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.
What Scares Google?
As SEOs, we spend too much time living in fear of Google. Like any company, Google has weaknesses, and it's important for us to have perspective about their future (and how it impacts our own future). Here are six things that I think Google fears.
Hummingbird Unleashed
There are many misconceptions about Google's Hummingbird update. What exactly did the update do, and how is it different from Penguin and Panda? How is it related to the move toward 100% (not provided)? This post consolidates the information we have available to answer all of these questions and more.![A [Poorly] Illustrated Guide to Google's Algorithm](https://outdoorsrank.com/images/blog/banners/search-engines-5511dd3_2021-03-31-024208.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=crop&dm=1617158528&s=5d09992fd285500a1cde587734a5236a)
A [Poorly] Illustrated Guide to Google's Algorithm
My ill-advised attempt to illustrate the Google algorithm and all its major parts. Inspired by a bad joke on Twitter that led to some very useful discussions.
Mega-SERP: A Visual Guide to Google
Have you ever wondered what a Google result would look like if they put all of the SERP features on one page? Wonder no more. I present to you Mega-SERP, sponsored by my obsession with tacos.
From Keywords to Contexts: the New Query Model
Gone are the days when a search query simply involved a string of words. Today's queries include all sorts of implicit data — location, device, etc. — that add to the search engines' understanding of what searchers really wanted to find. That fact has some very real implications for the way we think about keywords.Level Up Your SEO Skills With Our Free Training
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The Day the Knowledge Graph Exploded (+50.4%)
On July 19th, there was a major Google update that almost all of us missed. Overnight, the number of queries with Knowledge Graph entries jumped 50% to just over a quarter (26.7%) of the searches we track.
Inside In-depth Articles: Dissecting Google's Latest Feature
Google has officially launched their latest feature, in-depth articles. We pulled some preliminary data on how widespread in-depth articles are since launch, what kind of queries they appear on, and which sites are getting the most out of them.
101 Google Answer Boxes: A Journey into the Knowledge Graph
Google's Knowledge Graph has exploded over the past year, and it's driving more and more direct answers in organic results. I explore 101 answers boxes, and demonstrate how these are intimately connected to the Knowledge Graph.
Google's "Multi-Week" Algorithm Update
On June 21st, Matt Cutts hinted that Google was rolling out a "multi-week" update. We saw massive MozCast spikes on multiple days, and now that the weather has cleared, I thought it was time to do a deeper analysis.
Early Look at Google's June 25 Algo Update
On the morning of June 26th, MozCast registered a record high temperature of 113 degrees. This is an initial investigation into the possible algorithm update, and a potential partial-match domain (PMD) connection.