How Search Engines Work

A lot of business owners are perplexed when it comes to how search engines work. Below you will find an excerpt out of my book “Search Engines from A to Z”. Search engines are the key to finding specific information on the web. Without the use of sophisticated search engines, it would be virtually impossible to locate anything on the internet without knowing a specific URL. URL: is the domain name that is in the address bar of a web site. ie: www.artistadesign.com There are basically three types of search engines: Those that are powered by robots or spiders; those that are powered by human submissions; and those that are a combination of the two. Spiders: A program that automatically goes over web pages and collects information. Spiders are used to feed web page content to search engines. Crawler-based engines send crawlers, or spiders, out on to the internet. These spiders visit a website, read the information on the web page, read the site's Key words and also follow the links that the site connects to. The spider returns all that information back to a central database where the data is indexed. The spider will periodically return to the sites to check for any information that has changed, and the frequency with which this happens depends on the search engine. Human-powered search engines rely on humans to submit information that is then indexed and catalogued. Only information that is submitted is put into the index. In both cases, when you go to a search engine to locate information, you are actually searching through the index that the search engine has created. Search engines are compiled of giant data-bases full of information that is collected and stored. This explains why sometimes a search on a commercial search engine, such as Google or Yahoo!, will return results that are in fact dead pages. The search results are based on the information that has been collected, if the information hasn't been updated, and the web page becomes invalid the search engine treats the page as still being active. It will remain that way until the search engine updates the information. So why will the same search on different search engines produce different results? It depends on what the spiders find or what the person submits. More importantly, not every search engine uses the same criteria or algorithm when indexing the web page information. Algorithm: is what the search engines use to determine the importance of the information on the web page. One of the elements that a search engine algorithm scans is the frequency, location and consistency of keywords on a Website. Another common element that algorithms analyze is the way that pages link to other pages. By analyzing how pages link to each other, a search engine can both determine what a page is about (if the keywords of the linked pages are similar to the keywords on the original page) and whether that page is considered "important" and deserving of a boost in ranking. Search engines are becoming wise to Web masters who build artificial links into their sites in order to build an artificial ranking. That is why it is now more important than ever to have content that matches the keywords in your meta-tags, to link to relevant sites and have backlinks from sites that are not only relevant but have a higher than 3 ranking in Google.

WOW what a good idea! (Not)

Now I may be a little prejudice, but I must tell you when I get these ads that say: You can now do your own website – get rid of you web designer do it yourself – or – Build a website yourself; we give you all the tools – or - Host with us, build your own website and updated it with our new super duper template builder (only $100. a month, ugh!). I cringe, on the surface it sounds really good. Why not save bundles of money doing it yourself – after all you are on a limited budget. However, I have had too many new business owners that have gone through that route and came to me with disastrous results. Let me explain myself. Building a website is like building your store (brick and mortar). Now if I sent you an advertisement stating – build your own store, I will give you all the tools, and you will save a bundle on having a professional builder do it. You think WOW, that is a good idea – you pay me my $49.95 and I give you the tools to do it. When you look around, and you see all the saws, hammers, nails, cement mixers, wood, brick, sheet rock, pipes, etc. laying there in a pile would you know what to do? Even if I gave you a 300 page book with directions – are you up to the task? Of course not – unless you are a contractor that has had the extensive experience of building offices before. OK then let’s say you see all the stuff and think – I will just get some more books on how to build an office building… Do you genuinely think that would be the thing that would give you the expertise to know how to build an attractive – store inside and out? Then you realize you have to buy the lot to build the store front on. Then you have to do the signage… This may sound like an exaggeration but makes my point. The time and effort you would put into building your website – doesn't mean you are good at creating the look and feel that your clients would be attracted to. What about making sure that you site is a marketing machine? Do you know how to build that type of website? Do you know how to collect names from your visitors so you can market to them? Your website should give a professional presentation – the appearance layout and content should be done with the help of a professional. There are places to cut expenses and your website is not one of them. There are millions of web designer – but not all have the gift of design as well as the extensive experience to know exactly what you need in order to make your websites a viable commodity. Your best bet is to find a designer that you have confidence in – you know they are familiar with all aspects of an e-business and can guide you in the right direction. Hire a professional that has been in the industry long enough to know what it takes to have a successful website. When you hire the right professional web designer/developer you're not only getting an expert at building an effective on-line presentation, but the guidance they give you will be invaluable.

Amazing New Google Tool! Notebook...

I recently emailed my data-base about this wonderful new tool and I have to rant and rave on my blog as well... I am in love with this thing! I was notified in an e-mail about this tool – so I went in and test drove it. I always test what is out there before I announce it to you – Well it passed and it is WONDERFUL! I no longer have to copy the text and paste it into a word.doc.I do a lot of research so I can bring you the most up-to-date information. This is going to make my job so much easier… I bet you will find it fabulous yourself. Google Notebook actually makes it easy to clip and keep your notebook close at hand so you can do the continuous research you need in record time. Keep track of your favorite sites – with notes… You will have to have a Gmail account to take advantage of this fantastic tool… With all the great tools Google has to offer who does not have a Gmail account? It is amazing!! http://www.google.com/notebook/ I have another Surprise for you coming soon – a cool little tool that will tell you if you website is optimized correctly… It will be on my new website, so stay tuned.