If you haven't figured out how search engines work, you're not alone. While they've become more complicated over the years, they still follow a simple formula to find information. A search engine crawls the entire Internet and ranks the results by relevance. If your search is for a specific term, the results will show up on top based on relevance. To get started with SEO, you should create a website that focuses on a specific keyword.
When you type a query into a search engine, it will translate it into a set of terms that it can index. In doing so, search engines use machine learning and natural language processing to understand your query and generate a rewritten query that contains all of the key parts of your original query. They correct misspellings and add synonyms based on what they know about the topic and the website. This rewritten query will be used to locate web pages that match the keyword you entered.
Google attempts to return the best possible results, and that means it will be different from the result you're expecting. When you search for "bicycle repair shops" in Paris, you'll get a completely different page from the one you're looking for in Hong Kong. The good news is that you don't have to pay search engines to rank your pages higher - they're free to use. However, this does mean you should take advantage of the free tools available online.