Why is the Google Algorithm So Important?

The Google algorithm searches out Web pages that contain keywords you used to search. Learn about the Google algorithm and how the Google algorithm works.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Get in touch with technology with tech stuff from how
stuff Works dot com. Hi, and welcome to the podcast.
My name is Chris Pelette. I'm an editor here at
how stuff works dot com and with me I have
writer Jonathan Stricklines. Hey there, um, and our question of

(00:22):
today why is the Google algorithm so important? And I'll
tell you all right, but first I guess we we
just in case you don't know, we should tell you
one algorithm is I know, I know, I had to
look it up, Chris, Um. You know, it's it's one
of those things. It's one of those words that you
sort of know what it means. I know, it's a
mathematical something or other that makes something happened in a

(00:44):
certain way. And uh, okay, so I looked it up.
I admit I looked it up, and it says that
when I looked at Webster's that basically an algorithm is
a pattern for doing this. So this is the pattern
that Google is using to rank search results on It's
on its page, right. Yes, this is a set of instructions,
in this case, a computer algorithm, a set of instructions

(01:06):
that tells the computer exactly how to bring back search
engine results pages Those are also known as serups in
the s EO BIZ and that would be Search engine
optimization UM, an acronym and exciting topic guess the world
of acronyms. According to Search Engines UH, with the Google algorithm, basically,

(01:28):
what they're doing is they're trying to make sure that
users who are using the Google Search engine are getting
the best results for any particular search terms they're putting in.
So any time you go to Google and you insert
a certain keyword or phrase UM, ideally the first few
results that pop up should be the ones that are

(01:49):
most pertinent to your search, and you shouldn't have to
dig deeper and deeper in. Now that's kind of important
because there's over a hundred and fifty million active web
pages on the Internet, so you don't want to have
to search through all of those manually, you know. I
think it's fascinating that you know, in reading your article
that Google has been able to weed out, you know,

(02:12):
tricks that might try that people might try to push
the site up on the page. Like, for example, if
we wanted you to read why is the Google algorithm
so important? Why we don't you know, type into the
web page somewhere Google algorithm, Google algorithm, Google algorithm fifty times.
That's actually gonna push it down the page. And uh,
and you know it's it's interesting to note that it's

(02:35):
it's dependent on who links to you to your page
and how old your site is. So these are all
in the instruction set, right, Yes, this algorithm includes all
of these factors. Um. In the past, search engines would
mainly look for certain keywords in a page, which maybe
you've come across a web page where at the very

(02:55):
very bottom, if you scroll all the way down, you
see this block of text and it's just random words
all thrown together. That's just to get search engine hits
for any of these terms. So it's pretty much any
word that webmaster could think of, right well, that that
doesn't guarantee a good search results experience. So yes, Google
guards against that. They really look at the content of

(03:16):
the site. Um. And as you say, they look at
the links that are coming. That are the websites that
are linking to the website in question. Um. So the
more websites that linked to that that particular page, the
higher that page will rank in Google search results. And interestingly,
if those those sites that are linking to the page

(03:37):
are themselves very important pages. Then that also boosts the
particular web pages ranking and Google. Um, that's where the
mystery comes in. We know that that the algorithm uh
does these things. We just don't know how much Google
waits one criterion against another. Uh. We had some readers

(04:00):
ask us about this. They said, well, if if the
Google algorithm is patented, how can it be a secret. Well,
the patent tells us that Google ranks pages based upon
these links, but it doesn't tell us how they determine
which links are more important than others, not not specifically.
So that's where the mystery comes in. That you know,
that's just amazing that they're they're able to do that,

(04:21):
and then they can tweak it on the fly. Um,
because you were telling me about an article that you
had seen, right, Yes, there's an article in a popular mechanics.
They interviewed a Google executive and he admitted that in
two thousand seven, Google tweaked their algorithm four hundred fifty times.

(04:42):
I mean, that's it's amazing to know that they could
do that. I know I've used the word amazing a
lot of times, amazing number of times to Google it.
I'm sure it would come right up, probably would accept.
I've used it so many times you would push it right.
It's true. Um, but yeah, it's it's um. Just fascinating
that they're able to change it that frequently. Uh. Still

(05:03):
and still, you know, receive a normal amount of traffic
and handle the load without any problems and still remain
the trusted search source simply because you know the way
that they're they're processing this information from all the people.
In fact, I would say that that's why they're such
a trusted search source. It's because they're constantly tweaking to
make sure you get the best search results for any
particular search. Well. To read more about that, you can

(05:27):
visit why is the Google Algorithms So Important? Which is
up today at how stuff works dot com. Thanks for
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