Search engines "look" for websites or content that appears to be most relevant to what a user is looking for.

A search engine is made up of 3 parts- Spider, Index & Software.

Each of them do different things but as a whole provide a search results page.

What is a Spider? A spider is a computer that looks through a list of URL's (Web Addresses) that have been added to the internet. It searches these pages, looking at their contents and the links that they contain.

Spiders (at regular intervals) return to these pages and check for updated content or links. The frequency of these visits is determined by the search engine.

What is the Index? The Index is a large list or catalogue of websites that the Spider has found. It may take a while for new pages that are found by the Spider to be added to the Index. A web page can be visited by a Spider but not yet Indexed.

What is the Search Engine? The search engine is a software program that looks at the billions of pages contained in its index and finds relevant matches to your search criteria. Search Engines generally rank these results in order of suggested relevance or importance.

A good search engine will display only the results the user is looking for!

Search Engine Procedure

A user will enter a query or a string of words into a search engines software. The search engine will analyze the query and check the pages in its Index to see what relevant content can be found.

Upon retrieving a list of possible matches it then calculates the order in which those matches are to be displayed using its Algorithm and other identifiers. (Other identifiers could be the geographical location of the users computer on the internet or previous searching history patterns)

These results are then displayed in the center of the screen and are called the "Natural" search results. These results are not biased by any paid advertisements or pay-per-click campaigns.

Pay-per-click campaigns are the sponsored advertisements or results at the top or side of a search engine page. Web site owners generally bid for targeted keywords that are relevant to their specific products or services.

 














Search Engine Products Page


Why do different search engines display different results for the same search?

Every search engine has a unique set of mathematical rules called an Algorithm that is used to order and rank its results.

The code of these Algorithms are a well kept trade secret by each of the search engine companies.

As each search engine has a different set of algorithms this is the main reason that one website could be ranked higher than another even with an identical search being performed.