How Google Works - Search Engine Marketing Services

Google drives a huge proportion of the search traffic on the internet.What this means for you is that if you can understand Google, then if you were to build a website (as an affiliate), then you'll stand a much better chance of ranking highly on the specific search terms that you're targeting (e.g. "dog training", "dalmation training",
"stop german shepherd digging", and so on).

I'm going to provide for you a no-nonsense, but yet comprehensive guide to how Google works.Google has a comprehensive and highly developed technology, a straightforward interface and a wide-ranging array of search tools which enable the users to easily access a variety of information online. Google users can browse the web and find information in various languages, retrieve maps, stock quotes and read news, search for a long lost friend using the phonebook listings available on Google for all of US cities and basically surf the 3 billion odd web pages on the internet! Google boasts of having world's largest archive of Usenet messages, dating all the way back to 1981. Google's technology can be
accessed from any conventional desktop PC as well as from various wireless platforms such as WAP and i-mode phones, handheld devices
and other such Internet equipped gadgets. The web search technology offered by Google is often the technology of choice of the world's leading portals and websites. It has also
benefited the advertisers with its unique advertising program that does not hamper the web surfing experience of its users but still
brings revenues to the advertisers.

Google's Web Search Technology

When you search for a particular keyword or a phrase, most of the search engines return a list of page in order of the number of times the keyword or phrase appears on the website. Google web search technology involves the use of its indigenously designed PageRank Technology and hypertext-matching analysis which makes several instantaneous calculations undertaken without any human intervention. Google's structural design also expands simultaneously as the internet expands.

PageRank technology

PageRank technology involves the use of an equation which comprises of millions of variables and terms and determines a factual measurement of the significance of web pages and is calculated by solving an equation of 500 million variables and more than 3 billion terms. Unlike some other search engines, Google does not calculate links but utilizes the extensive link structure of the web as an organizational tool. When the link to a Page, lets say Page B is clicked from a Page A, then that click is attributed as a vote towards Page B on behalf of Page A. Quintessentially, Google calculates the importance of a page by the number of such 'votes' it receives. Not only that, Google also assesses the importance of the pages that are involved in the voting process. Consequently, pages that are themselves ahead in ranking and are important in that way also help to make other pages important
One thing to note here is that Google's technology does not involve human intervention in anyway and uses the inherent intelligence of the internet and its resources to determine the ranking and importance of any page.Not only that, Google also evaluates the content of its nearest web pages. This policy of not disregarding any subject matter pays off in the end and enables Google to return results that are closest to user queries.

1. When the query is submitted and the enter key is pressed, the web server sends the query to the index servers. Index server is exactly what its name suggests; it consists of an index much like the index of a book which displays where is the particular page containing the queried term is located in the entire book.


2. After this, the query proceeds to the doc servers, and these servers actually retrieve the stored documents. Page descriptions or "snippets" are then generated to suitably describe each search result.

3. These results are then returned to the user in less than a second!


The Google Dance

Approximately once a month, Google update their index by
recalculating the Pageranks of each of the web pages that they have
crawled. The period during the update is known as the Google dance.

Because of the nature of PageRank, the calculations need to be
performed about 40 times and, because the index is so large, the
calculations take several days to complete.

During this period, the search results fluctuate; sometimes
minute-by minute. It is because of these fluctuations that the
term, Google Dance, was coined. The dance usually takes place
sometime during the last third of each month.

Google has two other servers that can be used for searching. The
search results on them also change during the monthly update and
they are part of the Google dance.

For the rest of the month, fluctuations sometimes occur in the
search results, but they should not be confused with the actual
dance. They are due to Google's fresh crawl and to what is known
"Everflux".

Google has two other searchable servers apart from www.google.com.

They are www2.google.com and www3.google.com. Most of the time, the
results on all 3 servers are the same, but during the dance, they
are different.

For most of the dance, the rankings that can be seen on www2 and
www3 are the new rankings that will transfer to www when the dance
is over. Even though the calculations are done about 40 times, the
final rankings can be seen from very early on. This is because,
during the first few iterations, the calculated figures merge to
being close to their final figures.

You can see this with the Pagerank Calculator by checking the Data
box and performing some calculations. After the first few
iterations the search results on www2 and www3 may still change,
but only slightly.

During the dance, the results from www2 and www3 will sometimes
show on the www server, but only briefly. Also, new results on www2
and www3 can disappear for short periods. At the end of the dance,
the results on www will match those on www2 and www3.

This Google Dance Tool allows you to check your rankings on www,
www2 and www3 and on all 9 datacenters simultaneously.



How to maximize Google's Search Features?

Find It ASAP

The Google Web Directory works in combination of the Google Search
Technology and the Netscape Open Directory Project which makes it
possible to search the Internet organized by topic.

Google displays the pages in order of the rank given to it using
the PageRank Technology. It not only searches the titles and
descriptions of the websites, but searches the entire content of
sites within a category, which ultimately delivers a comprehensive
search to the users.

Google also has a fully functional web directory which categorizes
all the searches in order.

In case you are feeling lucky

The I'm Feeling Lucky(TM) search button is recommended when searching
for a highest ranked web page for a particular search. This saves
time in searching for a webpage.

The multi-faceted Google Toolbar

The Google Toolbar(TM) can seamlessly integrate with a user's web
browser and be of quick assistance.

