Advanced Search Engine Optimization

Section 2—How Search Engines Work

Lesson 1—The Search Engine Landscape
 Search engines are always evolving and changing their results page to provide a better
search experience to their users.

As a Search Engine Optimizer, you need to focus on the competitive landscape of SERPs and
identify opportunities to increase your visibility.
Evaluate the competition for your business based on
the landscape of the search engine results provided

Understand how different search queries will

produce different types of search results

Examine the variety of content that will be seen by

searchers and presented by the search engines
 Paid Advertising

The Search Engine results page is divided into various sections.

Paid Advertising is one of the sections.

Paid Advertisements are

influenced by paid positioning
through Google AdWords.
 Organic Results
Organic results are not influenced by the paid model and are produced by
the search engine’s algorithm.

Organic results are the

natural or free results.
 Organic Results (Contd.)

It takes some work and investment in order to get listings and get highly ranked.

It is not exactly free, but you don’t have to pay every time someone clicks on it.
This leads to the use of certain types of words to describe the search engine’s algorithmic results.
 Images in SERPs

Images may appear in the search results based on the type of information being searched.

Images

Organic Results

Videos
 Videos in SERPs

Similarly, videos may also appear in the search results based on the type of search.

Google tries to provide

answers to your questions
on the results page to keep
you on the page.
Videos
 Videos in SERPs (Contd.)

If the answer is provided directly on the SERP, people will use the search engine more often.

The goal of the search engine is to:

• Keep people on the results page
• Answer questions
• Provide information upfront
 “How to” Videos

If your search starts with questions like “how to” or “how do I,” the search results will contain
videos and results of other multimedia formats.

When people are looking for instructions, they want to watch videos rather than read instructions.
 “How to” Videos (Contd.)

Google owns YouTube, and as a result, the vast majority of videos that Google will return in
your search will be from YouTube.
 “How to” Videos (Contd.)

Freshness of the video or the recency of upload may not count in the overall relevancy algorithm.

Other critical factors that determine

the relevancy of the video are:
• How old is the video?
• How many times has it been
viewed?
• Rating of the video
 Products in SERPs

Products can be added in the SERPs and can show up based on specific searches.

Text Ads Product Ads

Users can directly go to the advertiser’s site by clicking on the product ads.
 Recipes in SERPs

When you search for a recipe, it is provided on the SERP with pictures and ratings.

Full recipe

Recipe with picture

and ratings
 Recipes in SERPs (Contd.)

The format of the recipes ideally includes:

• List of ingredients
• Instructions to prepare
• Instructions to serve

The simple format makes it easy for the search engine to look at the information, group it
accordingly, and present it in the search results.
 Up-to-date Information

The search results change based on the recent or up-to-date information.

Up-to-date information includes:

 Regionalization

Regionalized results are displayed based on the searcher’s location.

Searched in South
California

Searched in New York

The displayed results will be relevant to the searcher’s location.

 Local Businesses in SERPs
You can also look for information about a local business close to your location.

The search results for local

businesses will include:
• Maps
• Addresses
• Operating Hours
• Menu
• Directions
• Phone
• Reservations
• Pictures
 Local Businesses in SERPs (Contd.)

Local businesses can improve their visibility by taking advantage of the opportunities that
search engines provide.

Business listings in search engines are free.

All you have to do is claim your listing and develop additional content.
QUIZ
What additional items can show up in the search results?
1

a. Images

b. Videos

c. Ratings

d. Products

e. All of the above

QUIZ
Will everyone, everywhere see the same search engine results?
2

a. No, search results differ based on an individual’s interest and location.

Yes, results all come from the same search engine and are the same everywhere and for
b. everyone.

c. All the above

d. None of the above

The SERPs are constantly transforming while the search engines attempt to
understand the intent of the searcher.

As a Search Engine Optimizer, you need to focus on the competitive landscape

and identify opportunities to increase your visibility.

The SERPs are not just web pages, but also a complex array of images, videos,
maps, answers, and other media.
Lesson 2—Analyzing Search Results
 The Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the search engine’s primary product and the
searcher is its customer.

You need to examine the search results to know the source of the content that the search
engine utilizes and how it can be used to influence search results.
Evaluate a search results page.

