Search engines and results rankings
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain how search engines find and rank web pages.
Key learning points
- A search engine is a catalogue of web pages.
- Search engines ‘crawl’ through the World Wide Web.
- Search engines select and rank results when web searches are made.
Keywords
Crawl - when a search engine automatically explores websites to collect information
Index - a big catalogue, where search engines store web page information so they can find it later
Ranking - the order search results appear in, based on how useful and relevant they are
Common misconception
Search engines search the whole internet live.
Search engines use a pre-built index to deliver fast results.
Teacher tip
It is helpful to model appropriate web searches for this lesson. Take care to preview your search results before you share them with students.
Equipment
Pupils will need access to a device with HTML editing software. Examples in this lesson use the RPF Code Editor https://oak.link/html-editor
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What does CSS stand for?
Q2.What is inline styling?
Q3.What is a key benefit of using CSS over inline styling?
Q4.Which of the following is an example of inline styling?
Q5.Which attribute is used to apply inline styles in HTML?
Q6.Which CSS property changes the text colour?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is a search engine?
Q2.What is a common misconception about how search engines work?
Q3.Match each action to its purpose.
find new web pages
store web page information
order search results
deliver relevant results to users
Q4.What is the purpose of crawling and indexing?
Q5.What determines a web page's ranking in search results?
Q6.What term describes data that provides information about a web page?
To help you plan your 8 computing lesson on: Search engines and results rankings, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 8 computing lesson on: Search engines and results rankings, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 computing lessons from the Developing for the Web unit, dive into the full secondary computing curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.