These days we take search engine technology for granted. We’re so used to typing a question and getting an answer within a few seconds that we don’t even stop to think about how it all actually comes together. Today, we’re going to take a peek behind the curtain.
Web search works thanks to search engine algorithms. These algorithms are deeply ingrained in the online world. They often act as the gatekeepers of online information by deciding which websites get discovered and which are left in the digital dust.
In this article, we’re going to discuss how search engine algorithms work and explain why they’re essential for your business. Whether you’re running a local bakery in Birmingham, AL, or an international tech company, understanding these algorithms can be the key to unlocking your business’s online potential.
What is a Search Engine?
If we look at the expanse of the Internet as a vast library, then search engines are like Internet librarians. They index vast amounts of information and help you find exactly what you’re looking for with just a few keystrokes. When you type a query into the search box, search engines like Google and Bing sift through billions of web pages to (hopefully) deliver the most relevant results.
This makes search engines crucial to most businesses. They’re the bridge connecting you with potential customers searching for your products or services. Imagine having the best pizza place in town. If no one knows you exist, you’re still not going to sell enough pizza to stay in business (let alone be profitable). This is where search engines come in. They help customers find you in the crowded online marketplace.
If you’re a mid-sized business looking to expand, web search engines can be your ticket to the New Markets Express. Showing up in the search results allows you to stand in front of a new audience but to do that, you need to know how search engines work (or hire someone who does).
Understanding Search Algorithms
So, what’s behind the curtain? The core technology that powers search engines is the search algorithm. These complex mathematical formulas decide which content gets displayed and in what order. They’re constantly evolving to better meet user needs, striving for relevance, accuracy, and quality.
Back in the day, search algorithms used to be pretty simple (and easy to manipulate). You used to type a keyword in the search box and the algorithms would match you with results that contained said word. People quickly figured out that spamming keywords would allow them to get a lot more traffic and thus – black hat SEO was born!
Google changed that by introducing PageRank. It not only took keywords and other onsite factors into consideration but also links. Since offsite factors weren’t as easy to manipulate, this changed the web search engine game forever.
Naturally, black hats didn’t take it lying down and they developed new methods to manipulate the search results. There’s been an arms race between unethical SEOs and search engines ever since.
The Google Search Engine Algorithm
When it comes to search engines, Google is the apex. They have an 87.45% market share in the US (as of the writing of this article). Their search engine algorithms process billions of queries every day (some of them are related to your products or services). Tapping even into an infinitesimal fraction of the traffic for some search queries can shoot your business into the stratosphere.
Google’s search algorithms are the most sophisticated and widely used. Unless you’re targeting a certain demographic that heavily favors Bing, it makes sense to focus on Google for SEO. It’s not that Bing can’t bring you good traffic, but it’s very niche.
You’re probably already wondering if optimizing for both is a viable option. The problem with this line of thinking is that Bing and Google use different algorithms so the results can be very different. You can try it yourself – pick a query and type it into both Google and Bing, then compare results. They’re going to be very different. And since Google gets the majority of traffic, they also get the majority of search engine marketing effort.
Google’s algorithms assess a website’s relevance and authority to the query. They also use natural language processing to understand the context and intent behind the query. This influences how websites are ranked in search engine results pages.
The algorithms consider factors like the quality of web page content, backlinks, and user engagement to ensure users get the best results. Essentially, Google wants to ensure that users find the most trustworthy and relevant information quickly.
Obviously, they sometimes fail. Not to mention the new AI Overview functionality they’re rolling out gives questionable answers to many queries. Regardless of this, Google is still getting the lion’s share of search traffic, which is why our SEO services also focus on Google.
Google’s Ranking Factors
How do these algorithms actually work, though? Google doesn’t quite share all their trade secrets with the general public. That’s why SEOs from all over the world have tried to backward engineer how things work. We look at the results, patents, and public statements and we form conclusions on this basis (although Google sometimes throws us a curve ball).
There was a not-so-recent Google leak that revealed a lot of the inner workings and confirmed (and debunked) many assumptions about the search algorithms. We won’t get into all the nuances that go into ranking (there’s a computer science degree worth of them), but we’ll touch upon the basics:
- Site authority – Is your website trustworthy? Do you have experience in the fields you write about? Google evaluates the overall credibility and trustworthiness of your website to answer these questions.
- This metric influences rankings by assessing the site’s reputation across specific topics.
- Keywords – These are the terms people type into the search bar. Google’s algorithms try to interpret the intent behind the query and then try to satisfy this intent.
- However sophisticated the Google algorithms become, though, they still rely on keywords to understand the meaning of your website.
- This makes keyword usage in the content metadata essential if you hope to get better rankings in the search results.
- Keyword research is the method we use to determine the specific keywords people use when searching for products and services.
- Site Speed – Nobody likes a slow website. Google favors sites that load quickly, enhancing the user experience.
- Site speed gets in and out of the list of official rankings factors, with Google sometimes claiming they look at it and other times turning a blind eye.
- Even if it’s not a direct ranking factor, loading speed affects user experience so it’s no less important.
- Mobile-friendliness – With more people browsing on their phones, having a mobile-friendly site is essential.
- Several years ago, Google started giving priority to mobile users when the mobile market overtook desktops.
- Additionally, they’re trying to reduce the use of desktop crawlers (the robots they use to put your website in the search results).
- User engagement metrics – How long do visitors stay on your site? Do they click around or leave immediately? These behaviors signal to Google the value of your content.
- For years official spokespeople denied Google was using engagement metrics as ranking factors. However, the aforementioned leak suggests otherwise.
- We put a lot of work into improving the user experience of our clients’ websites not just because of rankings, but because that’s how you get conversions.
- There are suggestions that social media activity might also play a passive role in rankings.
- Link quality and quantity – Links are like a vote of confidence from other websites. Google looks at the quantity and quality of your links as a significant ranking factor.
- In recent years, Google claimed they were no longer putting so much stock in links, but the leak showed otherwise.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of the many factors Google’s algorithms use to rank content. There are thousands of them and we seriously doubt you want to spend the next 2-3 weeks sifting through them.
That being said, these are some of the main ones. If you start working with us, we’ll audit your website and suggest changes. The reason for these suggestions will be tied to some of these factors.
What Are Algorithm Updates?
We’ve mentioned several times in the article that Google is trying to deal with people who game the system by using unethical methods. This is why they constantly update the algorithms. SEOs are constantly on the lookout for the next Google update.
Updates are changes to the way algorithms work. Sometimes, they’re in regard to something specific (like spam or keyword stuffing, for example). Other times, it’s more general and all-encompassing. But it’s always anxiety-inducing.
Ethical professionals rarely have something to fear, but even Google makes mistakes so we try to always stay informed. We solve the problem with the constant algorithm updates by staying on Google’s good side. We would rather err on the side of caution and not take shortcuts for short-term gains if this risks the long-term well-being of your business.
Conclusion
Search engines might be the Internet’s librarians, but you need to know how they work if you hope to grow your business online. There’s a lot of information that algorithms use to rank content so there’s a lot of work that goes into optimizing a website.
Ready to take your online presence to the next level? You don’t need to invest time in learning about search engine optimization and the latest algorithm trends. We can do that for you! Simply get in touch and we’d love to talk to you about your business and what we can do for you.
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