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.
Complaining about Some Google Missteps
I don't generally like to pick on Google, or anyone else in particular for that matter, but since the search giant is hitting on all cylinders, I think they can probably take a little nudge or two. I'm going to keep this short, sweet and to the point (and also very self-centric, because it's tough to effectively analyze everything that might have happened on someone else's site): ...
Training the Random Surfer: Two Important Adjustments to the Early PageRank Model
Many search marketers know about the ‘random surfer’ behind Google's PageRank (the real one, not the green bar also known as Google Toolbar PageRank). In Google’s own words, it’s described like this: PageRank can be thought of as a model of user behavior. We assume there is a "random ...
How PageRank Works & Why the Original PR Formula May be Flawed
INTRO From Rand: Although my grandfather, Si Fishkin, has attended many industry events, provided coverage and helped with premium Q+A as well as some of our consulting work, this is his first post on the SEOmoz blog. Si was in town for the Thanksgiving holiday and generously contributed some time to the blog. Please welcome him!...
Yahoo! Panama - An Interview with Mona Elesseily
It's sad that we don't cover the paid side of search marketing here at SEOmoz with more frequency, but with a little luck and some elbow grease (or, at least, borrowed expertise), I'm trying to dip our toe a bit deeper. Thus, it's with great pleasure that I welcome Mona Elesseily from Page Zero. Mona's a paid search guru, a fellow Northwesterner (albeit a Canadian one) and one of my favori...
Aggregate Detail on the Numbers from Google's October 2007 Toolbar PageRank Updates
Just a little under two weeks ago, we received numerous reports that a very large number of sites had experienced a sudden drop in Page Rank. Many immediately began claiming that Google had rolled out an update for its rank formula to penalize for paid links. Others played down these reports offering that their own sites had experienced no change at all. How do...Level Up Your SEO Skills With Our Free Training
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Hey Google, I'm Over Here! (a 301 Experiment)
Recently, I made the difficult decision to change the domain name of my blog and consulting website. It had to be done; the old name just didn't make sense anymore, no one could spell it, and it was terrible for SEO. Of course, I knew all of the rules of successful 301 redirection, in theory, but when it came to putting theory into practice, I found myself dreading pulling the switch....
Yahoo! Leveraging "Content" for Queries
If you've been on the Yahoo! home page in the last few days, you've seen this phenomenon: The red box around the Indiana Jones 4 link should, by all rights, take the user to a Yahoo! Movies page about the upcoming film - after all, Yahoo! has had links like these for ye...
Google Dominating Hollywood as Well as the Search Demographic
The other night I was watching Knocked Up, and in the movie there are a few references to "Googling" something. For example, in one scene the older daughter is riding in a car and casually says "I Googled murder," while in another scene Leslie Mann's character asks Paul Rudd to "Google" their daughter's symptoms to determine whether she has the chicken pox or a rash. I also recently saw The Bourne Ultimatum, and in one scene Jason Bourne uses Google to search for an agent's name, and later on there is a car chase where the guys in one car are using Google Maps o...
My Personal Opinion - 90% of the Rankings Equation Lies in These 4 Factors
I think that sometimes we in the field of search marketing try to make the practice more difficult than it really is. True - there are hundreds of ways to build a link, an infinite number of keywords, thousands of unique sources to drive traffic along with analytics, design, usability, code structure, conversion testing, etc. However, when it comes to the very specific question of how to rank w...
Bizarre Factors Search Engines Might Use to Rank the Results
I admit it - I struggle to understand patent applications (one of the big reasons that Si is part of our staff). However, Bill Slawski doesn't and it's made our collective lives in the SEO world (and the mozplex) considerably easier. Take, for example his two incredibly fascinating posts collecting patent applications and speculating on how the engines m...