How do search engines work?

Search engines provide results for any search query a user enters. To do so, they survey and “understand” the vast network of websites that make up the web. They run a sophisticated algorithm that determines what results to display for each search query.

Why SEO focuses on Google

To many people, the term “search engine” is synonymous with Google, which has about 83% of the global search engine market. Because Google is the dominant search engine, SEO typically revolves around what works best for Google. It’s useful to have a clear understanding of how Google works and why.

What Google wants

Google is designed to deliver the best search experience to its users, or searchers. That means providing the most relevant results, as quickly as possible.

The 2 core elements of the search experience are the search term (the user input) and the search results (the output).

Let’s say you search “Mailchimp guides and tutorials.” This is a clear, unambiguous search. Google understands what you’re asking for, and it delivers a useful page as the top organic result—Mailchimp’s own page.

From Google’s perspective, this is a very good search result and a positive user experience, because it’s likely that the user will click the top result and be happy with the outcome.

How Google makes money

Google profits from people trusting and valuing its search service. It achieves this by delivering useful search results.

Google also provides businesses with the opportunity to pay for an advertorial placement at the top of search result pages. The word “Ad” indicates these listings. Google makes money when searchers click on these pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements, which you purchase through Google Ads. You’ll see these ads on more generic queries in particular.

Other than the small label, these search results look almost indistinguishable from other search results. Of course, this is intentional, as lots of users click on these results without realizing that they’re ads.