Foundations→Lesson 2

How Search Engines Rank Pages

Core
6 min
beginner

You'll learn:

  • •Understand the crawling and indexing process
  • •Explain how ranking algorithms work

Crawling: Discovering Content

Search engines use automated programs called "crawlers" or "bots" to discover pages on the web. Google's crawler is called Googlebot. These bots follow links from page to page, building a massive index of the web.

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You can control what crawlers access on your site using a robots.txt file and meta tags. Not all pages should be indexed (e.g., admin pages, thank-you pages).

Indexing: Storing and Understanding

After crawling, search engines analyze and store the content in their index. They use sophisticated AI to understand the meaning of pages, not just keywords. This is why keyword stuffing no longer works—context matters more than exact matches.

Ranking: Ordering Results

When someone searches, the algorithm retrieves relevant pages from the index and ranks them based on hundreds of factors. The goal is to show the most helpful, trustworthy result for each query.

  • Relevance: Does the page match the search intent?
  • Quality: Is the content accurate, comprehensive, and well-written?
  • Authority: Do other trusted sites link to this page?
  • Experience: Does the author have real-world expertise?
  • Technical: Does the page load quickly and work on mobile?
  • User Behavior: Do users engage with the page or bounce back to search?
Key Takeaway:
You can't "pay" Google to rank higher organically. Rankings are earned through technical excellence, great content, and authority. This is why SEO is a long-term investment, not a quick fix.