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| "I
remember first using search engines and thinking how amazing
that using those simple keywords I gave them, off they
went and searched the whole of the Internet in a second
or two; now I know better." |
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The
Big Picture
Behind the power of a search engine is a massive database of
information containing web site addresses, textual descriptions,
keywords and specific information for the search engine in question.
How each search engine works with this data, and what influences
the results generated is written in to the algorithm (search
program) in use - a closely guarded secret.
Such is the number of web pages available that no single search
engine has indexed more than approximately 20-25% of the web,
so sticking with your favourite search engine seriously limits
how much of the web you have access to. This also means that
your site must get visibility on all the major search engines.
Web site promotion is an activity that works towards trying
to understand how each search engine is working, figuring out
some of the rules in use, and then trying to use them to your
advantage. This is not a detrimental process, rather a positive
one that helps search engine indexes be more accurate in how
they list sites, ultimately giving you a better set of results.
Of course, no two search engines use the same rules, so there
is an element of compromise in how we can present the pages
for indexing to suit most circumstances.
Many search engines pay to use results in part, or whole, from
other databases, and in fact there are probably only about 10
databases for which it is important to have a good entry. Yahoo,
for example, offers a combination of directory results from
its own directory database, supported by search results from
the Google database.
Directory Listings
Directories are similar to search engines in the way they index
sites and their pages, but they rely on you working your way
through a subject index to eventually find the right section.
It needs more effort to get there than searching, but once there
you will be rewarded with good relevant results, as each category
will offer very similar sites alongside each other.
This is in part because the best directories, such as Yahoo
and the Open Directory Project are manually indexed by real
people! Sites listed in directories tend to be of a better quality,
but it's also therefore harder to get listed at all.
Search Engine Placement
We all want to be the top of the pile, but be wary of those
who promise to put you there, as there simply isn't room at
the top for 900 million plus pages! As the size of the web has
grown search engines have started to filter results in order
to offer a reasonable number of sites, and not 20 pages from
the same site. This means that often you will only get your
home page presented in the first set of results.
A casual first submission of your site, particularly to the
manually indexed directories can be very hard to change when
you later realise your keywords are poor, or your description
is lacking in content and your visibility is low. Try to get
it right first time, as this will save you a lot of time in
what is a very drawn out process.
Now go back and close the loop, perform test searches using
your chosen keywords/phrases and measure the results. Fine tune
and resubmit. Eventually you'll achieve a degree of visibility
that will bring visitors to your site, and with time if you
site is well run, and the services you offer well provided,
you will be probably be very successful.
Manual submissions in this way do take longer than automated
submissions to numerous search engines. Such services are regularly
offered on the web, but we believe that careful manual submission
to the right search engines will be more fruitful than trying
to blitz the whole web. More recently search engines are starting
to refuse automated submission services, probably because they
could overload the server.
Use the server traffic log files to your advantage here too.
They will tell you visitor numbers who arrived from search engines,
which ones, and what search term was used. This will let you
know in which engines you're being found and what search term
was used to find your site. If you have limited time then work
on improving your listing in the search engines that don't appear. |
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