What really happens when you do a search on Google

You have loaded the Google toolbar, havent you? When you type a search word into Google (and all other search engines) you are told that a certain number of result have been found and normally within a split second. In fact Google has not returned that number of results, it cannot possibly do all the work necessary in such a short time frame to sort hundreds of thousands of web pages in a database exceeding 8 billion (July 2005). This is probably what has happened.

Based upon the search term Google does a limited search of its database using a small part of its algorithm base (algorithm is a set of instructions in simple terms) lets say it just checks all the web page TITLES in its database and/or the body text for the search term to dispense quickly with non-relevant pages. Using these bits of information it rapidly selects a relevant section of its database which it believes to be worthy of possibly matching the search query. The number of SERPs returned could be any number but is probably 1,000 (1,000 is mentioned in Brin and Pages research paper describing their preliminary work on Google).

Having selected a relatively small number of its total relevant pages Google then possibly uses its total algorithm including the PageRank factor to then arrange or sort this smallish number of returns and put them on the screen for you to view. The PageRank indicator (not the actual PageRank) is the green bar chart on the Google toolbar.

It has not reviewed in any depth all 456,731 items it says it has at that point in time although it did the review some time in the past.

The reason for introducing this topic is to make sure that whatever you do you have to find the mechanism that will at the very least allow Goggle to say to itself during its quick and dirty initial look over its database that your web page is worthy of making the cut. Your web page must get into the Google index or data base (of 8 billion pages). It must be initially be found and then indexed to even get a chance of getting a ranking.

You Will Not Make The Cut If You're Not Indexed

After being indexed the challenge is to make the cut and get a good place in the SERPs.

It is firmly believed by the SEO community these days that once Google has done its initial selection of possibly worthy web pages it applies all its ranking algorithms to each page, adds up its results and then multiplies by the numerical PageRank (not the representation of PageRank that you see in the Google tool bar on the scale 1 to 10) in order to decide which page goes into number 1 spot and so on.

The fact that PageRank is a multiplying factor means a few different things can happen:

If your sum of on page factors comes to zero then no matter how great your PageRank (for most of us at least) your position will be low down in the SERPSs.
Equally if your PageRank is not great but you have done a good job of optimizing on page factors then you may well still have an good position in the SERPs ... certainly true for keywords that are not highly competitive such as "small green men from mars"
If your PageRank is zero because Google chooses it to be zero (if you are a known spammer for example) then you will be way down (possibly excluded completely) in the SERPs.
If much of this is not clear do not worry because it will come clear. Suffice to say that two distinct approaches to search engine optimisation are required for best and successful results. These are referred to as:

On page factor optimisation
PageRank and linking optimisation

Also always bear in mind that Google has the power to relegate you right to the bottom of the league if you try to spam it.