People often ask me: “How does Google find my website?”. And it’s not an easy question to answer. But it is important to understand this when you’re busy with SEO. In short, Google has an algorithm that does this. So let’s break it all down for a better understanding.
It all starts with your search query. You enter keywords into the search bar then Google scans its index looking for the most relevant content. This index is similar to the one you’d find in a book, only much bigger and a lot more thorough. Once it finds what it thinks you’re looking for it returns the results to your browser.
Google has web crawlers (aka spiders) that scan the web looking for new or updated pages. These spiders go from link to link and build up an index of websites and pages. At the same time, these spiders take note of the keywords used as well as how fresh the content is.
Next let’s take a look at what happens when we search for something online.
Google’s algorithm analyzes the words you’ve entered into the search bar. Then it scans the index looking for information relevant to your search. At the same time, it takes into account the language used, spelling errors and even the kind of information you’re looking for. This could be images, a local business, or even trending topics, etc.
Next, it looks for web pages that have the information you’re looking for. It will look at how often the keyword is displayed on the page, whether the page is in the language you want, and how relevant the information is to your query. For example, you type “cars” in the search bar. The algorithm isn’t going to provide you with web pages with the word car written on it a hundred times. That would be of no use to you. Instead, it’s going to list dealerships based on your location. That is, assuming you’re looking to buy a car. Smart eh?
There are millions of websites out there with the same information. But Google is smart. So it looks for pages that are most useful and relevant to you. And these are the results you see once you hit enter.
In short – pages are indexed and when you search for something, Google scans the index and provides you with the most relevant results.
So now that you have the answer to “How does Google find my website?” the next step is to make sure that Google can find your website. This is done through SEO and we’ve written a great article that explains this in detail. Furthermore, if you don’t want to do it yourself, let us do your SEO for you.
