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Google Search is an automated search engine that finds and analyzes information across the web and other content it organizes, then selects results it considers relevant to a query. Its process has three stages: crawling, indexing, and serving results.
What Google Search is
Google Search is a service for finding information. Its index contains information about webpages and other material, including images, books, videos, and facts. Google says its automated systems sort through “hundreds of billions of webpages and other information” in that index; this is Google’s own description of its scale, not an independently verified count. Google Search overview
Search results are not simply a fixed directory of links. Google programmatically chooses and orders results for each query, and the results page may include different formats or features depending on what seems useful—for example, images or local results.
How Google Search works
Google describes three main stages. A page may pass through one stage without reaching the next.
1. Crawling discovers and retrieves content
Automated programs called crawlers discover URLs and retrieve their content. Because there is no central registry of every webpage, Google continually looks for new and updated pages. Crawling can be affected by server or network problems and by rules that block Googlebot. Google can also render pages and run JavaScript during crawling. Google Search Central’s guide to how Search works
2. Indexing analyzes and stores information
Google processes what it has retrieved, including text, images, video, and relevant content attributes. It also considers how pages relate to duplicate or canonical versions, then stores information in its index. A page can be crawled but not indexed, and being indexed does not guarantee it will appear for a particular query.
3. Serving selects results for a query
When someone searches, Google searches its index and selects and orders results it considers relevant. The systems may consider the words in the query, page relevance and usability, source expertise, location, and settings. These are examples, not a complete formula: Google does not disclose the exact ranking formula or the weight of each factor. Google’s explanation of how it determines ranking results
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- Crawled: Google retrieved the page’s content.
- Indexed: Google analyzed and stored information about the page.
- Served: Google selected the page to display for a particular search.
A page may be crawled but not indexed, or indexed yet not shown for the search a person has in mind. Google does not guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve a page, even if the page follows its Search Essentials. Nor does Google accept payment to rank pages higher. Google Search Central
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