The Internet has radically changed the way we search for information. Gone are the days when we had to depend upon one well-established encyclopedia or newspaper for gathering knowledge. Today we can simply fire up our browsers, visit a popular search engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. and type what we want to know. Within a fraction of a second, the search results appear in front of us.
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Understanding search results
Search engines show both organic (free) and sponsored (paid) search results in their result pages, commonly called Search Engine Result Pages. Typically the Search Engine Result Pages of Google look like the following:
Discovery of relevant information
Search results often run into several tens and hundreds of pages, and no human being can go through all of them. Most of the time, we don’t even have to go beyond the first few pages, because by that time we would have already gathered enough information.
Search Engine Algorithms
Have you ever wondered how the search results decide how to display one website before another? This is done by clever software programs called “Search Engine Algorithms”. Every Search Engine provider has research teams tirelessly working to make these Algorithms better. Due to constant improvements that are made, the algorithms keep on changing several times a year, and websites have to adhere to their guidelines to get ranked in the Search Engine Result Pages.
These algorithms are surprisingly versatile in evaluating websites that suit the web surfer’s requirements. They will only show the websites which are relevant to the search query. Google is known to use more than 200 factors to decide the relative ranking of the websites relative to the search query.
Very simply put, this evaluation process goes like this:
How do the Search Engines deliver results?
Another category of software programs known as Web Crawlers (also known as Bots and Spiders) visit websites, take snapshots of the pages and add them to a database. This process is called Crawling. Each Search Engine has several such bots which are untiring in their effort to crawl the web and keep the databases updated. While doing this, special attention is given to the content and the words that feature prominently on the websites. These are known as Keywords. Every search revolves around a keyword, hence getting the right keywords can improve the ranking of any web page.
Whenever and user searches for keywords, the Algorithm does the following:
It’s a fierce battle out there
Many companies are vying for the top positions in the Search Engine Result Pages for every popular keyword. There might be millions of websites that might feature the same keyword. This becomes truer when you search for genetic Keywords like say, “buy computers”.
As you can see, Google gives you more than 185 million search results. If you are a computer manufacturer or re-seller, then surely you will have to work a lot to ensure that your website gets the attention of your potential customers.
Enter Search Engine Optimization
This is arguably the most essential tool that your website needs to win the battle for the top space in the organic search results. It is a complex technique to implement, but the results can be very satisfying.
Get SEO advice
If you are the owner of a website, then get in touch with a digital marketing agency like us to avail of their SEO services. Digital marketing companies are the experts in the field and know the latest tactics that are working. It will implement Search Engine Optimization to slowly improve the ranking of the website in the search results.
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