Search Engines and Algorithms: Search Engine Algorithms Explored
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In this article, we are going to look at search engine algorithms, how diverse they are, what they have in common, why it’s important to know their differences, and how to make this information work for you in SEO. There is something for everyone, from the novice to the expert. Over the course of this series, we will look at optimizing your site for specific search engines, as well. The top six major players we will look at in this series are AOL Search, Google, and AskJeeves in the first article; Yahoo! and AltaVista in part 2; MSN in part 3; and in the last article, part 4, we’ll look at MetaSearch Engines.
Just about everyone knows what a search engine is. Whenever you have a question, want to look up the address of your favorite restaurants or need to make a qualified online purchase, chances are, you visit a search engine on the Internet.
If you’ve ever used two different search engines to conduct the same search query, then you will have noticed that the results weren’t the same. So why will the same query on different search engines produce different results? Part of the answer is because not all search engine indexes are going to be exactly the same, as it depends on what the spiders find or what information humans have submitted to the database. But more importantly, not every search engine uses the same algorithm to search through their databases. An algorithm is what the search engines use to determine the relevance of the information in the database to what the user is searching for.
What is a Search Engine Algorithm?
A search algorithm is defined as a math formula that takes a problem as input and returns a solution to the problem, usually after evaluating a number of possible solutions. A search engine algorithm uses keywords as the input problem, and returns relevant search results as the solution, matching these keywords to the results stored in its database. These keywords are determined by search engine spiders that analyze web page content and keyword relevancy based on a math formula that will vary from one search engine to the next.
Next: Types of Information that Factor into Algorithms >>
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