Question About How Google Search Works

by Lucasp
0 replies
Hello,

does Google have a page somewhere that explains how their search results work? Or is there a site anywhere that does a good job of explaining?

Maybe that's a dumb question, but sometimes the results don't make complete sense to me and I wonder if I am under a misapprehension about it.

For example.

I was doing some research on keywords related to 'workout'. I'm doing it manually, running lists through the Google KW tool, then checking broad match and phrase match results through Google search.

So, as a 'measure' I run the word 'workout' through search. It comes up with 245,000,000 results broad match and 245,000,000 results "phrase match". That makes sense. I mean, the results would be the same because a single keyword doesn't vary in the way that a phrase might.

So then I'm checking keyword phrases which include the word workout in them. For example, insanity workout returns 16,400,000 broad match results and 5,280,000 phrase match results.

Question one: this means that there are 16,400,000 pages which have both the words 'insanity' AND 'workout' in them. Is that right? For example, one of these results could be a 1000 word article on cooking, with the word 'workout' in the first sentence and 'insanity' in the last sentence, but it would still be in the results, right?

Question two: all the 5,280,000 page results in phrase match will have the words 'insanity workout' together, in the same order. Is that right?

Question three: since there are 245,000,000 total results for the word 'workout', then 16,400,000 of those pages also have the word 'insanity' in them. Would that be right to assume? And any other results I find, from searching other 'workout' keyword phrases, would also be among those 245,000,000 results.

Ok, so I think what I've said so far is about right. So these aren't so much questions as clarifications to make sure my next questions are based on a proper understanding.

So:

Question four: if I type the two words workout workout into Google search why does it tell me there are 642,000,000 broad match results?

I mean, really and truly there should only be 245,000,000 at the most although that would only be if Google was just looking for one instance of the word rather than two. The greater likelihood is that there would be less results because its extremely unlikely that all the pages which contain the word 'workout' also repeat that word at least once (eg, my cooking article example). Yet the Google results imply there are more than twice as many pages with the word 'workout' on them twice than there are pages with it appearing once.

This may be a case of OCD on my part, but if you've read this question and are a little OCD yourself, then maybe it might interest you also. Or maybe you have an explanation?


A further curiosity arises in the Google keyword tool results:

Recall that Google returns the same number of competition results in Google search, for the word workout, regardless of whether I type it workout or "workout (broad or phrase match). Yet when I ask the Google keyword tool to give me broad, phrase and exact match results for the number of searches done on workout, it returns: 16,600,000 (broad match), 9,140,000 (phrase match) and 74,000 (exact match) global monthly searches. Which makes no sense atall. It's one word, it should be the same number for each.

Am I seeing an 'irregularity' which is inexplicable, or am I missing something in my understanding of Google search and the kw tool?

Thanks for reading.
#google #question #search #works

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