Search results
Uncover what Google Search is, how it works, and the approach Google has taken to make the world’s information accessible to everyone.
- Our approach
We do this by sending visitors to websites small and large...
- How Search works
Explore how Google is focused on improving your search...
- Features
Google's search features ensure that you get the right...
- Our history
Over the years, the web and the world have changed. Since...
- Detecting Spam
Google invests in systems to ensure that sites don’t rise in...
- Focus on The User
Search has changed over the years to meet the evolving needs...
- Search Algorithms
Google Search does not put people in “filter bubbles.” Our...
- Our approach
Explore how Google is focused on improving your search experience by avoiding bias and finding you relevant and high quality search results.
- A Few Notes Before We Get Started
- Introducing The Three Stages of Google Search
- Crawling
- Indexing
- Serving Search Results
Before we get into the details of how Search works, it's important to note that Google doesn't accept payment to crawl a site more frequently, or rank it higher. If anyone tells you otherwise, they're wrong. Google doesn't guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve your page, even if your page follows the Google Search Essentials.
Google Search works in three stages, and not all pages make it through each stage: 1. Crawling:Google downloads text, images, and videos from pages it found on the internet with automated programs called crawlers. 2. Indexing:Google analyzes the text, images, and video files on the page, and stores the information in the Google index, which is a la...
The first stage is finding out what pages exist on the web. There isn't a central registry of all web pages, so Google must constantly look for new and updated pages and add them to its list of known pages. This process is called "URL discovery". Some pages are known because Google has already visited them. Other pages are discovered when Google fo...
After a page is crawled, Google tries to understand what the page is about. This stage is called indexing and it includes processing and analyzing the textual content and key content tags and attributes, such as elements and alt attributes, images, videos, and more. During the indexing process, Google determines if a page is a duplicate of ...
When a user enters a query, our machines search the index for matching pages and return the results we believe are the highest quality and most relevant to the user's query. Relevancy is determined by hundreds of factors, which could include information such as the user's location, language, and device (desktop or phone). For example, searching for...
We do this by sending visitors to websites small and large through our search results, or by connections such as listing business addresses and phone numbers.
Demystify the world of Google Search with Gary Illyes, Engineer on the Google Search team, in this new series: How Search Works. What is crawling, indexing, ...
- 4 min
- 64.2K
- Google Search Central
Google Search puts the world's information at your fingertips, helping people find helpful results for billions of queries every day. From ranking systems to features that show up when you search, this series explains what makes Google useful and how we connect you to the information you're looking for.
Tip 1: Start with the basics. No matter what you're looking for, start with a simple search like where's the closest airport?. You can always add a few descriptive words if necessary. If you're...
