How Does Google Work? A Beginner’s Guide

Unlike what some people think, Google is not THE internet. It is a part of the internet. Or more so, it is a website on the internet.

Google catalogs the entire internet and goes through all the websites, then they create a so-called index. The index is updated differently depending on how “popular” the page is in Google’s eyes. Google is based on an algorithm of about 200 factors that automatically divides the different websites into different categories and then scores them. Google’s goal is to present the most relevant and qualitative result for any search query.

What is Google?

Google is basically a search engine whose purpose is to index the web and then present information to visitors.
When Google was founded, it was called Backrub and they were the search engine that first built on a “voice system” of links. If website 1 links to website 2, it probably does so because the person behind the website thinks that there is something worth reading / seeing on website 2.

Google then sees this link and asks itself several different questions, for example: “Is it reasonable for this website to link to it?

Are they about the same topics? How many other pages does Website 1 link to? How many links to website 1? What is the anchor text link? How long has Website 1 been around? Does the content on the page seem to be good? ” and so on. When Google then forms an opinion, then website 2 gets some “points” because it seems as if website 1 voted for them. If Google concludes that Website 1 is a spam page, then Website 2 will not receive any points at all.

The most important factor in Google’s algorithm is the number of links a website receives and the quality of them. But Google considers many other factors as well, which are important to consider when working with search engine optimization.

Common ranking factors on Google

  • How fast the site loads
  • Is the content good or is there a lot of swearing or bad language?
  • Is the page easy to navigate?
  • Does the page contain the phrases or words the user searched for? Or synonyms?
  • How many shares you have from social media
  • How much text is on the page
  • Which pages does the page link to?
  • Google is constantly updating its algorithms to try to give the user the best possible results. Here you can see the big changes Google has made over the years.

A common myth

Will you rank higher on Google if you click a lot on your website on Google?

Answer: No, it’s not true if you do it yourself. Google, on the other hand, adapts results depending on which websites you have been to on the same computer (or Google account) and therefore your website may get a different result. It also does not help if half the office sits and searches and clicks all the time.

On the other hand, there are signals that show that if you to a much greater extent (and from different computers) get more clicks on your website or pages that are higher up in the results, it can play a (marginal) difference. In that case, however, it is one of the smallest factors.

No one can have missed Google’s position today, it is today far from just one of several search engines. Here you can take part in our perception of Google’s history and, above all, Google’s development.

Google can not only provide us with various information but can also be our email provider and provide tons of different services and tools like Docs, Sheets, and much more. Google creates lots of business and it’s not just the Google employees who make their living from the company. Google creates daily business and revenue for e-merchants, marketers, other website owners and not least for those who work with search engine optimization.

A background look at Google’s history

When the Internet was young, not only were the websites few. There were also limited opportunities to find what you were looking for and it could take quite a while to get an overview of what was available online in a particular area.

Google, originally named Backrub, was created in 1996 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. It is said that it was the mathematical term googol that inspired the name “Google” which was changed to “Google!”, With an exclamation mark that then disappeared again.
Before Google made its entry, AltaVista was the most dominant search engine.

What made Google so much better than its competitors is basically that the search results were so much better, but other factors also come into play. AltaVista was at this time expansive and with more and more services, this former search giant became slower for users.

Google was free from banners and other annoying things. What made Google’s search results better is undoubtedly Google’s search algorithm, which is constantly improving. Basically, it means that each website receives votes from other website owners through links. The more links, the more popular the page, which gives a better search result. The technology for this is called PageRank and the man behind that idea is Larry Page, one of Google’s founders.

Google today

Google is today one of the world’s largest companies and brands. For some time now, it has been owned by a holding company called Alphabet, which also owns a number of smaller (compared to Google) companies.

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