Search Engine Indexing
Computer Science: OCR A Level, topic 3.4.4
Search Engine Indexing
In order for search engines to find useful results when users carry out web searches, they have to store details of as many web pages as possible.
Indexing
- In order for search engines to find useful results when users carry out web searches, they have to store details of as many web pages as possible.
- Search engine indexing refers to the methods used to maintain such a database.
- Search engine indexing allows results to be found efficiently.
Web crawlers
- Search engines make use of software known as web crawlers, which traverse the web by visiting web pages and following the links contained on each.
- The web crawlers store key information about each page in an index.
- This is then used by the search engine to find results for a web user’s search.
Indexed information
- The information stored may include:
- Keywords in the webpage.
- Meta tags within the code of the page.
- How recently the website is updated.
Test yourself on Search Engine Indexing
Why do search engines index web pages?