// category.search-engines

The Search Engines category tracks how people search and how search engines decide what to show them. It's the place to start if you want to understand why your traffic changes and what to adjust. A large share of the coverage is about AI. Articles explain how Google's AI Overviews and other AI-generated answers affect clicks, why more searches end without a click to any site, and what answer engine optimization means for your content. Other posts trace the history of search, from simple keyword matching to semantic search that works out what a query means. You'll also find articles on Google algorithm updates, mobile-first indexing, voice and visual search, local SEO for businesses that want to appear in nearby searches, and how user experience feeds into rankings. Yearly strategy guides pull these changes together into priorities you can act on, such as what to improve in your content and where paid search fits next to organic results. Search changes often, so the date on each article matters. Google releases several core updates a year, and features like AI Overviews keep evolving. Read the newest strategy guides first, then use older posts for background on how search reached its current state. When an update hits your traffic, compare what changed with the trends described here before you rewrite pages in a hurry. Search habits also differ by device and country. Many people search by voice on their phones, and in some markets local search engines still compete with Google, so it helps to check where your own audience searches before you plan your SEO work. The guides to smaller search engines show how to reach those readers too. If your site is new, the indexing guides cover the first step: submitting a website to search engines, including smaller ones such as Seznam. For hands-on fixes to your site's code and speed, see Technical SEO and Core Web Vitals, and for setting up Google Search Console, see Webmaster.