Guide to Understanding Search

To Begin

Every time you search in Google there are hundreds of thousands, even millions of potential results that you could see. At its core, the internet is like a huge library and it’s Google’s job to hone these results down to what is likely to be the most useful results for you.

This is something that Google is constantly working to improve. For example, in the year 2000, Jenifer Lopez wore a green Versace gown to the Grammy Awards that caused such a stir that Google created Google Images. Before that we didn’t have a way to easily find images across the web. The way we use the internet and search for information has changed over the years and so Google Search has developed and evolved with it. 

Results

With so much information available, finding what you really need would be almost impossible without some sort of aid to sort through it. This is what Google’s ranking systems are designed for: they sort through millions, if not billions, of content and web pages to show you the most relevant and useful results almost instantly. 

Finding Content

In order to find all of this content, Google uses a crawler, which is also sometimes called a bot. This is a tool that acts somewhat like your browser, whether that’s Google Chrome, Safari or a different browser. Google will request a page such as Pebble’s homepage and from there it will find many other pages on that website, and it’ll then request to see these pages. When it requests these pages it will collect various pieces of information, such as what your main heading is, the written content on the page and the images etc.. Because of this, optimising your website from both a technical standpoint so Google can access everything you want it to, and your website content is important as this is what Google uses to assess how it should rank your site. 

Key Factors for Results

So you get the most useful information, Google will then use algorithms that look at many factors such as the words used in the query, the relevance of the pages and the expertise of the sources. The way Google decides on the relevance can vary depending on your query, for example how new the content is is more important when the query is about current topics, such as childcare reforms. Below is a more detailed look into the key factors for results. 

Meaning & Search Intent

The first thing Google needs to decide is what your query actually means - what is the intent behind the query? Google uses language models to decipher the meaning and show you the most useful content. If you search for “nurseries near me”, Google will deduce that you are looking for settings near you and will likely show you a map with results. If you change the query to “nursery near me photos” you will then get pictures of nurseries close to you, likely pulled from social media pages or their websites. 

A lot of the time, the meaning is clear from what someone will type in, for example, if you searched for “nursery with montessori ethos” you would most likely be shown a page about montessori ethos from a nurseries website. 

However, sometimes there are “mixed intent searches”, which is where Google will try to choose what’s most likely the right intent for the query but will cover its bases. For example, if I search for “nurseries Shrewsbury”, this could mean that I’m looking for a nursery for my child or that I’d like to find some plants for my garden, and so Google shows both types of nurseries in this map result, where there’s nurseries for kids but also The Garden Room, which is a nursery of plants. 

Top Tips

1. Have enough pages, for example, if you have more than one activity that you’d like to advertise, it’s worth having a separate page to describe each activity. That way, Google and people visiting your site can see these as clearly separate activities and won’t get confused. 

2. Make sure you have enough content on your website to properly convey all the information people need to be able to book a nursery spot or activity. For example, do people need to bring anything with them to an activity? What age range is the activity suitable for? 

3. Use clear headings. What can people expect to find on your pages? What should Google rank you for? 

Trustworthiness

Google likes to make sure that the results that you see are high quality and reliable. To do this Google has a process of assessing the experience, expertise, authoritativeness and the trustworthiness of a web page, the name of which is shortened to EEAT. Google wants to make sure your website is going to be a reliable source of information and a trustworthy business.  

Top Tips

1. Make sure your website has a human touch. Write about your activity providers or nursery childcare assistants and their experience. People like to see who’s running events or working in the nursery and so Google likes this too. 

2. If you have reviews or testimonials, display this on your website. 
   
   

   
   

Usability

Google also assesses how easy the website is to use, for example if you are using a mobile phone it will look for pages that are mobile friendly in that they can be viewed easily and load quickly on mobiles as well as on desktop. Google will also collect user behaviour when someone visits your site, and use that data to get an idea of how well your website has fulfilled their intent and how easy it is to navigate your site.  

Top Tips

1. Open up your website on your mobile device outside, away from a wifi network. Does your website still load quickly? Are images loading slowly? Is everything formatted correctly? Can you find all of the pages on your website? 

2. Ask your friends and family to find certain pages on your website on a mobile device. If they struggle to find those pages, you know that people trying to book a place in your nursery or for your activity are likely also struggling to find what they are looking for.

This is the perfect example of what to look for. When using the website on desktop, there are no issues. However on mobile, the menu and logo disappear as you scroll. If you scroll too far the menu is then hidden by the blue button with round dots that when clicked takes you to methods of contacting the company. 

Context

Google will use information such as previous search history, settings and your location. For instance if you searched for “dance classes for 3 year olds” you would see different results in London than you would see in Leeds. You’ll also see different formats of results in results pages depending on your query. For example, anything location based, you’ll likely see a map result.

Top Tips

1. Make sure you have Google Business Profile set up so you can appear in local map results. 

2. Make sure you reference your location on the website, for example in a contact us page and on your homepage. 

Google Updates

Google updates Search regularly and sometimes these changes can have a big impact so it’s always a good idea to to keep an eye on these in case any may affect your business. Google have also brought in different formats of search result. 

Search Engine Result Page Features (SERP Features)

There are many features that have been added to the SERP, many of which you may use regularly and some of which will become even more useful when you begin thinking about how they can positively impact your website. 

10 Blue Links

10 Blue links refer to the links that have been the staple of Google Search since it began. Though Google Search has changed so much that we now have infinite scroll so there’s thousands of blue links in search results, the results at the top of Google Search are still referred to as 10 Blue Links. These appear below the Ad listings and are the organic listings that Google has found to answer your query. The blue link results are the listings that Google believes are the most relevant to the query you put into the search bar. All of the top tips listed above will help you to rank for these blue link results. 

Google Business Profiles

Google Business Profiles are the information boxes that appear on the right side of the SERP when you search for the name of a local business. Google Business Profiles can be owned and edited by the owner of said business, meaning you can display the key pieces of information that you want potential customers to know. If you’d like to find out more about Google Business Profile, take a look at our guide. 

Google Maps

Maps are shown when Google thinks you’d like to see local businesses. It will typically rank at the top of the results page and the local businesses included here are those that have Google Business Profiles.