Understanding SEO from the Scratch (Part II): Fundamental Principles of Search Engines and SEO-Related FAQs

Table of Contents

Fundamental Working Principles of Search Engines
Some common SEO-related questions

Building on the SEO terms covered in the previous article, this piece will provide a straightforward introduction to the basic workings of search engines, based on their fundamental technical framework.

Understanding search engine principles doesn’t mean we need to become search engine experts. By grasping some basic concepts, we can answer many common questions that beginners or laypeople may have about SEO. It will also enable us to approach SEO practices with common sense, helping us assess their effectiveness and feasibility while avoiding following misguided myths and misconceptions

Fundamental Working Principles of Search Engines

To help us better understand the workings of search engines, Binomialtree SEO has created a simplified technical framework of search engines, as shown in the diagram below:

As seen in the diagram above, here is an overview of the general workflow:

Workflow performed actively by search engines:

1. Crawlers (spiders) retrieve webpage data from the internet.

2. Perform preprocessing on the crawled webpages, such as extracting structured information, link data, text content, etc.

3. Add the preprocessed webpage data to the index database, perform semantic analysis, and create an inverted index.

Up to this point,

1) The process of a webpage being indexed has been completed.

2) The calculation of the semantic relevance between the webpage and a specific keyword has been completed.”

3) The search engine also performs further layers of analysis and calculation on the stored webpage data, such as anti-spam and anti-cheating detection.

“Workflow triggered by user behavior:

1. The user submits a query.

2. The search engine uses the Query Understanding (QU) module to precisely analyze and understand the user’s search intent.

3. Based on the user’s search intent, the search engine retrieves relevant webpages from the index.

4. The search engine performs ranking analysis and calculations on the retrieved webpages.

5. The search results are presented to the user based on the ranking calculation results.

To improve efficiency, a caching system is used here. For repeated queries with the same search intent, the ranking results can be directly returned to the user from the cache.

Above is a simplified workflow of how a search engine goes from indexing a webpage to responding to a user’s search query with results. It involves four key aspects: crawling, indexing, ranking, and user query response.

Some common SEO-related questions

Through this simplified process, we can further understand some SEO-related issues from a common-sense perspective:

1. What is the typical timeline for SEO optimization results?

As seen in the diagram, after a webpage’s content is optimized, it needs to go through the crawling, indexing, or data updating process. The time required for this process may vary depending on the frequency at which the crawler visits the website.

For websites with a certain level of authority: The process from crawling to indexing typically takes around 1-2 weeks. Then, the calculation of keyword relevance, ranking factors, and cache updates may take another 1-2 weeks. Therefore, it usually takes about 2-4 weeks for the changes made to a webpage to reflect in search results. In other words, for a website with a certain level of authority, visible improvements from optimization can typically be seen in about one month.
For new websites (those less than a year old) or websites that have never undergone SEO optimization: Due to their low authority, the crawling frequency is relatively lower. The crawling and indexing process can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a month. After indexing, to achieve ranking for target keywords, in addition to the webpage’s relevance and content quality, it’s also essential to accumulate some webpage authority (such as page performance, backlinks, user CTR, etc.). Eventually, maintaining a reasonable ranking for the target keywords is necessary. For new sites, this process can take anywhere from 3 months to as long as 6 months or even up to a year. Therefore, for new websites, under normal circumstances, it takes about 4 months to see visible results of optimization and authority accumulation. In less favorable cases, it can take even longer (6 months to a year).

So, under normal circumstances, SEO services that claim to guarantee keyword rankings within one to two weeks or a month typically fall into two categories:

1) The target keyword has very low competition, so as long as the webpage is indexed, it can achieve the desired ranking.
2) The SEO service uses unnatural methods to rapidly increase the website’s authority. However, 99% of these tactics fall under practices that search engines penalize. Even if rankings are achieved in the short term, there is a high risk of penalties in the long run.

2. What exactly is being optimized in on-page SEO?

“In a nutshell, On-page optimization is about maximizing the satisfaction of search engine users’ search needs based on the product, while ensuring that search engines can efficiently identify the webpage content.

