How Search Engines Work: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking Beginner’s Guide to SEO

Posted On: June 26, 2025
Studio: News
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That one is different, and if you want to learn about what is the meaning of SEM, then you can read this post next. So for you to be found in organic search results, make sure that every page of your website is crawled. But whatever the format is, the content is always discovered by links. Crawlers look at webpages and follow links on those pages, much like you would if you were browsing content on the web.

search engine optimization

NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

This guide will help you become more data-driven in your SEO efforts. Rather than haphazardly throwing arrows all over the place (and getting lucky every once in a while), you’ll put more wood behind fewer arrows. Before you do any of that, you have to first understand your website’s goals to execute a strategic SEO plan. It’s worth noting that there are many other search features that, even though they aren’t paid advertising, can’t typically be influenced by SEO. These features often have data acquired from proprietary data sources, such as Wikipedia, WebMD, and IMDb. Some SERP features on Google are organic and can be influenced by SEO.

So, you should be very careful and only choose educational resources that provide reputable and up-to-date information. Each content management system (CMS) has its own settings and plugins that can affect your SEO performance. And it gives you a competitive advantage over competitors that use only free SEO tools (or no tools at all).

Organic ranking

search engine optimization

Citations help Internet users discover local businesses and can also impact local search engine rankings. Keywords play a central role in SEO; they are the terms that users enter into search engines. Your SEO efforts largely depend on how well you’ve implemented and targeted these keywords. On-Page SEO refers to techniques you can apply to your website’s individual pages to improve their search engine rankings, such as optimizing content, HTML code, and metadata.

The idea in leveraging these tools is to first identify the thought leaders and potential linkers in your space, and then understand what they share and link to. You don’t want to “keyword stuff” and cram your core keyword and every possible variation of it into your alt attribute. In fact, if it doesn’t fit naturally into the description, don’t include your target keyword here at all. Just be sure not to skip the alt attribute, and try to give a thorough, accurate description of the image (imagine you’re describing it to someone who can’t see it – that’s what it’s there for!). There are hundreds of ranking factors Google’s algorithm considers in response to searches, and they are constantly updating and refining their process. This approach to search engine optimization involves focusing on the human audience that will be clicking on and reading the site’s content.

search engine optimization

If you know your way around redirects, optimizing page speed, crawlability, security and structured data, make those your first priority. If not, let your site builder help you out or hire someone with a background in technical SEO. When that’s done, you can start looking at site structure and the content on your pages. Search engines are working hard to get a better understanding of a user’s search intent, to show that user the results that fit their need best. Related to that, they continue to improve how information is presented in the search results, which can differ quite a bit per search intent.

search engine optimization

Compared to paid traffic SEO takes more SEO Anomaly time to kick in, and it requires consistency. However, once you have gained a decent share of organic SEO traffic from Google it’s relatively easy to sustain, and will provide a consistent stream of inbound leads for your organization. Below, we’ll break down SEO vs. PPC and SEO vs. SEM to help you understand their differences, strengths, and how they can complement each other in a well-rounded digital marketing strategy. While SEO requires an investment, it is more cost-effective than continuously running paid ads. With PPC, you pay for every click, but SEO traffic is free once you’ve ranked well.

search engine optimization

Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to get URL-specific recommendations. HigherVisibility has delivered exemplary results since taking over our SEO/PPC accounts. They’re a key reason we have become the top online authority in the collision industry. Being an authority on a given topic can also be achieved with some simple steps. This freshness factor isn’t always the most important SEO strategy, but it is nonetheless a best practice.

With this understanding of how search engines rank pages, let’s explore how SEO works. It has a complex algorithm, which takes into account hundreds of ranking factors. They work together to determine the most useful and relevant results. To understand the basics of SEO, it helps to understand how search engines work.

  • That way, Google can fully understand the topic of your page (not just your keyword).
  • To specifically focus on on-page SEO elements, use the search bar to identify the issues directly related to on-page optimization.
  • Let’s say you have two links pointing to a page on your site… and both of those links are on the same page.
  • The person you delegate to this job will contribute cross-functionally more often than not.

But part of this Tweet’s success was that it had some interesting stuff in the Tweet itself. That way, people could Retweet it without needing to click over and see the post. Unfortunately, most people just spam links on Twitter… and wonder why no one clicks over.