Search Engine Basics

Search Engine Basics

Before we get into the technical stuff, let’s first make sure we understand what search engines actually are, why they exist, and why any of this even matters.

What are search engines?

Search engines are tools that find and rank web content matching a user’s search query.

Each search engine consists of two main parts:

• Search index. A digital library of information about web pages.
• Search algorithm(s). Computer program(s) that rank matching results from the search index.

Examples of popular search engines include Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo.

What is the aim of search engines?

Every search engine aims to provide the best, most relevant results for users. That’s how they obtain or maintain market share—at least in theory.

How do search engines make money?

Search engines have two types of search results:

• Organic results from the search index. You can’t pay to be here.
• Paid results from advertisers. You can pay to be here.

Each time someone clicks on a paid search result, the advertiser pays the search engine. This is known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

This is why market share matters. More users means more ad clicks and more revenue.

Why should you care how search engines work?

Understanding how search engines find, index and rank content will help you to rank your website in organic search results for relevant and popular keywords.

If you can rank high for these queries, you’ll get more clicks and organic traffic to your content.