You know how you can type almost anything into Google and instantly get answers? It feels almost effortless, but there’s actually a fascinating system behind how search engines like Google deliver results.
Search engines, like Google, are like giant librarians of the internet. Imagine having a huge library where books are websites, and each book has a million pages filled with every piece of content you can imagine, including articles, videos, images, PDFs and more.
When you search for something, these librarians (which are the search engines) rush to find the most relevant books and pages for you. Google, Bing and Yahoo are the most popular engines. Google, in particular, dominates this space because of its advanced algorithms and ability to understand user queries.
In this post, we will explain how search engines locate and retrieve information for end users in the blink of an eye, and how a leading digital marketing agency can help you optimise your websites to perform better and rank higher search results.
Chapter 1: Understanding How Search Engines Work
There are three main branches of how SEO functions. Here they are:
Crawling
Crawling is the first step of any search process; it is basically how search engines discover websites. There are crawlers that constantly roam the internet, looking for content. These bots scan websites, page by page, to understand what’s on them. They follow links from one page to another, and in doing this, they create a virtual map of the web
When you create a new website, crawlers can discover it in a few ways. If another site already links to yours, the crawlers will follow that link to find your content. Alternatively, you can create a sitemap, which is a file that acts like a treasure map for these crawlers, guiding them to every page on your site.
Once a crawler visits your site, it examines everything, from the text and headings to the images and links. It also notes when the page was last updated. This information helps the crawler determine what your site is about and whether it’s worth indexing.
You should also know that popular sites that get a lot of traffic or those updated frequently are often crawled more often than those that aren’t. Websites with clear navigation and structure are also easier for crawlers to explore.
Indexing
Once the crawlers find your content, the next step is indexing. This is the moment when the search engine decides where your content belongs in its vast library.
During this process, the search engine analyses your pages and stores the information in its index, which is a giant database where everything is categorised and ready to be retrieved later.
When a page is indexed, the search engine looks at the keywords used, the type of content it contains, and even how fresh it is. Pages with poor-quality content or those blocked by certain settings might be excluded, and if your page isn’t indexed, it won’t appear in search results.
Ranking
Once your pages are indexed, the search engine decides how to order them when someone searches for related content. When you type in a query, the search engine analyses it to understand what you’re looking for, and then it matches your query to pages in its index. It considers many factors to decide which results to show first.
In the end, the results are displayed in order of importance, with the best matches at the top. This is basically why some pages always seem to appear on the first page of Google, while others are buried far down the list.
You need to take these factors into consideration
- Relevance
- User Experience
- Semantic HTML
- Structured Data
Chapter 2: The Technical SEO Foundation
Your website may have top-notch content, but if technical SEO is not fully implemented, it would be far from SERPS. Here are the core aspects of technical SEO every site owner should know about:
Site Speed
Speed matters because it directly affects how users interact with your site. For example, if a page takes more than three seconds to load, visitors often give up and leave. This is called your bounce rate, and it tells Google that your site isn’t useful, which lowers your rankings even further.
To make your site faster, you need to focus on a few key areas. One of the simplest ways to improve speed is through lazy loading and caching. This means that your website only loads images when the user actually scrolls down to see them. Instead of wasting time loading every image at once, you’re loading them on demand.
You can also use browser caching, which allows parts of your website to be stored on the visitor’s device so that the next time they come back, it loads much faster.
You should also consider minification. Websites are built with code, and sometimes that code includes extra spaces, notes or bits of information that aren’t necessary for your browser to display the page. Minifying your code means getting rid of those extras so your site can load faster.
Must Read: Have a Slow Loading Website? Here’s How To Fix It!
Mobile Optimisation
Google now evaluates your website based on how it performs on mobile devices first, rather than on desktops. If your mobile site is poorly optimised, your rankings will suffer, no matter how great your desktop version looks.
To make sure your site works perfectly on phones, make sure it has a responsive site design that automatically adjusts to fit different screen sizes. Google offers a free Mobile-Friendly Test tool that can point out problems like text that’s too small to read or buttons that are placed too close together.
You should also make sure that your images are optimised for mobile users. Large images can slow down your site, especially for people using data instead of Wi-Fi. You can solve this by using smaller image sizes or by serving different image versions depending on the user’s device.
Making Your Site Crawlable and Indexable
To make sure search engines find all your pages, create an XML sitemap. This file lists all the important pages on your site. Tools like Yoast SEO or Screaming Frog can generate one for you. Once you have it, submit it to Google Search Console so Google knows where to look.
Another issue is duplicate content. If multiple pages have the same or similar information, search engines won’t know which one to show. You can fix this with canonical tags, which tell search engines which page is the main version.
Last but not least, make sure that you also check your HTTP status codes. These let search engines know if your pages are working. A “200 OK” means everything is fine, but a “404 Not Found” means a page is missing. You should also fix broken links and missing pages to make your site easier to navigate for both users and search engines.
