One of the most influential aspects of SEO doesn’t come from anything experts or companies do- it comes from the search engines. The entire goal of SEO campaigns is to increase visibility on search engines. In order to properly understand SEO, you need to know some basic things about search engines.
So, let’s talk about Search Engines.
What are Search Engines?
Search Engines are answer machines that exist to discover, understand, and organize the Internet. The most popular search engine is Google, but others include Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and more. Think of the Internet as a library. The search engine would be the librarian whose job is to sort, catalog, find, and distribute information.
Why Are Search Engines Important to SEO?
Without search engines, there would be no SEO. After all, the “S” and “E” in SEO stand for “Search Engine”! Every business might have its own specific goal for SEO such as increasing traffic, improving sales, etc. No matter what your goal is, it’s always tied to how visible your site is on search engines.
How do Search Engines Work?
In terms of SEO, search engines have three main functions:
- Crawling: Searching the Internet for content, looking over the content for each URL they find
- Indexing: Storing and organizing content found when crawling. Once a page is indexed it’s what will be displayed on SERPs
- Ranking: Providing the pieces of content that best answer a user’s query.
Are all Search Engines the Same?
The short answer- no!
Many people that don’t understand SEO often stress about optimizing for all the various search engines. The truth is that there’s no need. Google holds the market share worldwide for search engines. More than 90% of web searches happen on Google, more than 20 times Bing and Yahoo combined.
When it comes to search engines, Google is all you need to worry about. Most of Google’s guidelines for ranking well also apply to other search engines so by optimizing for Google, you’re really doing it for all of them.
Final Thoughts
There is a lot more understanding that goes into search engines when crafting an SEO campaign. The three basic things beginners should take away are:
- Search Engines are vital to SEO
- Algorithms are always changing
- Google is King
If your business is looking for help growing your presence online, contact us today! Hilborn Digital is one of the top SEO Agencies in the GTA, and we’d be happy to help.
