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.
Knowledge Graph 2.0: Now Featuring Your Knowledge
Google's latest Knowledge Graph expansion is built on search, and with it, your data. See how this expansion impacts answer boxes, knowledge panels, and Google's relationships with webmasters.
Google's 2014 Redesign: Before and After
Google's SERP and ad format redesign may finally be rolling out, after months of testing. Before we lose the old version forever, here's the before-and-after of every major vertical that's changed.
The Future of Search: Search IS The Future
From “basic” keyword recognition to natural language processing, search engines have made huge leaps in their ability to understand both online content and what users want and look for. I believe that understanding where search is going is fundamental if you are going to stay ahead of it.
Google's December Authorship Shake-up
Before the holidays, we spotted a significant drop-off (roughly 15%) in searches display authorship. I take a deep dive into that data, including 30- and 60-day views, an analysis of authorship counts, and queries that lost out.
6 Predictions for the Marketing World in 2014
It's time, once again, to continue my annual tradition of analyzing my predictions from 2013, and if I score high enough, predicting what will happen in 2014. I use this process because it keeps me honest, and keeps you informed as to my relative levels of accuracy (or failure)....Level Up Your SEO Skills With Our Free Training
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The Shape of Things to Come: Google in 2014
How will Google evolve after the acquisition of Wavii, Behav.io, PostRank, Grapple, and machine learning and neural computing technologies? Gianluca Fiorelli paints a picture of Google in 2014, based on entity search, semantic, and über-personalization, covering how Google's recent acquisitions will interact with one another in order to shape our search experience.
4 Lessons From a Year of MozCast Data
I wanted to take a big step back and analyse the cumulative effects of Google's updates. To do that, I asked four questions and analysed a year of MozCast data to find the answers.
New: The MozCast Feature Graph - Tracking Google's Landscape
I'm pleased to announce the MozCast Feature Graph, a three-in-one tool tracking changes to Google's SERP features. The Feature Graph tracks the presence of features, 30-day histories, and lets you find SERPs with any combination of those features.
Was There a November 14th Google Update?
MozCast measured a substantial one-day temperature spike on November 14th. This spike coincided with large-scale DNS errors, but the cause of the changes is unclear. Webmaster...
Future SERP: A Glimpse at Google 2014
Sometimes, Google seems to be changing so quickly that it's easy to rush to conspiracies. This post is an attempt to make six data-driven predictions about how Google might change in 2014, including two conceptual screenshots.