Search Engines
Understanding how search engines work, Google in particular, is important when working in SEO. The basics of crawling and indexing are amazingly useful to understand if you want to rank your own content.
Additionally, Google updates its algorithm several times a year. Understanding the more significant updates, and how they work, can help you to craft content and SEO strategies that are up-to-date.
We've written extensively about how search engines work, and included some of the top resources here. You can also browse the latest posts on search engines from the Moz blog below.
How Search Engines Work : New to SEO? Start with the basics of how search engines operate with our free beginner's guide.
Search Engine Ranking and Visibility : Learn the fundamentals of how search engines rank content on search engine result pages.
Google Algorithm Update History : A complete history of Google algorithm updates since 2000. This includes important links and references for understanding how Google works.
How Search Engines Value Links : Search engines work off a number of signals, but two of the most important are content and links. In this video, Rand Fishkin explains the basics of link evaluation.
MozCast : Is Google updating it's algorithm as we speak? MozCast is the Google algorithm weather report, so you can see how much Google results are changing each day.
The Machine Learning Revolution: How it Works and its Impact on SEO
Machine learning is becoming more and more prevalent in the SEO industry, driving algorithms on many major platforms. In this post, Eric Enge reveals his discoveries, insights, and predictions from his research on machine learning, discusses its influence on SEO, and introduces a machine learning tool he built to predict the chances of a retweet.
The Most Important Things We Learned About Google's Panda Algo
The SEOsphere has been abuzz with talk about Google's Panda algorithm recently. Jen Slegg, founder and editor of The SEM Post, reveals the key new takeaways from Google's own experts about Panda, and highlights actionable advice that SEOs can put into place right away.
Is Google Judging You Based on a Template?
Is there another factor at work affecting your rankings? In this post, Aaron Friedman presents the idea that Google may be segmenting search results by industry and type of content, and offers up the results from three case studies and provides advice for how to work within the confines of a template you don't fully control.
What Big Brands Need to Know About Google's Filter
If you do SEO for a brand that has multiple locations and offices, you'll want to pay attention. Using Google's &filter=0 could make the difference in your local SEO management.
Related Questions Grow +500% in 5 Months
In the past 5 months since their roll-out, Google's Related Questions ("People Also Ask") have grown over 500%. This post details their growth and evolution.Level Up Your SEO Skills With Our Free Training
Moz Academy Training
Complete courses to master SEO basics
Keyword Research Master Guide
Learn Keyword Research like the pros
Guide to SEO Competitor Analysis
Win rankings and traffic from your competition
MozCast's Year in Review (Infographic)
What were Google's most volatile days of 2014–2015, and what algorithm updates did you miss? Two years of data from the MozCast project, visualized.
RankBrain Unleashed
RankBrain. We know it happened, but beyond that, the details of this Google algorithm update are largely a mystery. What is RankBrain, what does it do, and is it even possible to optimize for it? Join Gianluca Fiorelli as he outlines what we do know and ponders the possibilities of what we don't.
Case Study: How We Removed a Massive Manual Google Penalty in 5 Steps
When it comes to getting a manual penalty revoked, the process is as much art as it is science. Anna Korolekh of PSD2HTML shares their journey in removing a massive penalty, dealing with the Google Webspam Team, identifying what worked and what didn't, and offers some key takeaways from the process.
How to Get Your App Content Indexed by Google
While the idea of app indexation isn’t new, it's an area of rapid innovation—and the process for getting your apps indexed by Google has recently been simplified. Bridget Randolph provides a brief overview of that process and gives us an update to the app indexation info already available.
Will Google Bring Back Google Authorship?
Recently, Google spokesperson Gary Illyes said that site owners should keep rel=author on their content pages, as it's always possible Google could start using it again. Does that mean that Google might bring back its Authorship program in search? Mark Traphagen provides in-depth analysis and a little educated speculation.