How Google works

In the UK, Google handles some 89% of searches. In other words, it takes care of approximately 9 out of 10 of every website search that is undertaken in the UK * gasp *.

When you use Google, you aren’t searching through websites. You are actually searching through Google’s index of the web. Google builds its index using software called ‘bots’ (also known as ‘spiders’ or ‘crawlers’). When a bot visits a web page, it is looking at the computer code (HTML) of that page. It is trying to figure out what the page is about.

It is also looking for links to other pages. The bot follows these links and any other subsequent links which it finds, in a never ending search pattern.

There are billions of web pages and hundreds of billions of links between them. Google scores the web pages and the links. It is particularly interested in a concept called Relevance and is always asking itself the question:

‘How relevant is this page to the needs of a searcher?’

Google uses over 200 parameters to decide the Relevance of a page, with regards to a particular search. For example:

* How many times do the keywords appear in the page?
* Do the words appear in the page headline?
* Do keywords appear within the page Title?
* Do they appear within the URL (web page address)?
* Does the page have synonyms for the keywords?
* For a keyword phrase – are the individual keywords close to each other?
* Are the keywords towards the top of the page?

I am thinking about writing an e-book on SEO principles and selling it online for £5. Would you be interested in buying a copy? By the way, each Totosites website is Google friendly and we discuss SEO principles with our clients. After all – they need to know about this stuff!

Google keeps its secrets hidden away in a lead-lined vault, deep in the mountains. It is said that only three people know the Google Code and they are sworn to secrecy. If you suffer from insomnia, you can find out more (What! There’s more!) – Contact us to find out!