How search engines work

Understanding a bit about search engines can help when you are thinking about search engine optimisation (SEO).

Crawler/spider-based search engines
Crawler/spider based search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. They ‘crawl’ the web according to the organic search requests entered and present the searcher with a list of all the related items found.

So how do they find me?
How quickly your business is found, and where your business ends up in the search results, will generally depend on how closely matched your business is to the search query and how easy your website is to find by the spider.

Search engines aren’t always right
The results you see when looking for information via a search engine occur through an automated scan of millions of pages of information related to the topic you have entered. Ideally, the information is presented in order of most relevant to least relevant. But search engines don’t always get it right.

Rules, Rules, Rules
The way crawler/ spider-based search engines work is via a set of rules (known as algorithms) that determine relevance. They don’t tell anyone exactly what these rules are as that would give away their trade secret. But we do know there are some things that seem to work for most search engines at this time (see our article on “Tips to optimize your site for search engines”).

Search engine submission: listing your business
Currently, there are two sure-fire ways to list your business with search engines:
1. Search engine optimisation (SEO): adapting your site and employing methods to help increase your chance of being found in the organic searches on the left hand side of google search
2. Pay-per-click advertising where you appear on the right-hand-side of google for organic searches and pay money every time someone clicks on your business

It’s all about letting the search engines know you are there, so your business is seen by the people who are looking for you!