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How do Search Engines Work? - How to Use a Search Engine

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How to use search engines

Search engines are extremely valuable tools and usually the first place to start when looking for information online.

Search is simple to use. You type the phrase you are looking for into the search box and hit Enter/Search, and the search engine will pull out results from across the web that are relevant to your search term.

Search is rarely absolute, so read through some helpful advice and tips on how to use search engines effectively so that you can find the relevant information you are looking for.

Basic rules for search

  • Every word counts. Search engines will generally include all of the words that you enter.
  • Search is always case insensitive.
  • Generally, punctuation is ignored

Useful tips

Use short key words or phrases

Describe what you are looking for using as few words as possible. If you use a very specific phrase or enter too many keywords you are limiting the search results that will be returned and you will miss a lot of useful information. If you start off by using a few simple keywords and you don’t get exactly what you need, you will have a good indication from the results on what you need to do to refine your search.

Many search engines also offer other suggested searches you can perform based on your initial search, to help you find exactly what you are looking for.

Be descriptive and specific

The more unique the word is, the more likely you are to get relevant results. If you have something in mind you are looking for, then make sure that you use those words. If you have a specific company you are looking for or an area you are looking to find a restaurant in, ensure you enter these details rather than generic search phrases, so that you get the most relevant results returned.

Consider what content you would expect to appear on a page

A search engine is a program, and can only return matches based on the words you enter. When entering your search terms think about what pages are likely to be returned based on those words you have searched for. Keeping it simple is always helpful, as often web pages are written with search engines in mind, and will incorporate descriptive keywords and phrases into the content.

Getting the most out of your search

  • Spell accurately. Consider alternative spellings of what you are searching for.
  • Search a specific website.  Use the site command to search for a particular term in a site. Type the prefix site, then the web site address and then the keyword e.g. If you wanted to find relevant information about blogs within the Knowthenet website you should type “site:www.knowthenet.org.uk blog”.
  • Search for an exact phrase.  If you want to search for an exact phrase put quotation marks around the phrase "search term"
  • Definitions. If you are looking for a definition of a word or phrase, simply type “define:” before the word and it will return the definition in the search results.
  • Time specific content.  Search for content published during a certain time period, for example in the last 24 hours.
  • Filtering results. You can filter results by the type of information you are looking for, e.g. news, blogs, images, videos, maps etc
  • Filetypes.  Search for a specific file type by typing filetype: then the file type you want to appear e.g. “Internet Marketing” filetype:ppt if you are searching for PowerPoints on Internet Marketing
  • Exclude terms.  To do a search and exclude certain words simply type the word and then “–“ other word. E.g. “Internet marketing –advertising”
  • Advanced search.  If you have very specific search criteria use the Advanced Search facility.

 

What to watch out for

  • Relevance of search results. SEO is big business, and people spend a lot of time and effort in trying to optimise their web sites for maximum search engine exposure. It is just worth remembering that just because a web site appears high up in a search results doesn’t necessarily mean it will have the most relevant information for you, or be on the exact topic that you are searching for.
  • Different meanings of keywords. There may be different meanings for the keywords you are searching on so you may not always get the right results.

How search engines work

A web search engine is designed to search for information across the web, where the search results are generally presented in a list of results.

The basics of how a search engine works are:

  1. Type a query into the search engine
  2. The search engine software sorts through billions of pages in its database to find matches to this search query.
  3. The search engine's results are returned and displayed in order of relevance.

To the end user this is a simple process, but behind the scenes the process is much more complicated.

A search engine is an extremely powerful software program, made up of three elements of instructions:

Crawling

Search engine “spiders”, also known as bots, robots or crawlers, follow links around the internet and collects text and links as well as the url from which they come from.  Each page that is accessed is stored in a data centre. 

Crawling is a huge and constant process.  Search engines crawl billions of pages every day, finding new content and recrawling existing content to see if it has been updated.

Spiders can’t read images or flash, so images, logos or videos should have text alt tags so that they can be read by search engines.

