10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Search Engines
Search engines have become one of the most commonly used online services today. People have stopped entering web addresses in browsers. Instead, they type what they need into a search engine’s search box and hit enter. Staying too focused on answering a web crawler can cause you to miss out on other important information regarding search engines.
Yes, search engines use web crawlers to try and index all online websites to streamline searches for end users. But it’s also interesting to learn how individuals and companies use search engines along with other important factors regarding search engine use.
How People Use Search Engines at Home
Generally speaking, people have become aware that the Internet has all the answers to their questions and that search engines can help them find those answers in a matter of seconds. People use search engines at work, on the go, and at home.
At home, they use search engines to research and shop various products and services, look up interesting facts, read news and look up the weather forecasts. To do it, they use specific words and phrases called keywords. Finally, they rarely go past the first page and will most likely click on one of the websites that appear at the top section of the first search engine result page.
Why are Search Engines Important for Companies?
Search engines have become a lifeline for many companies. Why? Because there are way too many people using search engines to research and shop for products and services to pass on the opportunity to reach them.
Companies do it by researching which keywords their target customers use when doing relevant queries. Once they have keywords, they incorporate them throughout their websites. That’s what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about. It goes for both B2C and B2B markets.
Plus, the most popular search engines feature paid ads to help companies target people searching specific phrases and appear above the competition in the search results. And companies can find a lot of answers to business-relevant questions such as what is a web crawler, using search engines.
Search Engines Have Impacted the World
With more and more people and businesses becoming dependent on search engines, it’s safe to say that search engines have impacted the world. The chances are that they are at the top of the list of inventions that impacted the world so profoundly.
To be more specific, they’ve changed:
- How we find and consume news;
- Marketing strategies across industries;
- Our ability to record, store, and analyze data (take only Google Analytics, for instance).
Ten Most Exciting Facts
If you are excited to learn more about search engines, you’ll find the next facts quite interesting.
1. Google is the most used search engine
Even though China is the biggest country by population, Baidu is not the most used search engine. The most popular search engine globally continues to be Google.
2. Quality is key for SEO results
The SEO results follow well-researched, planned, and executed strategies. If you want to achieve your goals using SEO, your focus must be on quality over quantity.
3. There are more than 500 million searches on engines every day
People use search engines on a day-to-day basis. In fact, they make more than 500 million searches on engines every day. It’s safe to assume that this number will increase in the foreseeable future.
4. The number of mobile searches is higher than desktop
Long gone are the days when desktop searches were dominant. The number of mobile searches has recently exceeded the number of desktop searches, and by the looks of it, desktop searches will never come back.
5. Most Online Experiences Start with a Search
People rarely use their browser bookmarks and address bar. Instead, they start using search engines right off the bat. That’s why most of the online experiences today start with a search.
6. More and More People are Using Voice Search
There is a new trend in the world of search engines — While text search is still dominant, the number of people using voice search keeps increasing year after year.
7. Most of the Web Traffic Goes Through Search Engines
Given that most online experiences start with a search, it is logical to see that approximately 90% of web traffic goes through search engines.
8. Baidu is the Leading Search Engine in China
Surprisingly Google is not the most popular search engine in China. Baidu continues to be the king of search engine space in China.
9. Search Engines Track Your Activities
Search engines use cookies to track your online activities and build your online behavior profile. They use this information for various purposes but mostly for marketing.
10. Videos are Favored for SERPs
If there is a video that matches a user’s search, search engines will give it priority over text-based content when ranking it on the search engine result pages.
Conclusion
What is a web crawler question is relevant to search engines as they use web crawlers to index websites. If you want to know more, check Oxylabs’ blog article about what is a web crawler.
The algorithms of search engines continue to change. There are always some new things to discover and learn about. Hopefully, you found these ten facts exciting and new. Feel free to continue your research; there are many other facts about search engines you might find interesting.
Education
