How Search Engines Work

Search engines are tools that everyone uses to look for something online. "Get, how, guide" are few of the many things that people look. Finding all these things are not possible without search engines. Imagine searching for something without it... You might even spend the whole day but find nothing. Now that we know the importance and how reliant we are on search engines, there is one other thing that you should know. That is how search engines work.

If you have ever tried finding out, you will come across the words "mathematical algorithms". Those words would immediately kill our interest. But it is good to at least know the basics of how search engines work. This will help in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

There are three components to search engine - crawling, indexing, ranking.

1. Crawling
You should have come across this word quite frequently. Web crawlers or "spiders" are codes that search engines like Google uses to get information from the internet. It scans through the page and continues crawling from pages to pages. However, it doesn't stop there. It occasionally returns to pages it had went to and checks for any updates made to the page. This gives blogs a slight advantage over websites. Blogs are regularly updated with new contents and thus, web crawlers love them. Although web crawlers may seem intelligent, at times, it might have problem reading through you content. Keeping your content simple makes it easier for your readers to read but also easier for web crawlers to scan through.

2. Indexing
After scanning through your page, web crawlers store the information in a huge data base. This allows for future reference for both web crawlers and searchers. It also rates the relevance of various contents to keywords used.

3. Ranking
This is where the "mathematical algorithms" come into play. Criteria are set to determine the rank of search results. This is equally important as being ahead of your competitors will give you a slight advantage. Searchers will view your blog first instead of your competitors. And if your blog provides all the relevant information they require or seek, they will most probably not look for another website. Then it will be up to you on how you are going to turn this person into your regular reader.

I have summarized the basics of the way search engines work. This helps you better understand search engines and how to make use of them. Search engines are able to make wonders. By making full use of it, you will not only bring in traffic, but also targeted traffic.

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