How Search Engines Work: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking Explained

One of the most important things we do at Rae of Light SEO is help business owners understand how to be successful online.  Understanding the way that search engines function is fundamental to ensuring that your website reaches its full potential.  We are delighted to help you with SEO services Phoenix residents rave about, explore local SEO Phoenix business owners implement on their websites, or provide insights on how you can improve your online presence.  Let’s shine a light on the process.

The Three Pillars of Search Engines

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing are powerful tools that are used across the globe daily.  Their functionality uses three core processes which are:  crawling, indexing, and ranking.  Let’s break down how each of those processes work:

1. Crawling: Discovering Content

Crawling is the process in which search engines discover web pages and the content on them.  Each search engine uses bots which are referred to as spiders or crawlers.  These bots navigate the internet by following links from one page to another.  It’s similar to the way a spider weaves a web – one strand leads to another.  Bots explore every connection it finds the way that a spider explores every connection it finds within its web.  When a bot is on your site, it scans and explores the structure of your website searching for new or updated content.

What does this mean for you as a business owner?  It means that your website needs to be easily accessible not just for search engine crawlers, but for users.  Easy navigation of your website is crucial.  Your website structure should be clean, have proper internal linking, and a mobile friendly design.  So, if your website isn’t initially set up correctly, it can’t pass the first step of this process which is being crawled by the spiders meaning it cannot make it to stage two.

2. Indexing: Storing Content

Once your site has been crawled by the spiders, the information that they’ve found is stored in the massive database referred to as an “index.”  For those of us that remember, this is like the giant card catalogs that used to be housed in libraries.  When a search query is typed into a search box, it is then referenced instantaneously by the search engine since it has been filed properly within the index.

During the indexing process, the content on your site is analyzed for both relevance and context.  Content includes text, images, videos, and meta tags.  Everything from keyword placement to content quality are huge factors here.  Business owners focusing on local SEO Phoenix will want to ensure that they are utilizing localized keywords and phrases with a well-balanced mix of short and long-tailed keyword phrases.  Examples might be “phoenix restaurant” or “what is the best plumber in phoenix?”  Using these in your content will help your website show in relevant searches to local customers.

3. Ranking: Displaying Results

The final stage is ranking.  This is also the most competitive stage and the one that takes the longest.  When someone enters a search term into Google or another search engine, the search engine instantly goes to its index and compares it with a complex algorithm.  Once that’s done, it delivers you the most relevant results in a list.

Some of the ranking factors include:

  • Relevance: How much your content matches with the user’s intended term.
  • Authority: The search engine assigns your website a level/ranking of trust.  So, how trusted and how much authority does your site have on the internet?
  • User Experience: There are many elements that go into whether your site provides a seamless user experience including site load times and overall appearance.

Rae of Light SEO provides Phoenix SEO strategies that give business owners an effective plan of action to utilize the correct keywords, build backlinks successfully, and enhance your overall site’s performance.  With Rae of Light SEO, we can ensure that your business will be in the spotlight.

Shine Bright with Rae of Light SEO

If your business isn’t being found in the first page of the search results, it’s just a fact that you’re losing out on not just visibility, but income.  That’s where we come in – our SEO services in Phoenix are specifically tailored to each clients to help you thrive in today’s evolving digital landscape.  Our expertise in local Phoenix SEO for businesses will help you attract customers who are actively searching for you in your local service area.  We will help you improve your website’s crawlability, optimize your content for indexing, and boost your rankings.  Let us shine a light on your business!

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