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.

Most Recent Articles on Search Engines

Google's Sandbox Still Exists: Exemplified by Grader.com
Rand Fishkin

Google's Sandbox Still Exists: Exemplified by Grader.com

Search Engines

For many in the SEO field, Google's "sandbox," a filter the search quality team created to help fight spam, is a relic of days gone by. However, we've been spotting new cases over the last few years, and I finally found a great example to share publicly (and got permission from the site owner). Grader.com, and the four subdomains underneath it - Twitter.Grader.com, PressRelease.Grader.com, Website.Grader.com & Facebook.Grader.com - are all under pronounced effects that highlight this algorithmic element's impact.

Sneaky Spam in Local Search
Rebecca Kelley

Sneaky Spam in Local Search

Search Engines

My coworker Mike and I were pondering lunch options today and decided to order from the Honey Hole, one of Seattle's best sandwich places. Every day the place has a line out the door because it's a popular haven for hungry Seattleites who want a belly full of sandwichy goodness, so sometimes we elect to call our order in and pick it up.

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Struggling Against Google's Greatest Advantage
Rand Fishkin

Struggling Against Google's Greatest Advantage

Search Engines

Thousands of posts, news articles and analysis pieces have covered the central topic of battling Google's dominance in web search, but I've seen very few that have discussed what is, in my opinion, the most telling example of the search giant's dominance. The latest (made popular across Techmeme and many individual blogs) was this piece from C|Net's Don Reisinger:

Search Is Changing Forever, Rand :).
Gabriel Goldenberg

Search Is Changing Forever, Rand :).

Search Engines

With every tweak and change that Google brings to its search result pages, the "potential-ROI" balance on search tips ever more towards PPC and away from SEO. I realized this when I read Aaron Wall's Marketing Lessons from Google. Search marketing leaders demand results, so it's irrelevant that the means of practicing SEO remain the same. What is relevant is that Google is decreasing the ability of SEO to provide stable, measurable results. As Aaron points out in his post, Google seeks to undermine competing business models.

Why a Google Monopoly is Bad for Search Marketers
Rand Fishkin

Why a Google Monopoly is Bad for Search Marketers

Search Engines

When search marketers get together at a pub and talk, the conversation inevitably turns to Google's near-monopolistic share of web search. For many of us that are new to the field, Google has always been the market leader and the focus of most of our efforts. But historically, this wasn't the case. Have a look from a historical perspective: ...

SEO Company Search Results - An Embarrassment to Google and the Other Engines
Rand Fishkin

SEO Company Search Results - An Embarrassment to Google and the Other Engines

Search Engines

One of the central goals of all the major search engines has always been to limit the extent to which manipulative activity could affect the top search results. It's been my general opinion that there's no better place to start this enforcement than our field - search engine optimization - and the SEO companies that offer this service. It was therefore to my dismay to see the following search r...

Google's Advice - Godsend Or Gimmick?
Jane Copland

Google's Advice - Godsend Or Gimmick?

Search Engines

What's the deal with all this advice that Google employees like to give us, then? Of all the search engines (and of many companies of Google's size and scope), Google appears to be the most open with its distribution of information, its interactions with its users and its willingness to give us advice.

The X-Files of Google: 10 Inexplicably Weird Search Results
Rand Fishkin

The X-Files of Google: 10 Inexplicably Weird Search Results

Search Engines

Sometimes you come across a set of search results that just don't make any sense. For most ordinary users, I suspect they probably just move on to the next query, but for those of us deeply embedded in the world of search and SEO, these noggin'-scratchers just keep on itchin'. I've collected these ten over the past couple months and figured I'd share them on the blog with the hopes of g...