Search engine techniques help you find the information you need on the Internet. They involve using specific strategies and sets of keywords that are relevant to your project. They also introduce you to key finding tools that can improve your results.

Crawling and indexing content:

Whether you’re searching for a web site, a video or an image, most major search engines use automated bots (or “crawlers”) to discover, crawl and index websites. These bots are a vital part of the search process, because they’re responsible for finding, extracting and storing content from the web for future search purposes.

The bots’ job is to search the web, and find webpages containing the word you’re searching for. This involves a variety of processes, including extracting links and storing the information in a predefined database.

Once the pages are identified, they’re indexed, which is where the processed information gets stored in a search engine’s database and organized into relevant categories. In this way, it’s easier for users to find the information they’re looking for.

Language models:

When you type a query into a search engine, the engine must first translate your words into terms that relate to its index. This is done through a number of techniques, including natural language processing and machine learning. The resulting rewritten query is then used to consult its index, where it’s then able to match it with the web pages that it thinks you’re looking for.

Keyword-based search:

This is the most popular of all search methods, in which the search engine matches the keywords you enter with the content on websites and ranks them based on relevance. It’s a technique that has been in existence since the very beginning of the World Wide Web, and remains one of the most effective ways to get information on the Internet.

Phrase connectors:

Using quotation marks and phrase connectors can help you narrow your search results, and may be especially helpful if you’re trying to find documents with particular content. A phrase connector is a special symbol that joins your search words together.

Truncation:

Likewise, truncation is a technique that helps you to broaden your search to include various word endings and spellings. To do this, simply put a truncation symbol at the end of your root word (the word that starts with all the letters).

Wildcards:

Finally, using wildcards is a simple but effective way to expand your search by including words that aren’t spelled exactly the same as your root word. For example, to search for all words that start with the letters electric, enter the word electrical and insert the asterisk. This will return all the results that contain all or any of these letters.