Chapter 3: Crafting Content That Ranks
As we all know, content is the heart of SEO. Good content makes a page rank high and keeps readers coming back. Most website owners prefer to work with an expert digital marketing agency that specialises in creating content that qualifies for the first page of SERPS.
Using the right keywords can propel your SEO efforts significantly. High-volume keywords are the ones everyone’s searching for. For example, if you’re into baking, a high-volume keyword could be “easy bread recipes.”
Then there are long-tail keywords. These are more specific, like “how to bake gluten-free sourdough bread at home.” They might not be as trendy, but they attract exactly the kind of people you want to reach. Usually, the best strategy would be to use a mixture of both kinds of keywords.
When you’ve jotted down a list of great keywords, you now have to find a way to incorporate them into your content. This is the onsite SEO part. Your title needs to grab attention and tell people what’s inside. A title like “Gardening Tips” is fine, but then something like “The Ultimate Guide to Gardening for Beginners” is better because it’s specific, clear and inviting.
Read More: Brick by Brick: How to Find the Best Keywords for Your Home Building Company in Sydney
Furthermore, people love lists and step-by-step guides because they’re simple and clear. If you want to make it even better, share real stories or examples. For instance, if you’re writing about SEO, talk about how someone doubled their website traffic with just a few changes. It does make your content relatable and trustworthy.
Must Read: How to Optimise Your Blogs for Search Engines?
Chapter 4: Building Authority With Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is the aspect that focuses on boosting your website’s authority and ranking by working on things outside of your site. Unlike on-page SEO, which focuses on content and structure within your site, off-page SEO is about building trust through backlinks, social media, and mentions across the internet.
One of the most important things here is getting high-quality backlinks. These are links from other websites that show search engines your content is valuable. You can get these backlinks by guest posting on other blogs or creating content that people want to share, like infographics.
These things don’t directly impact rankings, but they do increase visibility and drive traffic, which indirectly helps you at the end of the day.
If you’re a local business, local SEO becomes even more important for you. You should optimise your Google My Business profile and get listed on local directories like Yelp. You can also encourage your customers to leave reviews and can also help boost your local ranking.
If you focus on all of these off-page tactics, or work with a marketing agency in Sydney who knows their onions well, you’re showing search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant. That can lead to more traffic and better rankings in search results.
Chapter 5: Tracking and Optimising Performance
SEO is all about numbers, but those numbers only matter if you know what to do with them. Tracking your SEO performance shows you what’s working, what’s not, and where you can improve.
First, there’s Google Analytics (GA4). This tool tracks everything visitors do. Start with organic traffic. How many people are finding you through search engines? If your Sydney business is getting more visitors from a particular location, for example, Liverpool, then it might be time to adjust your content to attract the right audience.
Then there’s the bounce rate. If people leave after visiting just one page, maybe your content isn’t hitting the mark, or the page takes too long to load. A high rate could mean your content isn’t engaging enough or your page loads too slowly.
Furthermore, conversion rates reveal how many visitors take actions like buying or signing up. If conversions are low despite good traffic, then you have to rethink your calls to action.
Another great tool is Google Search Console. This tool shows you the keywords people use to find your site and whether they’re clicking through. If they’re not, your meta descriptions might need some work. It also flags crawl errors, basically, places where Google can’t access your site. And of course, don’t forget to get your site indexed.
Chapter 6: The Role of AI and Automation
Artificial Intelligence, simply put, is about teaching machines to think and learn like humans. In SEO, this means tools that can understand what people are searching for and help search engines deliver the best results.
AI powers innovations like Google’s RankBrain and BERT, which go beyond keywords to understand the intent behind searches.
As for content creation, we now have AI tools like ChatGPT which can generate everything from meta descriptions to blog posts, that are designed to appeal to both search engines and people. These tools dig into data to figure out what works, suggest keywords, and even show you where your content is falling short.
AI is also impressively efficient when it comes to optimising voice search, which is becoming more popular with devices like Alexa and Siri. Understanding conversational queries ensures your content is tailored to how people really talk.
The biggest benefit of artificial intelligence in SEO has to be automation. There are tools that have been designed to take care of repetitive SEO tasks like rank monitoring and generating reports. It’s safe to say that SEO is heading towards a future of hyper-personalisation and smarter content strategies.
Netplanet Digital Can Rank Your Business Higher on Google
Netplanet Digital is the agency all the top businesses in Australia rely on when they have a business page they want to move to the first page of SERPS. Over the years, we’ve helped a wide range of businesses across Australia and beyond achieve success in the digital space, and we can do the same for you too!
We go the extra mile to dig deep into what your audience is actually looking for and how we can give them exactly that while helping you outrank your competitors. We take the time to understand your business and use powerful SEO tools to track what works, discover areas for improvement, and ensure that every piece of content is set up to get results.
The technical aspect of SEO is another area in which we prove our expertise. Not only do we ensure that your site is easy for search engines to crawl, we also optimise your page for speed and mobile use.
Whatever your business needs, we’ve got the tools and expertise you need to meet your goals. Results are what you need, and results are what we will give you; no excuses. Schedule your first conversation with us – it’s free!
