Search Engines 101 - Search Engines Explained
|
|
What Are Search Engines?
A search engine is a database system designed to index and categorize internet addresses, otherwise known as URLs (for example, http://www.submittoday.com).
There are four basic types of search engines:
Automatic: These search engines are based on information that is collected, sorted and analyzed by software programs, commonly referred to as "robots", "spiders", or "crawlers". These spiders crawl through web pages collecting information which is then analyzed and categorized into an "index". When you conduct a search using one of these search engines, you are really searching the index. The results of the search will depend on the contents of that index and its relevancy to your query.
Directories: A directory is a searchable subject guide of Web sites that have been reviewed and compiled by human editors. These editors decide which sites to list, and, in which categories.
Meta: Meta search engines use automated technology to gather information from a spider and then deliver a summary of that information as the results of a search to the end user.
Pay-per-click (PPC): A search engine that determines ranking according to the dollar amount you pay for each click from that search engine to your site. Examples of PPC search engines are Overture.com and FindWhat.com. The highest ranking goes to the highest bidder.
There are a few downfalls you should know about using PPCs:
PPCs can be an effective short-term solution for gaining exposure and driving immediate traffic to your Web site while you wait for full indexing, but it can become expensive if you use it as a long-term solution.
How Do Search Engines Work?:
Search engines compile their databases with the aid of spiders (a.k.a. robots). These search engine spiders crawl the Internet from link to link, identifying Web pages. Once search engine spiders find a Web site, they index the content on those pages, making the URLs available to Internet users. In turn, owners of Web sites submit their URLs to search engines for crawling and, ultimately, inclusion in their databases. This is known as search engine submission.
When you use search engines to find something on the Internet, you're basically asking the search engine to scan its database and match your keywords and phrases with the content of the URLs they have on file at that time. Spiders regularly return to the URLs they index to look for changes. When changes occur, the index is updated to reflect the new information.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Search Engines?
Pro: With the vast wealth of information available on the Internet, search engines are the most effective and efficient way to find information based on your specific search requests.
Con: Because search engines index mass quantities of data, you are likely to get irrelevant responses to your search requests.
Are Search Engines All The Same?
Search results vary from search engine to search engine in terms of size, speed and content. The results will also vary based on the ranking criteria the search engines use. If you aren't getting the results you need, try a different search engine. While the results may not be wildly different, you may get a few search results from one search engine that you didn't from another.
How Do Search Engines Rank Web Pages?
When ranking Web pages, search engines follow specific criteria, which may vary from one search engine to another. Naturally, they want to generate the most popular (or relevant) pages at the top of their list. Search engines will look at keywords and phrases, content, HTML meta tags and link popularity -- just to name a few -- to determine the value of the Web page.
About The Author
As Submit Today's copywriter and editor, Kristy Meghreblian has written online content for many successful companies, including Monster.com. She has successfully combined her excellence in journalism with the delicate art of keyword density as it relates to search engine optimization. As a result, she has helped many Submit Today clients achieve top ranking. Submit Today is a leading search engine optimization, submission and ranking company located in Naples, Florida.
|
|
|
Created & Maintained by Empower! CMS Web Sites
Host2Sell Web Hosting | Emarketing Workshops | Site SEO Review | FREE NewsletterSurviving The Search Wars ? Local Directories
The pursuit of online information has become an increasingly dynamic and competitive marketplace during the past three years. Global heavyweights such as www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, and www.msn.com are backed by massive resources, making it nearly impossible for new companies to even attempt to compete. It would seem for new start directories it is alm...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
Its All In The Title
Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. You may be the most intelligent writer in the world, and have breaking information, which, if people actually read it, would benefit them and their business.Problem: most, if not all, publishers of articles don't have the time to read the whole article unless they are "captured" within 7 seconds. So that tells us that, when submitting your articles to newsfeed services, publishers, bloggers, and the like, you have about 7 seconds to capture their attention (and I personally believe that is a liberal amount of time - my experience tells me more like two seconds).Example: An excellent article was written just today, ...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
The Google Sandbox Explained
Introduction
The Google Sandbox is a metaphorical term to explain why most new websites have very poor rankings in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Very few people know for sure if the 'sandbox' actually exists, but it seems to be a filter added to the Google algorithms sometime around March 2004.What is the function of the Google Sandbox?
