How Google finds your website: a plain English guide
SEO talk gets technical fast. But the underlying process is simple. Here's how Google finds, reads, and ranks your website — in plain English, with no jargon.
Back to Knowledge Hub1) Google's crawler finds your pages by following links · 2) It indexes the content (stores what's on each page) · 3) When someone searches, it ranks indexed pages against the search and shows the best matches. Your job is to make all three steps work for you.
Most SEO advice sounds technical because it is. But underneath the jargon, Google works in a way anyone can understand. There are exactly three things happening: crawling, indexing, and ranking. Get a feel for these three, and 90% of SEO advice suddenly makes sense.
Step 1: Crawling
Google runs automated programs called “crawlers” (sometimes “bots” or “spiders”) that visit web pages constantly. The main one is called Googlebot. It works by following links: it starts on a known page, reads the page's HTML, and follows every link it finds to discover new pages.
This is why links matter so much in SEO. A page Google can't reach via links is invisible to it — like a shop with no front door. Conversely, a page that's linked to from many other pages gets visited often, and signals to Google that the page is important enough to bother with.
For your own site, you can help crawlers by submitting a sitemap — a list of all your pages — via Google Search Console. This is free, takes 30 minutes, and is one of those quiet wins almost no small business does.
If you don't already have it: set up a free Google Search Console account at `search.google.com/search-console`, verify your domain, and submit your sitemap (your website provider can usually generate one for you). This is the basic plumbing every site needs.
Step 2: Indexing
Once a crawler reads your page, Google decides whether to add it to its index — the giant database that Google searches when someone types a query. Most pages get indexed automatically; some don't. Reasons a page might not be indexed:
- It's blocked by your robots.txt file (a setting that tells crawlers to stay out of certain pages)
- It's tagged “noindex” in the page's metadata
- It's a duplicate of another page Google already has
- The content is too thin — Google doesn't bother indexing pages with under 100 words and no useful content
- It's not linked from anywhere — orphan pages that nothing points to
You can check which of your pages are indexed in Google Search Console. If pages you expect to be indexed aren't, that's a problem worth investigating.
Step 3: Ranking
This is where the magic (or apparent magic) happens. Someone types a search. Google looks through its index, finds pages that might be relevant, and ranks them. The top result wins by far the most clicks — the top three results combined typically get over 50% of all clicks for a search.
How does Google decide which pages rank highest? Hundreds of signals go into the calculation, but they cluster into three broad categories:
Relevance. Does your page actually match what the searcher asked? If they searched “best plumber Glasgow”, does your page actually contain words and concepts about plumbing in Glasgow? Does it answer the question well?
Authority. Do other trusted websites treat you as credible? Authority comes mainly from backlinks — links pointing at your site from other sites. A link from the BBC means more than a link from a spam blog. Google has gotten very good at distinguishing genuine endorsements from manipulation attempts.
Quality. Does your page load fast? Work on mobile? Have clean structure? Is it easy to read? Does the site as a whole feel like a real, well-maintained business? These signals (sometimes called “Core Web Vitals” and “page experience”) play a meaningful role in ranking.
What this means for you
Understanding the three steps tells you exactly what to focus on:
For crawling: make sure your site is reachable. Submit a sitemap. Make sure every important page is linked from somewhere prominent. Don't accidentally block your own pages with robots.txt.
For indexing: create pages that are worth indexing. Genuine content, at least a few hundred words, on a focused topic. Avoid duplicate or near-duplicate pages.
For ranking: create content that genuinely answers what your customers search for. Build real authority over time (consistent posting, good content, natural links). Maintain technical quality (fast loading, mobile-friendly, clean structure).
Tactics from 10 years ago: keyword stuffing, exact-match domains, paid backlink schemes, automated content generation. Google has improved continuously and now actively penalises these. Modern SEO is genuinely about being the most useful result — the shortcuts have been closed off.
Tools you can use, free
You don't need expensive SEO software to handle small-business SEO. The free tools cover most of what you need:
- Google Search Console — tells you which pages are indexed, which queries you appear for, and any technical issues Google has spotted on your site
- Google Analytics — tracks traffic, where it comes from, what visitors do
- Google PageSpeed Insights — tests your site's speed and gives a 0-100 score
- Google Business Profile — for local search and Google Maps presence
All free. All good. If you set up these four properly and act on what they tell you, you're doing 80% of small-business SEO already.
When to get help
If you've got the time and patience, you can absolutely run SEO yourself using the free tools above. The work is methodical rather than complex. If you'd rather hand it off, our SEO service handles weekly technical checks, keyword tracking, and plain-English reporting at £19/mo — the same work agencies charge £400–800/mo for.