Do you know that Baidu is recognized as being the second largest search engine in the world after Google?
Yandex
Yandex is a Russian search engine provider majorly used in Russia and other eastern European countries. Recognized as the fifth largest search engine after Bing and Yahoo, it provides a stylish and secure browser, with voice search features as well.
Conclusion
Google’s search engine is indeed one of the most complex technologies in the world. It scans a vast volume of data at lightning speeds to give users exactly what they are looking for in seconds.
When you think about the basics, search engines are quite easy to understand. Their task is to help people find what they are looking for.
People use Google to find different answers and solutions. They have something on their minds, and they want to find a relevant answer that will help them clear the doubt to move on with their day.