Pandora's Box

- Google enables its users to search for U.S. street maps
immediately by just typing the street name in the query box.

- Latest stock quotes are just a click away. Just type in the
company ticker symbol or the name of one of the stock indices stock
and mutual fund information and Google will return the relevant
information in association with high-profile financial and trading
concerns.

Cache me if you can

Google takes a snapshot of each page it examined as it crawls the
web and stores or caches them as a back-up in case the original
page is unavailable.

This cached link always displays the page in the same manner as it
was indexed and this is used by Google to match the relevancy of
the page to the query submitted by the user.

The "Cached" link will be missing for sites that have not been
indexed, as well as for sites whose owners have requested Google
not to cache their content.

Google Web Search Features

Google offers a variety of special features which helps users to
find exactly what they are looking which is all in addition to
providing easy access to more than 3 billion web pages. The
following is an overview of its key features:

- Calculator

Google has a built-in calculator function which can be used to
calculate mathematical expressions involving basic arithmetic, more
complicated math, units of measure and conversions, physical
constants and even hexadecimal and binary numbering systems. You
can simply enter the expression you'd like evaluated in the search
box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button.

- Dictionary Definitions

When searching about any particular term, if the Google database
has a definition or meaning for the term, then it will be
highlighted with an underline on the results page. This definition
is derived in association with a reliable dictionary source.
- File Types

In addition to HTML files, Google search also supports 12 other
formats such as PDF, Microsoft Office, PostScript, Corel
WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and others. Additionally, Google also
offers the user the ability to "View as HTML", which allows users
to view these files in case the corresponding software is not
installed on the user's PC. It also eliminates the hazards of
opening a virus-infected document.

- News Headlines

While searching for a particular term, if that term is also in any
of the current news, it is displayed as a separate news link on the
results page. This is derived from various news providers who work
in association with Google and who let Google monitor them.

A new offering - Advanced News Search

A new offering from Google - Advanced News Search, allows visitors
to scour headlines by date, location, exact phrases or publication.
People can use it retrieve articles from more than 4,500 news
outlets publishing on the Web. Advanced News Search lets visitors
search for headlines using several parameters. Among other
features, people can locate stories that contain an exact phrase,
within the Unites States or abroad, or written by a specific
publisher.

- Similar Pages

The results page also displays a link for 'similar pages' which
uses the GoogleScout technology to explore the web for similar
pages. This is particularly helpful if you have hit upon a page
which has relevant content, but you want something similar but more.

- Web Page Translation

This feature is particularly helpful if your search has non-English
results. Google offers a facility to automatically translate a
page for you in English. Currently, Google supports Italian,
French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese languages.

- SafeSearch Filtering

Google provides a SafeSearch option to filter pornographic contents
from its results page. This is especially useful for shared
computers which need to be protected for children surfing the
Internet. Google's technology tries to check keywords and
phrases, URLs and Open Directory categories and eliminate these
from the search results.

Submitting your URL to Google

Google is primarily a fully-automatic search engine with no
human-intervention involved in the search process. It utilizes
robots known as 'spiders' to crawl the web on a regular basis for
new updates and new websites to be included in the Google Index.

This robot software follows hyperlinks from site to site. Google
does not require that you should submit your URL to its database
for inclusion in the index, as it is anyway done automatically by
the 'spiders'. However, manual submission of URL can be done by
going to the Google website and clicking the related link.

One important thing here is that Google does not accept payment of
any sort for site submission or improving page rank of your
website. Also, submitting your site through the Google website
does not guarantee listing in the index.

Cloaking

Sometimes, a webmaster might program the server in such a way that
it returns different content to Google than it returns to regular
users, which is often done to misrepresent search engine rankings.

This process is referred to as cloaking as it conceals the actual
website and returns distorted webpages to search engines crawling
the site. This can mislead users about what they'll find when they
click on a search result. Google highly disapproves of any such
practice and might place a ban on the website which is found guilty
of cloaking.

Google Guidelines
Here are some of the important tips and tricks that can be employed
while dealing with Google.



Do's

- A website should have crystal clear hierarchy and links and
should preferably be easy to navigate.

- A site map is required to help the users go around your site and
in case the site map has more than 100 links, then it is advisable
to break it into several pages to avoid clutter.

- Come up with essential and precise keywords and make sure that
your website features relevant and informative content.

- The Google crawler will not recognize text hidden in the images,
so when describing important names, keywords or links; stick with
plain text.

- The TITLE and ALT tags should be descriptive and accurate and the
website should have no broken links or incorrect HTML.

- Dynamic pages (the URL consisting of a '?' character) should be
kept to a minimum as not every search engine spider is able to
crawl them.

- The robots.txt file on your web server should be current and
should not block the Googlebot crawler. This file tells crawlers
which directories can or cannot be crawled.

Don'ts

- When making a site, do not cheat your users, i.e. those people
who will surf your website. Do not provide them with irrelevant
content or present them with any fraudulent schemes.

- Avoid tricks or link schemes designed to increase your site's
ranking.

- Do not employ hidden texts or hidden links.

- Google frowns upon websites using cloaking technique. Hence, it
is advisable to avoid that.

- Automated queries should not be sent to Google.

- Avoid stuffing pages with irrelevant words and content. Also
don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with
significantly duplicate content.