A Detailed Overview of the Search Engine Functions
Designed for the user’s experience and application, search engines are a perfect blessing and game-changer. We all use it for numerous purposes; just like we eat, drink, exercise, and work, search engines are part of our daily consumption and are our redeemers. As soon as we enter the problem or query, customized results pop up from all corners of the world.
Google and Bing have now become a necessity for everyone and every issue, be it related to any segment of life. If your business is using SEO or PPC, you need to understand how SEO works and what the functions of a search engine are.
Let’s break down each function and try to understand how search engines operate.
What is a Search Engine?
A search engine is a treasure trove of billions and trillions of content files and information that can be accessed via the World Wide Web.
When a query, keyword, or voice search is injected into the search engine, it gets multiple results from web links presented in the form of news, images, videos, and other viable mediums. The Search Engine Result Page (SERP) is the ultimate dashboard where you can view and scroll through all these fetched results.
One of the most dynamic and pivotal components of a search engine is a web bot, crawler, or spider. It crawls the websites and content pages to look out for supporting and relevant content for the search engine result pages. Once a query is inserted, appropriate results are searched via the web crawlers which are built and backed by already-established web algorithms.
How Do Search Engines Perform?
Search engines solely rely on automated algorithms i.e., web crawlers. They crawl for credible links on every page and tab of the search engine and send an identical page for the Search Engine Results Page. The search engines need to distinguish and comprehend the requested information before presenting it to the users. The Web crawlers are designed to extract sound, relevant, and correct information.
As the internet is a hub of an enduring archive of uncountable data and files, search engines via web crawlers sort, trace, hoard, and rank the content and information eventually. That’s the essential reason, why so many businesses invest in SEO and PPC to improve their website’s search engine ranking.
Functions of Search Engine
It is vital to shed light on its four major and universal functions to effectively understand its impact.
1. Crawling
It is the foundation of search engines and locates the requested content and information within milliseconds. It has all the algorithms to identify data and stats from any point of its publication. Crawlers have the potential to not only search from a wide range of websites but also present tons of information concurrently.
While it searches and reviews the current and already-established websites, the crawlers explore all sorts of data, including keywords, page speed, URLs, active videos, codes, etc.
2. Indexing
This function is purely related to data syncing. Once the crawlers have reviewed the data, the search engine now segregates the collected information into different segments.
It also includes the data bifurcation for positive and negative ranking signals and saves it in the correct compartment of online servers. Remember that your website needs to be indexed to get a Search Engine Results Page display.
Both crawling and indexing are simultaneous and continuous sequences. It keeps the information and data relevant to be exhibited as a potential search query.
3. Storage
It is the heart of any search engine, and very much necessary for quick data extraction. The number of search results is completely linked to the factor that how much storage space is available and being used. Big giants like Google and Bing have a tremendous capacity to store data at the backhand. This function ensures that whatever the user is searching and trying to figure out, must be in the database.
4. Ranking
It is directly connected with indexing, as the search engine starts giving ranking to the hyperlinks during indexing as well. It considers various factors such as quality, relevancy, and authenticity of the content with the end-user. It creates a set of results and hyperlinks for the users eventually.
We have multiple search engine options apart from the few big ones, and you must have noticed that all search engines illustrate different results on identical keywords or phrases. It happens because each search engine’s algorithms and crawlers work differently. It is advised to research a few algorithms to broaden your thinking of how search engine ranking works for your business.
Significant Search Engine Ranking Factors
As of now, no search engine has publicly disclosed its ranking factors but here are a few important ones that should be catered to with complete consideration.
. Backlinks
They are the page links from one website/medium to another website/medium. They are considered one of the most influential and successful factors to improve your business’s search engine ranking.
It has to be taken into deliberation that quality matters in backlinks. It has been observed that pages with many low-quality backlinks get shattered by a few high-quality backlinks.
. Relevance
Search engines usually look after two types of relevance.
- Primarily, they compare the page keywords with the search query.
- Secondly, they also compare the interaction of the previous users. For example, determine whether the previous user achieved the desired result with the same query.
. Freshness
It is a dependent ranking factor and significantly more impactful for queries that demand instant results. For instance, you would see a recently published top result for a new “Netflix Series”, rather than “How to survive in the Amazon Jungle for 30 days”.
. Language
Every search engine understands that there’s no relevancy in showing Arabic results to Italian users. Hence, search engines rank websites supporting multiple languages to cater to a diverse range of users.
In A Nut Shell
Believe it or not, search engines have now become a decisive factor in our everyday lives. From finding the best school for your kids to selling your imported golf kits in your neighborhood, we are intensely dependent on search engines. With the continuous tech revolution and data mobilization, search engines have made it easier and more accurate for users to land and utilize relevant information.