{"id":29918,"date":"2024-11-12T12:40:04","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T12:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/blog\/wiki\/search-engine\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T09:23:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T09:23:20","slug":"Search_Engine","status":"publish","type":"wiki","link":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/wiki\/Search_Engine","title":{"rendered":"Search Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is a search engine?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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\"search<\/a> <\/p>\n
Figure:<\/b> Search Engine – Author: Seobility – License: CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A search engine is a tool used to help find a piece of content in a larger database, usually based on a written word or phrase provided by the user. Search engines are predominately used online for searching for particular web pages, or searching for applications in an app store, for example.\n<\/p>\n

Examples of search engines that are commonly used are Google, Bing, Yahoo, and YouTube. However, there are search engines on a range of different sites and platforms, like the search feature on social media channels, or the search feature on news sites.\n<\/p>\n

When using these search engines, you provide the search engine with a word or phrase you want more information about, or a question you have. The search engine then provides you with a page containing the most relevant results for the term you entered. This prevents you from having to go through the huge number of pages manually, which is often impossible when working with large databases.\n<\/p>\n

The process starts with ensuring the search engine has a large database that contains all important content but also encompasses the understanding of what the term you searched means, what your reason for searching a specific term is, and how to provide you with the best possible results for the term you entered.\n<\/p>\n

\"Google\n<\/p>\n

Screenshot of the Google search engine<\/a>, showing a search for \u201ccar rental chicago\u201d\n<\/p>\n

How do search engines work?<\/span><\/h2>\n

There are two main steps to how a search engine works. The first of these is the discovery\/indexing<\/a> step. The second is the sorting of the results.\n<\/p>\n

Discovery & indexing<\/span><\/h3>\n

Search engines need to have a large database of websites and webpages to be able to find the most relevant results. Different search engines have different methods for discovering new content to add to their database. For example, Google uses a bot called Googlebot<\/a> to crawl pages on the web.\n<\/p>\n

Very simply put, crawling is the process of an automated program \u2018clicking\u2019 links on websites and then taking a snapshot of the page before moving on to the next link. This enables Google to find websites and webpages that aren\u2019t submitted to them manually, which helps to improve the diversity of content they can potentially show to the user.\n<\/p>\n

YouTube, on the other hand, doesn\u2019t crawl the entire web. YouTube allows users to add videos and content to their database manually. It\u2019s the same with the search engines on many smaller sites\/platforms, as well as the search engines on social media websites or the app store. These all require users to submit content in order to be added to their database.\n<\/p>\n

After discovery, the next step is indexing. In this step, the page is added to the database and is therefore eligible to appear in the search results. On some platforms, this happens automatically. However, some search engines, like Google, don\u2019t index every page they crawl. This could be due to webmasters not allowing Google to crawl or index the page, or it could be due to another reason.\n<\/p>\n

Sorting the results<\/span><\/h3>\n

Sorting the results based on a term provided by the user is a highly complex part of the search process. There are two main parts to this. The first is understanding what the searcher wants to find based on the word or phrase provided. The second is finding the most relevant pages to show based on this term.\n<\/p>\n

Understanding the search term<\/span><\/h4>\n

Understanding the search term and the reason you are searching for something is a big challenge to search engines. Many words and phrases have multiple meanings, and there are also factors like personal circumstances and local\/global trends to consider (among many others). Search engines are constantly trying to improve their understanding of the search terms provided by users, the context, and the searcher\u2019s situation. Lately, this has led to search engines like Google localizing certain search results based on the user\u2019s location, as well as using data about the searcher\u2019s previous searches and clicks to customize the results based on their situation. If they know where you are and what you\u2019ve been searching for previously, they are in a better position to understand the search term and the search intent.\n<\/p>\n

Finding the most relevant pages<\/span><\/h4>\n

Next, the search engine needs to find the most relevant and helpful results in its database. They do this using a whole host of different factors, which are also called ranking factors. One of these factors is the inclusion of keywords<\/a>, which tends to be a good indication of relevance. If a webpage contains the same word as the word that is searched or words that mean the same thing, it can be a strong indication to a search engine that the content on the webpage is relevant. The factors used to determine the position of webpages are constantly being revised and improved by search engines to provide the searcher with the best possible user experience. SEO is the process of optimizing your website for these different ranking factors.\n<\/p>\n

What search engines are there?<\/span><\/h2>\n

There are thousands of different search engines, for example, search engines focused on social media platforms, webpages, videos, and many more. Below are the top five largest search engines by market share[1]<\/a><\/sup>:\n<\/p>\n