A question many people have is, "Where do search results come from?" This is a fair question, as the search engines have a large task to find the best results for things people type in.
Each search engine operates a bit differently, but more of the search engines are starting to behave more like Google.
The Google algorithm operates by finding pages most relevant to a person's search through different means.
The first way that Google looks for matching information is through different elements of a web page.
Notice that this is for each page, not for an entire site.
Google will look at what words are placed on different parts of the page, with certain parts having more "weight" than others.
Another major way Google looks for these words is through what's called "anchor text".
This is another way to refer to the text that is in a link to another page.
So any page that has a certain word or set of words linked to it gets more "weight" in Google's eyes.
Other ways people refer to this "weight" is through terms like "link juice" and "PageRank".
The latter is the official name for the Google algorithm, and how they value a page's keyword "weight".
These are the primary ways that PageRank is built, through the amount of times the keyword in question in on a page, and how many times a page is linked through anchor text.
Then Google takes all of this information and sorts pages by PageRank for each keyword.
The idea that Google does this for every possible keyword is mind-boggling, but this is really what they do.
Then they list these as the results for anyone typing that keyword into the search engine.
The actual results are pulled mainly from two parts of that web page: the Title tag and the Description tag.
If either of these are blank, Google will often just pull a section of the page that matches best with the query to fill in that space.
The Title tag is used for the clickable links in the search engine results, and the Description tag is put underneath each of these links.
These are where search engine results come from, and now you have a better understanding of how different pages rank for certain keywords, and how search engine optimization operates on a basic level.
Each search engine operates a bit differently, but more of the search engines are starting to behave more like Google.
The Google algorithm operates by finding pages most relevant to a person's search through different means.
The first way that Google looks for matching information is through different elements of a web page.
Notice that this is for each page, not for an entire site.
Google will look at what words are placed on different parts of the page, with certain parts having more "weight" than others.
Another major way Google looks for these words is through what's called "anchor text".
This is another way to refer to the text that is in a link to another page.
So any page that has a certain word or set of words linked to it gets more "weight" in Google's eyes.
Other ways people refer to this "weight" is through terms like "link juice" and "PageRank".
The latter is the official name for the Google algorithm, and how they value a page's keyword "weight".
These are the primary ways that PageRank is built, through the amount of times the keyword in question in on a page, and how many times a page is linked through anchor text.
Then Google takes all of this information and sorts pages by PageRank for each keyword.
The idea that Google does this for every possible keyword is mind-boggling, but this is really what they do.
Then they list these as the results for anyone typing that keyword into the search engine.
The actual results are pulled mainly from two parts of that web page: the Title tag and the Description tag.
If either of these are blank, Google will often just pull a section of the page that matches best with the query to fill in that space.
The Title tag is used for the clickable links in the search engine results, and the Description tag is put underneath each of these links.
These are where search engine results come from, and now you have a better understanding of how different pages rank for certain keywords, and how search engine optimization operates on a basic level.