A Guide to Search Engine Working: Crawling, Indexing & Ranking

A search engine helps users to find the information they need. It fetches the websites, pictures, and videos that the user seeks through the keywords he provides. The engine tries to match the user’s queries with various sites it has in its database.

Search engines collect and organize information through crawling, indexing, and ranking. Search engines also use the searcher’s location, device, and search history to provide highly customized search results.

Types of Search Engines

There are different types of search engines. Crawler-based search engines rely on a crawler bot to crawl and index information on the database. Some search engines run through human-powered directories like Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ.

Hybrid search engines combine both crawlers and human-powered directories. This approach helps to keep away from spammers. In 2021, Google, Bing, Baidu, Yahoo,and Yandex are the most popular search engines.

How Do Search Engines Work?

Crawling

The search engine reads the headline, keywords, navigation, and content on a site. Crawlers or spiders scan websites and index them to the database. Their function is to fetch relevant results that match the user’s query.

Crawlers visit hundreds of web pages to add them to Google’s database. Crawlers also look for updates to web pages and dead links. Make sure you have a logical site architecture and a sitemap on your site. It allows crawlers to scan your website with ease and rank it. You need to regularly monitor your site and fix server errors and DNS errors.

Make sure that your site allows crawlers to crawl through easily. It is fundamental for your site to appear in search rankings. Search engines have web crawlers running on different algorithms. Web crawlers don’t crawl all web pages on the internet.

It crawls web pages which it deems very important through various factors like page views and page load speed. Without web crawlers, your website won’t show up in search results. Optimizing your site for easy crawling is essential to increase your organic traffic.

If you need help optimizing your site, you can get the help of a digital marketing agency that provides SEO services in India. Make sure they offer professional SEO services with a good understanding of web crawling.

Indexing

Crawlers store the information they collected in a database called an index. The index is a collection of all the web pages that the bot has found. When a user makes a query, the search engine scans its database and fetches relevant information.

For Google to index your site, you need to do search optimization. It is crucial to have an XML sitemap on your website. The sitemap gives information about all the pages that are on your site. You can also request Google to index a site. In Google Search Console, you will find an option Request Indexing.

If a site is already indexed, Google will provide information about it. Non-indexed sites will show up in Google’s search results in a few seconds. You also have to optimize your content and match the user intent.

Optimizing meta tags and backlinks is also necessary for your site to be indexed. For Bing, you can index your site through Bing Webmaster Tools. You need to click “Configure my Site” and then paste your URL.

Ranking

Search engines rank sites based on different factors. The page that shows up after a search on your browser is called the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Factors that determine Rankings

High-Quality Content

High-quality content is fundamental for your site to rank. Your content must be unique and make a long-lasting impact upon your readers. High-quality content is essential to keep your audience stick to your brand.

Hiring writers from a company that offers professional SEO services can help your page rank. Your content has to be optimized to answer user queries and satisfy curious minds.

HTTPS

Using HTTPS is another crucial ranking factor. Google flags sites that don’t use HTTPS.

User Experience 

User experience is another ranking factor. A better user experience is fundamental for user engagement. Optimizing your web page and content is necessary for a better user experience. Fixing your site architecture and allowing for easy site navigation is essential.

Page Load Speed

Your site load speed is a critical factor for rankings. Your audience will leave your site for your competitors if it takes forever to load. Your site should load in a couple of seconds. You need to optimize your images and reduce redirects to increase your page speed.

Mobile-friendliness

Making sure that your site is mobile-friendly is crucial for rankings. More and more people use smartphones to make queries. Therefore, you need to make sure that your site provides a great mobile user experience. Mobile page load speed is a crucial factor Google uses to rank pages.

You need to optimize images by reducing their sizes. A company providing SEO services in India can customize your mobile site to appeal to an Indian audience.