The workflow of a search engine can generally be divided into three stages:

 

(1) Crawling and Fetching: Search engine spiders discover and access pages by following links, read the page’s HTML code, and store the data in a repository.

 

(2) Indexing: The indexing module processes the crawled page data through text extraction, word segmentation, indexing, inverted indexing, and other operations, preparing it for use by the ranking module.

 

(3) Ranking: After a user enters a query (keyword), the ranking module calls the indexed data, calculates relevance, and generates a search results page in a standardized format.
Shenzhen Black-Hat Ranking Boosting

 

How Search Engines Work | Shenzhen Black-Hat Ranking Boosting

 

Crawling and fetching is the first step in a search engine’s operation, responsible for data collection.
The program search engines use to crawl pages is called a **spider**.

 

A qualified SEOer who wants more of their pages indexed must find ways to attract spiders to crawl the site.

 

Several factors affect spider crawling:

 

(1) Website and page authority. Websites with high quality and long history generally have higher authority, deeper crawling depth, and more indexed pages.

 

(2) Page update frequency. Each time a spider crawls, it retrieves page data. If the second or third crawl shows no changes from the first, it means the page is not updated, and spiders will no longer visit frequently. If content is updated regularly, spiders will visit more often to fetch new pages.

 

(3) Inbound links. Whether external or internal, pages must have inbound links to be crawled by spiders; otherwise, spiders will not know the page exists.

 

(4) Click distance from the homepage. The homepage usually carries the highest authority on a website and receives most internal links, making it the most frequently crawled page. The closer a page is to the homepage in click distance, the higher its authority and the more chances it has to be crawled.

 

Attracting Baidu Spiders

 

 

How to attract spiders to crawl our pages?

 

Maintain consistent content updates, preferably high-quality original content.

 

Proactively submit new pages to search engines so spiders can discover them faster.

 

Build external links: exchange friend links with relevant websites, or publish high-quality articles on other platforms linking back to your own pages with relevant content.

 

Create a website sitemap. Every website should have a sitemap that lists all pages, making it easier for spiders to crawl.

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