Google is an answer machine.
They discover, understand, and organize the world’s internet information. This enables them to offer relevant results to the questions searchers are asking.
Search engines have three primary functions:
- Crawl: Search the internet for content i.e. looking over the code/content for each web address (URL) they find.
- Index: Store and organize the content found during the crawling process.
- Rank: Use algorithms to determine which content best answers a searcher’s query.
How Google Search Crawl the Web
Google crawls the web using robots. The robots (known as crawlers or spiders or bots) find new and updated content via links. Content can vary — it could be a webpage, an image, a video, a PDF, etc.
The robots take note about your website, from the titles you use to the text on each page to learn more about your site, what it does, etc.
What is the Google Search Index?
Google processes and stores information they find about your site in an index.
Indexing involves recording data about a site and then storing that information (with some accuracy) in a database (the index).
How Does Google Determine The Best Site To Rank 1st?
Google has to figure out how to best match and display the information in its index when someone types in a search query.
When someone performs a search, Google searches its index for highly relevant content. Next, Google sorts that content in the hopes of solving the searcher’s query.
Ranking is the process by which Google sorts the search results by relevance.
In general, the higher a site’s ranking the more relevant Google thinks that the site is to the query.
Remember:
- Keyword research ensures that your content is relevant to the search queries in Google.
- On-Page SEO helps to ensure that the data recorded by the Googlebot in its index is accurate and relevant for keywords.
- Technical SEO ensures your website is crawlable and indexable and,
- Off-Page SEO (Link Building) helps your site become trustworthy to Google.