What is a Search Engine Algorithm and Why is it Important?

A search engine algorithm is a complex algorithm used by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing to determine a web page’s significance. According to Netcraft, an Internet research company, there are over 150,000,000 active websites on the Internet. Without search engines, there would be no way to determine which of these sites are worthy of viewers time, and which sites are simply spam. Search engines collect significant data, which allows them to almost instantly determine whether a site is spam or relevant data. Relevant sites receive high rankings in search engines, and spam or irrelevant sites can receive exceptionally low rankings.

Differences in Search Engine Algorithms

Each search engine uses a search engine algorithm, and no two search engines use exactly the same formula to determine a page’s ranking. However, there are several things that all search engines will look for when crawling a web page.

Relevancy

This is how your content’s keywords play a prominent part in your web page’s ranking. A search engines algorithm will crawl your page looking for keywords, and measure their frequency. Algorithms also measure where the keywords are placed in the content, and whether the keywords are relevant to the rest of your content. Generally, content with keywords in the title and the headline text will rank better than content that doesn’t have keywords in those locations.

Even though keywords are important, there is such a thing as too much when it comes to keywords. In fact, keyword stuffing is considered blackhat SEO, and is frowned upon by search engines. As a rule, keywords that appear frequently, but naturally, in a site will allow the site to enjoy a decent page ranking.

Individual Factors

Google, Bing, and Yahoo all have individual factors that influence search engine algorithms as well. However, no one can tell you exactly what those factors are because search engine algorithms are a highly guarded industry secret. It is also essential to remember that your page can rank differently from one search engine to another. This happens because some search engines index more frequently than others and some search engines index more pages than others. To make search engine algorithms even more complex, the algorithms are constantly changing. What this means is even if your pages are doing well for a great deal of time, you still have to make sure your content and keywords stay relevant and fresh.

Off-Page Factors

In addition to keyword relevancy and search engine’s individual factors, search engine algorithms also consider off-page factors including click through measurement and click through rates to determine a page’s overall significance. This information is valuable to search engines because high click through measurements and click through rates are usually indicative of a significant site. Sites that lack these factors do not usually rank well with search engines.

When you are creating SEO content for your site, you want to make sure you are using relevant keywords and topics. Taking the time to make sure your content is strong and reliable will help you move your way up the search engine rankings.