Ever wonder why your website is not in the top positions of Google's search page? How can you outshine your competition? The website of a company-in the Web 2.0 era-is definitely among the most important aspects of their business. With technologies changing each day, it is obligatory to be updated with system and software updates.

Recently, Google announced a new update to its search engine and software. Today, the Projecx team is here to guide you through this change. Are you ready for the next step in your journey? Let’s go!

How does Google Search work?

Google Search uses software known as a web crawler, which regularly explores the web to find and index new pages.

This fully automated search engine does not manually submit most of the pages listed in the results. Instead, pages are found and added automatically when web crawlers discover them.Thus, Google search works in three stages: 

• Crawling: It is done by automated set of programs called "crawlers", which download the multimedia contents shared on the internet, including text, images and videos.

• Indexing: It is a huge database that analyzes and stores the contents in the form of multimedia- text, images, and videos-within the Google index.

• Serving Search Results: This is the final and most crucial stage when a user actually is performing a search on Google. The relevant information is to be returned by the search engine to the query of the user.

Google Search Essentials

The Google search essentials cover the main elements of making your website's content eligible to appear in search. These include web pages, texts, images, videos, and other types of content that would appear on a website. A presence in Google Search, however depends on major factors like compliance with the technical requirements, best practices, and spam policies.

Google ranking factors

Google's algorithm contains more than 200 ranking factors for placing your website in search results. The following are some key ranking factors highlighted by the Projecx team to draw your attention

1. Quality content: Google supports high-quality, informative content that is relevant to users.

2. Backlinks: The higher the number of high-quality backlinks linking to your website, the greater the ranking potential.

3. Technical SEO: Some of the high-priority elements include website speed, mobile-friendliness, and crawlability.

4. Keyword Optimization: Search engines should know what your website is all about and its content.

5. User Experience: Google would want to reward those websites with seamless, very easy, and enjoyable user experiences.

6. Schema Markup:It is a type of structured data that helps your website stand out from others in search results.

7. Social Signals: Likes and shares of your content affect your ranking in search.

8. Brand Signals: The online perception and authority about your brand even affect your ranking.

Google Search Operators

Google search operators are symbols or words used in search queries to make web search results more specific. These operators include Boolean operators and shortcuts that help narrow and refine search results.

The most commonly used search operators are AND, OR, and NOT. Other frequently used operators include site:, intitle:, " " (quotation marks), and - (the minus symbol).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which helps search engines understand your content and assists users in deciding whether to visit your site or skip it based on search results.

In essence, SEO drives people to discover your content and increases traffic to your website. 

To optimize this, it's crucial to carefully consider the keywords you use to describe your content, as they play a key role in making your site more visible and eligible to appear in Google Search results.

There's no doubt that Google's new update can empower your site to rank first or among the top in search results. However, as a stakeholder, it's crucial to understand how to effectively use Search Essentials and SEO to drive more traffic to your site, which ultimately means more success.