Indexing

Once the spiders have ‘crawled’ the internet, all of the data is then indexed.  This is done using an algorithm (a complex mathematical formula) which analyses the pages to figure out what the content topic is.  It then scores the page according to the search engine criteria on how relevant the page would be to the person who is searching. 

Searching

The query software checks through the records that have been indexed and then returns the most relevant web pages based on your search words.

It is important to remember that search engines will return the results based on the words that users enter, which is important if you want to find relevant information, but is also important for SEO purposes when thinking about how people will find your content.

Further information

For more information on search engines and how to get the most out of your search, visit our section on:

This business information might also be of interest: Search engines

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the ranking of a web site or a web page in search engines via the natural or "organic" search results.  These are the results that appear based on their relevance to the search terms as opposed to the sponsored or paid for search results. Increasing the visibility of a web page in the search results should increase the number of clicks that a web site will get compared with those ranked lower down.

SEO is a vast topic, and there are many techniques that you can use to improve how your web site ranks in search engines. 

It is very important to consider SEO as part of your web site strategy in order to ensure customers or other relevant people that you want to visit your web site can find you.

There are a lot of free, basic tools tips to help create a more optimised site, which you can use and implement yourself.  Alternatively there are many companies who offer a range of paid for SEO services, including improving web site ranking and customer conversion rates. 

 

Useful links

For more information on Search Engine Optimisation read our sections on:

 

SEO for business

For a detailed overview of SEO and things you should consider for your business read our article SEO and other dark arts.

This business information might also be of interest: Search engines

How to optimise your site using SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of optimising your site’s content in order to help search engines find you. There are numerous techniques that you can use to improve your site’s ranking in search engines but the most important thing to remember is that your content is relevant to your target audience

Top tips to get you started

There are a vast number of elements that contribute to improving a website’s ranking in search engines. This includes some basic considerations when thinking about SEO on your website:

Optimise your content

Ensure that you have content worth reading, and most importantly that it is relevant to your target audience.

Keyword research

Keywords are the words that are used to search information that refer to a specific topic, and which people would type into a search engine. Keyword strategy is a major part of SEO. You should research and focus on a set of keywords that relate to your website and that you would expect people to search on to find your site. You should incorporate these keywords into various elements of your website’s content:

  • Content - Incorporate your keywords within your webpage content. Don’t compromise the quality and relevance of the content in order to get found in search engines. Ensure you have the right balance so that the content makes sense.
  • Domain name - Your domain name should incorporate your keywords or highlight what your website’s about.
  • Page content titles - Incorporate keywords into page titles. These are what are displayed in search results. For example <title>Knowthenet.org.uk | Get the most out of your online experience</title>. Don’t ever leave these blank!
  • Heading tags - <H1> and <H2> within the body of your content should also incorporate your keywords.
  • Meta tag and descriptions - This is often displayed in the search results so have a detailed and useful description of what the page is about.

Text links and image Alt tags

When linking to another page, be as descriptive as you can, incorporating keywords in the text you are linking from. As search engines can’t read images, incorporate keywords into your alt tag descriptions.

Incoming links

Getting other reputable websites to link to your site can improve your site reputation as well. It is important to get quality inbound links rather than quantity.

Internal links

Cross linking to other pages within your website can help the search engine spiders find all the pages on your website.

Create an xml sitemap or google sitemap

Sitemaps help search engine crawlers find the links on your site.

What to watch out for

  • Using flash. Search engines cannot read flash files completely. If you are using flash, consider providing a html version of the content, or alternatively ensure that the text elements of your flash content are search engine friendly, by incorporating keywords into text descriptions and using descriptive alt tags.
  • Getting the right SEO services. If you are outsourcing your SEO or working with an agency, do your research, so that you know what you are signing up for and that you get the right services for you.

Tips for SEO

  • Measure the impact of changes. Review any changes that you make to your site and how this affects your search engine rankings, this will help to inform where you focus your SEO efforts.
  • Free Google SEO tools – There are a number of available tools to help you analyse the impact of your SEO efforts.
  • Read Google’s useful Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide
This business information might also be of interest: Search engines

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