Identify keys to important information provided

by a search engine.

Understand how a search result is captured and

then displayed by a search engine.

Explain the details of the source of each element

of a search result snippet.
 Keywords

A keyword is a particular word or phrase typed by the searcher in the search engine.

Example

The search results displayed on the

search results page look identical
regardless of the websites from which
the information was derived.

If you were to go to every single website,

then the results will look drastically
different.

The search engine produces identical results as it formats data while evaluating the
content on each webpage.
 Page Title

The blue text that is larger than the rest of the text in the search results page is the page title.

Every result that is produced is not the website but is an individual page.
 Page Title—Character Limit

Search engines set limits on the number of characters displayed in the page
title for the sake of consistency.

A maximum of 55
characters are displayed
in the page title.
 Page Title—Character Limit (Contd.)

Google has a limit of 55 characters for a page title as the vast majority of its
searches are performed on mobile devices.

Setting limits on the number of characters is done to enable clear presentation of search results.
 Page URL

The content that is in green font right under the page title is the URL of the
webpage that contains the keyword searched.

You can look at the context,

domain name, and
keywords to assess the
credibility of the result.
 Page URL—Bold Font

The bold words in the page URL indicate the keywords searched by the user.

You need to evaluate the

results to see what works for
search results optimization.

The results may not have:

• All the keywords
• Keywords in the same order as
typed by the user
 Snippet—Structure

The bold words in the page URL indicate the keywords searched by the user.

Description:
It is pulled from the description
tag that you can control on every
page of your website.
Page Title

Webpage URL

If the description tag in your website is blank, then the description text that has
the keywords is pulled from your webpage.
 Snippet Page Source

When you click on any of the results and go to the webpage, you can find the source of the
content from which the snippet is derived.

Title Tag
Description Tag
 Snippet Page Source (Contd.)

The description tag should describe what people will see on the page because:
• It is the first marketing message that people will see.
• It serves as a platform to showcase your products and services.
 SERP Factors

Some of the important SERP factors are:

Meta Description

Page Title

Webpage URL
 SERP Factors (Contd.)

Primary on-page factors of Human Factors of SERP

SERP include: include:
• Page Title • Relevancy
• URL • Attention
• Description/Content • Display
• Images

Bold words grab the attention of the user and indicate keywords

The search results are designed to hold the user’s attention and to display content in a consistent
format so that the user can judge important information.
 Keyword Order

The search results may contain words/concepts that are similar to the search phrase, but the
results do not have to contain words in the same order as the search phrase to rank higher.

The phrase may or may not appear in the results. Similar words can be seen,
allowing for a more semantic approach.
 Keyword Context

In some search results, not all of the keywords are present, and the same words are not always used.
 Keyword Context (Contd.)
Some of the important points to remember about search engines are:

Search engines have become more complex

• They understand the concepts and show appropriate

results in the search page.

Search engines are not always going to display the exact

same words or in the same order in their search results

• Similar words and concepts too can rank well.

• The search results will be displayed based on the

overall relevance and off-page and usability factors.

 Page Title Construction

The page titles can be different from the keyword searched. They can include
hyphens, commas, multiple keywords, and so on.

Relevance of the result should be

considered while designing the
webpage titles.

Short and appropriate page titles are

recommended as they can be viewed
and read by the users easily.
 A Quick Recap

• SEO is a mix of art and science, and there are no hard

and fast rules.

• Search results are different in many ways and you need

to figure out what works best for your market.

• Off-page linking, marketing, and behavioral factors

affect your search ranking.
QUIZ
What is the source of information used in the search engine “snippet”?
1

a. The content in the source page

b. Third party assessment

c. Randomly selected page content

d. Other search engines

QUIZ
Which of the statements is false about search engine results evaluation?
2

a. The page title should be kept short.

b. You do not always have to use the main keywords.

c. The keywords searched appear in the results with no variations

d. A page title can be written in many ways.

e. A variety of keyword combinations appear throughout the results.

The SERP is the primary marketing message a searcher will see, and you can influence
the content provided by the search engine by changing the content on your website.

Search engines are complex and understand words, concepts, and terms; these
can be interchanged.