The generally accepted principle behind the Google Sandbox is that it enables Google to filter out 'Flash-in-the-Pan' websites from those that offer good quality, up-to-date content. It is within Googles interest to ensure that the results it displays to its users within the SERPS lead to highly relevant, up-to-date, useful websites Relevancy is key to the search engines success so it will take all steps it can to ensure the relevancy of i...(related: Search Engine Optimization)Alert Marketing - Get Google Search Results By E-mail
Sometimes our jobs as marketers means we need to look beyond the obvious. Google, for example, offers their Google Alerts service. At first glance, this may seem most useful to companies who want to track certain searches within their industry, or to hobbyists who want to stay on top of changes in their topics of interest.But Internet marketers can also use Google Alerts to help keep track of what's going on around the net, and even to keep tabs on their direct competition for that matter. Google Alerts, which are email notifications, can be created based on the top 10 Google news stories, but more helpful to marketers is the poss...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
Why You Should Not Submit Your Site On Search Engines
Before to answer to this question we have to know what is the difference between a search engine and directory. Here is a brief explanation.Main difference between search engine and directory lay in the way how websites get entered into their index. People submit their sites to the directories, which are reviewed by human editors. Think of the directories as collec...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
Google Ban - How Not To Get Banned By Google!
Given that Google now provides over 75% of all Internet search traffic, the last possible thing any site owner would want is to be banned from the Google index!With countless search engine marketing techniques being employed these days, and contrasting advice available all over the web, it is well worth ensuring that you do not 'over optimise' your site or use any techniques which will result in Google penalising your site.Although the main rule would be to create a site which caters for your audience, provides quality content and con...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
Search Engine Optimisation: The Soon To Be Impossible Dream!
There are today search engine and internet marketing services, in fact a new industry has materialised to exploit the fear of low search rankings.This is not a new trend, back when simply resubmitting your website to the engines resulted in keeping your site at the top of the index, there was an accompanying boom in resubmitting "companies", as we know, these were just men in back bedrooms w...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
Have You Been Dropped By Yahoo?
Yahoo has fairly recently updated its guidelines. You can read the full list at:http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.htmlI thought that a few points were of great interest to you because we have discussed these issue in the past when describing the best way to future-proof your site against search engine algorithm changes.Here are some of the new guidelines:Pages Yahoo! Wants Included in Its Index ________________________________________1. Original and unique content of genuine value2. Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary3. ...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
Link Building: To Link, Or Not To Link, That Is The Question
Lately, there have been a lot of heated discussions regarding link building. Is it ethical to create a link building campaign? Does Google or any other search engine penalize for "link farms" (a bunch of non-related links created for the SOLE purpose of increasing search engine ratings)? Is the "link building era" over?Link FarmsMany webmasters claim that Google penalizes websites for link farms. If this is so, why are a link farm sites that have a page rank of 5 on their link farm page? Let me give you an ex...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
Choosing Your Meta-keywords
Introduction
This article assumes you already know what a 'meta-tag keyword' is and know a little about their importance to search engines. In this article I will attempt to explain the art of choosing the most appropriate and best performing keywords for your web pages.As you should already know keywords contained within your websites' meta tags are extremely important in allowing search engines to determine the content of your web pages. In order to make sure that these keywords a...(related: Search Engine Optimization)Mlm And Seo - Bad Business! No Business!
MLM has been around way before the Internet. It is a few steps above a chain letter. Well, maybe more then a few steps. MLM has paved the way for people to have their own busi...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
Google Love - Five Top Tips To Make Google Love Your Site
1. Google love ...Google and all its programming is not some form of enemy - unless you are a piece of web scum, that is.Google is based on the idea that it should help people FIND WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR.That's all.Sit with the statement above. Meditate upon it if necessary. Use EFT.But UNDERSTAND that a pointless site that has no unique content will NEVER get ANYWHERE with Googly or any other outfit that is using their techniques and methods.You can buy books and ebooks until your wallet bleeds on "how to trick Google" this and that - just forget it.Unless you have SOME THING that SOME PEOPLE will HONESTLY WANT and be grateful for when they find it, there is no hope and there is n...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
How To Find Good Keywords
Good keywords are frequently searched for (high demand) but not being targeted by many other websites (low competition). There are a number of tools out there that can help you find them.WordtrackerThe best tool out there, Wordtracker is one of the most essential SEO tool...(related: Search Engine Optimization)
site-map - Copyright © 2006 Empower! Web Design | All Rights Reserved. | Search Engine Optimization