How search works
How search engines workThe five steps from discovery to rankingComponentsThe parts that make a search engine runCrawlingHow bots find and fetch your pagesIndexingHow a page gets stored so it can be foundCheck if indexedFour ways to confirm a page is on GoogleCrawling and indexing
Web crawlersGooglebot, Bingbot and the new AI botsGooglebotHow Google's crawler reads your siteRobots.txtRules, examples and a free testerXML sitemapCreate one, then submit it to GoogleCanonical tagPick the main version of a pageNoindex tagKeep a page out of search resultsRanking and results
Search engine rankingWhy one page appears above anotherGoogle ranking factorsWhat really matters, grouped simplyPageRankHow links pass value between pagesAlgorithmsTF-IDF, PageRank and modern rankingResults page (SERP)What each block on the page is forAI searchHow AI answers are built from the indexUnderstand
What is a search engineA plain definition with real examplesTypes of search enginesCrawler, meta, vertical, private and AIBrowser vs search engineTwo tools that people often mix upExplore
Best search enginesGoogle, Bing, DuckDuckGo and moreUses of search enginesThe everyday jobs that search handlesHistory of search enginesFrom Archie in 1990 to AI answersThese terms explain the conditions for using Search Engine Basics. By reading or sharing the guides on this site, you agree to them.
Purpose
The guides on this site are written to help people understand how search engines work. They are general educational information, so they are not professional advice for your specific website or business.
Search engines update their systems often, which means a detail may go out of date before a guide is revised. We work to keep every guide accurate, although we cannot promise that each one is complete at all times.
No guarantees
Following the advice in a guide does not guarantee that a page will be indexed, ranked or shown for any search. Every search engine decides its own results, which no website owner or adviser can control.
You remain responsible for any changes you make to your own site based on what you read here.
Content
The text, diagrams and design on Search Engine Basics belong to the site unless stated otherwise. Please do not copy whole guides or republish them elsewhere.
You may quote a short passage for teaching, commentary or reviews, as long as you credit us with a link to the original page.
Other websites
Guides often mention search engines or tools run by other companies. We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices or availability of any external website.
If you visit one of those services, its own terms apply instead of ours.
Changes
We may update these terms from time to time, in which case the date at the top of this page will change. Continuing to use the site after an update means you accept the new version.
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