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Algorithm

A algorithm It is a procedure or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other troubleshooting operations, mainly by a PC.

Apps

An example from everyday life is a recipe for baking a cake. Following the steps of the recipe you get the desired cake at the end. Other popular apps are search and sort. How can you find a TV channel in the fastest way when they are all in alphabetical order? The question of the most short on a graph can also be solved with algorithms.

The PageRank algorithm and the HITS algorithm should be mentioned in particular with regard to SEO. Both are used to examine websites and form the basis of the algorithms of Google and Co.

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characteristics

Determinism

We speak of a deterministic algorithm if ever during execution, there is a maximum of a single viable next action. In this way, the next step is unequivocal. If there is no viable next step, the algorithm ends. If there are two or more possible next steps, which can be freely selected, or when they can be chosen randomly at any time, then the algorithm is not deterministic.
If an algorithm reaches the same result under the same conditions and with the same parameters, it is deterministic.

Delimitation

If the length of an algorithm is finite, is called static finitude. If you use a finite amount of memory during execution, it is called dynamic finiteness.

Planning

If an algorithm stops and reaches a conclusion on each run after a finite number of steps, it is ending.

Efficiency

The issue of efficiency plays an important role in terms of algorithms. If there are a variety of algorithms available to solve an obstacle, it must be established which is the most useful. It is essential to distinguish between two things. On the one hand, the speed of execution is essential, it is called run-time efficiency. On the other hand, an algorithm must use a minimum amount of resources during execution such as memory, in this circumstance, we speak of storage efficiency. Algorithms must be compared regardless of hardware and implementation. They are not measured in terms of time, but in the number of calculations required. Using the OR annotation, for example, you can examine the execution time and specify the worst and best case. The algorithms can be compared based on these values.

Importance for SEO

Algorithms are the most important basic concept for search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing. The foundation of Google dates back to the patent application for the PageRank algorithm, which assigns an integer value between 0 and 10 to a web page, that is, the PageRank, using the link structure. Along with the link structure, which can be represented in the form of a graph, search engines also use algorithms that read and evaluate the content of the page, for example, text and format, as well as its relationships with other websites. The Hiltop, TrustRank and HITS (Hypertext Induced Topic Selection) algorithms also play an important role in establishing the hierarchy of search results.

Search engine results lists (short SERPs) are, strictly speaking, the product of various algorithms that use many signals to show a web page higher or lower in search results rankings. Google itself claims that more than 200 different factors are used in the evaluation of websites. Factors such as the content of an up-to-date web portal and its location count at the same time as the links and terms. However, the exact formulas, structures, and implementations of such algorithms remain. strictly secret.

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