How Does Google Search Work
Have you ever wondered how does Google search work? Did you know that when you do a search in Google you are not searching the World Wide Web (www)? No you are not. You are only searching what Google has indexed.
So how does searching on Google really work and why does it seem to be so thorough a search? The video at the link below is an informative whiteboard-style look at how Google handles giving you the search results that you are looking for.
It’s amazing how much the Google software has to go through within a half a second to give you the search results you are looking for. Just some of the things it uses to determine which pages to show you for your searches are: pages that are relevant to what you are searching for, pages that contain keywords you are searching with, do those keywords appear in the title of the page and/or the description, are the pages from a reputable or a spammy site, what is the page rank of the pages,…
It truly is amazing what happens in a split second after we click on “Search” with everything that goes on behind the scenes that we take for granted. Once again Matt Cutts explains it in the simplest terms. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs
Recent Comments
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Cool, looks almost like the synapses of a brain. Which is a pretty good model to try and follow. It seems like it works pretty well for most of us.
It is amazing how google works. I have all my pages and posts indexed in Google except one. Now I'm wondering if it is spammy or if something is wrong with it. Thanks for the useful information again Robert.
You're welcome Evelyn. - You should look at that page you can't find and see if it is spammy. If it is change it. Also make sure you have a sitemap created and it has been submitted to Google. That also helps Google to find all of the pages on your website.
You're welcome. Makes me wonder how big Google's server room is that contains all of the indexed web information.
Thanks for sharing that. Who better to learn from than Matt Cutts? & I now know how fast a Cheetah can run!
Thanks for taking your time to post this Robert. It's amazing how Matt manages to convey his ideas in the simplest and easiest to understand way. Also, the videos and short & sweet....and right to the point. Have a great weekend! :)
You're welcome Melanie. It just amazes me with everything that the Google software does within a half second. Have a great weekend yourself.
Fascinating Robert - I love hearing about the behind the scenes stuff... how things work!
Thanks for the post, I really enjoyed it and the video.
Cheers, Mark
You're welcome Mark. Though I knew most of what Matt said already, it was when he described everything that the Google software does to select the pages and ads to display. The fact that all of that is done within a half second is amazing.
Yeah I know - I have a large database at the 9-5 that holds lots of performance data for staff - it regularly times out when searching - I like how Matt talks about the thousands of computers/servers they have - makes my one little server seem like a well whipped, over worked pony!! :) I know the world of indexing and searching because of my little server - but it is still fascinating hearing how the big guns fire!
All the best, Mark
Real good information! I've been wondering about all this. I suppose the initial hurdle for new blogs is building up those reputable links to your site.
Yes, building reputable links will take some effort because you will have to take an active roll in sharing your content via social media within like minded communities. This is why I have been spending the last 4 months building up my target audiences on the social networks and then sharing my content within those communities.
This is how it should be done as Google has said many times, and Kyle as well, that buying links will not give you quality links and can actually hurt your chances of being ranked well.
I love that the Google bots are called spiders. It makes it relevant when you know that they "crawl" your "web".
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Thanks Robert.
Two trivial points of interest for me (besides the valuable content);
- Google has seemed in their design of the searching environment to try & emulate how the human brain organically searches, replicating how neurons find their a->b's - very clever I think.
- Who was one of the guys that developed the Google PAGE ranking system - Larry PAGE of course 8~|
(Just another bit of trivia, (most people probably know) - Google is the name of a number. That number starts with a 1 and has one hundred zeros following ~ Ah yes, the two founders were not only super geeky, but also had a propensity to dream - LARGE... Great lesson for entrepreneurs of any flavor)
Yes Damien, I've noticed those trivial points and that the name Google comes from the name Googolplex. Yes there is a lot of "geek" going on here. :)