Search Engine Optimization

The world is a big place, a place with much to explore and experience. While we can’t travel to and explore every corner of the Earth, having the internet is a close second to having all that the world offers at our finger tips. However, because the internet has so much to offer, we need to know how to search through it effectively, to reach the things we actually want. This leads us to search engines, the tool we use to browse through the internet. In this article we will learn about how do search engines work, and through this improve our knowledge of how to browse the internet effectively.  

What is a search engine? 

A search engine is simply a program which searches the World Wide Web based off of the keywords you put into it. For example, if you’d like to search for the answer to “which countries fought in World War Two?” , the keywords here may be ‘countries’, ‘fought’ and ‘World War Two’. Therefore, when using a search engine, it is key to think about what are the keywords you want to use.  

How do search engines work? 

So, how do search engines work? The process begins with the search engine searching through its index of webpages for things related to your search, using what are known as ‘web crawlers’. Web crawlers visit different URLs related to your search, copying the URL and searching through more URLs on that very webpage, continuously repeating the process. Eventually a huge index of webpages is built up related to your search. An algorithm is then used to decide how to order the results, and which ones it should show you first. For example, the algorithm may take into account how often each page is updated, and if they are from trustworthy domains. All in all, the more useful the algorithm deems the webpage to be, the higher up it will show in the results.  

What search engines are there and how popular are they? 

Google is by far the most popular search engine, holding over 90% of the market share. The second-most popular would be Bing, followed by Baidu, Yahoo, Yandex and DuckDuckGo.  

How to use search engines effectively – be specific: 

It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised with how many people don’t follow this. The internet has a vast amount of information and resources, and so in order to find specifically what you want, you must be specific with the words you use to search them for. Following this tip will allow you to take full advantage of the benefits the internet provides.  

We hope this article on how do search engines work was useful in further understanding how to better use them for our own gain. Through this we hope that this will help you in using search engines more effectively, and have full access to everything great the internet has to offer.  

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This article contains general information regarding health and well-being. This information is not intended as advice and should not be treated as such. You must not rely on the information on this website as an alternative to advice from medical or educational professionals.