Your focus should be on creating a clear, concise message that stands out to the
searchers and provides answers to their questions.
Lesson 3—The Search Engine Index
How do search engines:
• Take information from your website?
• Republish information online?
• Apply the search engine algorithm?
Understand spidering and how it works

Analyze how search engines access the required content

Explain how websites are found and used by search engines

Understand the basic principles of a search engine algorithm

 The Index

The index is a database of all the files and documents found and copied by the search engines.

• A search engine makes digital copies of

all the digital documents it finds online
and stores them in a database.
• You can see what information search
engines have for your site by looking at
the snippets of information.

Search engines make copies of web pages, PDFs, files, documents, images, etc.
that are on your web page.
 Spidering

How do search engines download all of this information to their database?

The term Spidering refers to search engines looking for additional information,
new information, or updating existing information in their database.

A spider is a software program that

follows links on web pages to new web
pages.
 Spidering (Contd.)

By following links, search engines find new and updated documents and update the database
based on this information.

Spiders are also known as:

Indexing Bots

Crawlers
 Spidering a Website

Search engines find new websites and pages by following links from pages
that already exist in the database.

The best way to get search engines to find your brand new website is by providing a
link in a page that is already in the search engine index.
 Spidering a Website (Contd.)

When a spider is sent, the content of the index is crawled again.

The crawler finds new information that

links to the new website.

The structure of your website is critical.

Understand the programming and the link between the pages.
 The Search Engine Index

The website content is available on the database.

The algorithm is then applied to

these documents.

If your website cannot be crawled or indexed by search engines, it will not appear in
the search results, even if the domain name is used.

The links to and on your website should allow search engines to crawl and index the
content in their databases.
 The Search Engine Algorithm

The search engine algorithm is a mathematical approach to assess hundreds of

millions of documents for relevancy and importance.
 The Search Engine Algorithm (Contd.)

The search engine looks for trusted sources, relevancy, and influence
and adds them to the algorithm.

Searchers are a search

engine’s primary customers.
The algorithm is based on
human factors.

The main goal of search engines is to please the searchers and return
results that they want.
 How is the Algorithm Calculated?

The algorithm is calculated based on human judgment.

The factors that determine the relevancy of a document are:

 Algorithm Factors

Keywords Page Content Relevance

What words are used? How What is the page and How relevant is this website
do they relate to each other? the website about? to the searcher’s questions?

Page Layout Importance Authority

How does the website present How often is this website Who else cites this
the information and how is the linked to? page/site as a resource?
content structured?
 Search Engine—Human Connection

Search engines are trying to think like humans and present results that help the customers.
 Google Guidelines

The first Google guidelines were published to create pages primarily for users
and not for search engines.

Create pages that humans will find:

Refer to the Google guidelines:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en&ref_topic=6002025
 Google Guidelines (Contd.)

Ensure that all pages on the Create a useful, information-rich

site can be reached by a link site, and write pages that clearly and
from another findable page. accurately describe your content.

Think about the words users would

type to find your pages, and make
Avoid tricks intended to improve
sure that your site content actually
search engine rankings.
includes those words.

Don’t fake relevancy to increase the search ranking.

Google enforces quality of their results. Violation of the accepted practices can result
in penalization or complete ban from the search engine index.
Relevance Factors

Relevance is determined by
• Words
• Concepts
• Semantics
o Similar words used interchangeably,
which doesn’t affect the rankings
• Content and content layout
• Linking
QUIZ
What program do search engines use to browse the World Wide Web to find content
1 and create data?

a. Spider

b. Bot

c. Crawler

d. Software program that follows links and downloads pages and documents

e. All of the above

QUIZ
What is a Search Engine Algorithm?
2

A complex mathematical approach used by search engines to assess hundreds of millions of

a. documents for relevancy and importance

b. A set of parameters that a searcher can choose from to filter the search results

c. A complex formula used by websites that allow search engines to index them

A mathematical formula used by search engines to index the web pages and arrange them in
d. an alphabetical order
Search engines work by creating a database of all of the web pages that they find.

The search engine algorithm is applied to the pages or documents indexed in the
search engine database.

If a website does not show up in the search results, it is because the search
engine spiders have not found it.

For a site to show up in a search engine result or have the potential for rankings,
it should be findable and spiderable.
Thank You