Let’s break down the two key points:
1) Enabling search engines to better understand webpage content efficiently
This aspect of optimization primarily targets search engine algorithms. The optimization factors here are often subtle details that ordinary users may not notice, such as robots.txt, structured data tags, heading tags, alt text for images, page load methods, and so on. Many refer to this part as Technical SEO, as the focus is mainly on helping search engine algorithms efficiently process and understand the website content.

2) Better satisfying the search needs of search engine users
Meeting user search needs primarily involves two aspects:
One aspect is to maximize the coverage of search engine users’ search needs on the website pages. For example, if a website selling PCs only presents the core product ‘PC computers,’ it won’t cover the search needs of users who are looking for monitors or keyboards. After analyzing user search needs through SEO, additional pages are created to cater to searches for accessories like ‘computer monitors’ or ‘computer keyboards.’ This way, even though the website’s product offerings haven’t changed, it can now meet a broader range of user search needs. This is an optimization of search demand coverage.
The second aspect is optimizing the alignment between webpage content and user search intent. For example, a page selling ‘computer monitors’ might only feature informational content about monitors, without any option to purchase or provide a purchasing channel. For users searching to buy a computer monitor, this page fails to meet their needs. In this case, SEO should optimize the page content by not only offering detailed technical specifications but also including purchase links or channels. Additionally, the page should provide after-sales service information, frequently asked questions, and relevant installation and usage videos. This way, the page fully satisfies the needs of users looking to buy a computer monitor.

3. What factors influence a webpage's ranking for a target keyword?

Currently, Binomialtree SEO classifies the main factors that affect keyword rankings in search results into three categories: relevance, specific ranking factors, and user click feedback.
Relevance: The relevance of a keyword is mainly determined by the content of the page itself, but it is also influenced by factors such as website categorization and anchor text in external links. For example, if two pieces of content about ‘PC computer prices’ with the same quality and target keyword are published on a general website and an IT technology website respectively, all other factors being equal, the webpage on the IT technology website is likely to rank higher due to the more relevant website category and higher page relevance.

Ranking factors: These cannot be specifically determined and can only be speculated based on practical experience, Google’s official documentation, and anti-spam guidelines. Some SEO experts claim that there are over 200 specific factors, including loading speed, link quality, page expertise, and others. However, the exact number and impact of these factors remain uncertain.

User behavior feedback: Search engines continuously fine-tune search result rankings based on user metrics, such as click-through rate (CTR) and bounce rate, to improve the relevance and quality of the results.

SEO work revolves around the three main aspects mentioned above, with user behavior feedback being the most commonly overlooked factor. Many SEOs focus only on optimizing factors that influence relevance and specific ranking factors, while neglecting the role of user behavior feedback.

4. Is update frequency a key factor to pursue in SEO optimization?

It’s common to see a lot of SEO content online emphasizing the importance of content update frequency. It’s often suggested that to succeed in SEO, you must regularly update articles to increase website authority.
After understanding the basic workings of search engines, Binomialtree SEO believes that update frequency has a significant impact on crawler visit frequency. That is, if a website’s content is updated frequently, crawlers will visit the site more often, which means changes to webpages will be reflected more quickly in search engines. However, the update frequency itself has almost no direct impact on website authority or ranking.
Search engines favor high-quality new content. If your content is purely new but lacks quality, such updates won’t have a positive impact on your rankings.
Therefore, increasing update frequency can be beneficial to website authority and rankings, but only if the content is of high quality.

That’s all for this article. As for more SEO-related questions, such as ‘Will building too many backlinks negatively impact a website?’, feel free to use your understanding of the basic principles of search engines and think through it based on common sense to come up with your own answer.

This article is an original work by Binomialtree SEO. Please credit the source when reprinting.

Hi, I am Andy, the founder of Binomialtree SEO.

With over 12 years of hands-on SEO experience, I have been responsible for driving organic traffic growth for several medium to large-scale websites in China. Since 2020, I have focused on Google Search Engine Optimization, helping multiple B2B companies achieve their organic traffic growth goals within a year. If you need professional SEO optimization, feel free to contact us.