Search engines use a specialized formula known as a search algorithm to locate specific information that is found inside of a data structure to determine the relevance of any web page and the content located on that page. The search algorithm is unique to its own search engine, and it is what is used to determine the SERPs of web pages.

What Are the Different Types of Search Algorithms?

Specific algorithms are used by search engines and are based on the structure and the size of the data to provide them with a specific value. There are many different types of search algorithms including:

Binary Search Algorithm

If a list contains terms, a binary search algorithm will exploit the ordering of a list. This type of algorithm works best when lists have terms that occur in order of size. A binary search algorithm will start in the middle of the list and if the target is lower than the middle, the upper portion of the list is eliminated. If the target is higher than the middle term, the lower half of the list is eliminated. If the database is larger, a binary search algorithm produces faster results than other types of algorithms. If the collection is not in order, pre-processing will sort it and a binary search will use a loop to divide that space in half after comparisons have been made. Processing after the search decides which of the variables will stay in that search space.

Linear Search Algorithm

One of the most basic search algorithms is a linear search algorithm which only requires a small amount of code to put it into place. The formula for this search algorithm is simple and works well for shorter lists that do not have an order and are not sorted. To determine the search, this algorithm examines the items as a list. Once the algorithm reaches the item that is being searched, it completes the search. The linear search is not a common search method because it is not every efficient when you consider other types of algorithms.

What Impact do Search Algorithms Have on SEO?

Search algorithms will assist in the determinations of a web page’s rank when the search is completed, and the results are listed. Every search engine has a set of rules that it uses to decide of each web page – is it real or is it spam? These algorithms examine the content and the data within the page to see if it is useful for a user. The results that are produced via this process will help to determine the rank of a website in the SERPs. Every algorithm formula and set of rules varies, but the SERPS utilize relevance and factors both on and off the page to find a rank for each web page in the SERPS.

How Relevant is a Web Page to a Search?

When a search engine crawl through the content of a web page and its text, it looks for keywords and where they are located within that website. If there are keywords in the headline, title and first few sentences on each page, then that page will rank higher for that keyword than a lot of other sites. The search engines scan sites to see how keywords are used within the text of a page and this will determine if the page has relevance to a search. The keyword frequency that you are searching will influence the site’s relevancy and if keywords are stuffed and do not flow naturally, the search engines view this as keyword stuffing. This practice used to work twenty years ago, but now it will reduce the relevance of a website and lower its ranking in the SERPs.

Other Factors

Search algorithms are all specific to their own search engine. This means that there are some other factors that come with the search engine’s ability to have specific rules for their search algorithm application. There are different sets of rules for how search engines will crawl through a website, how many sites they will index and how they will penalize a site if it is using keyword spamming. If you conduct a search on Yahoo and on Google, each set of results will be different. Google conducts more page indexing than Yahoo and does it much more often. This means that the search engine results are going to be different.

Off-page elements that affect the rank of a page include items such as the measurement of click-through by visitors and the amount of hyperlinking in a page. The click through measurement determines how many people visit a site, if they leave right away or how long they spend on the site investigating its pages. All these factors are important in improving the SEO rank of a website along with its relevancy so all these items should be considered, and you should try to improve them if possible.

Once you better understand how search algorithms work and the role they play in SEO, the rank of your site and how to adjust your site to improve its rank, you can see better results for your site overall. Search algorithms are an important consideration when you are building out your website. If your site is for your business, it is always a good idea to get an experienced SEO professional involved to ensure that you get the job done right from the early beginnings of your site.