About Search Engines
Free Site Evaluation
| Promotion by SEWA
The Conflict:
There is a continuous struggle between:
SEARCH ENGINES -
who want to present their users with relevant
content,
and
SITE OPERATORS -
who want their site to appear above all others
in search results.
Techniques are developed by the site operators to fool the search engines,
the search engines learn of the techniques and take measures to eliminate
the advantage or even to "punish" the wrongdoer with a lower
placement or by dropping the site entirely. For example, in early 2006
the site of auto manufacturer BMW was removed from Google for abuse.
Many major sites have teams of technicians working on search engine
placement, developing techniques, trying them out, and discarding them
as the search engines catch on.
Can a site with more limited resources compete? Yes.
How? By:
- Optimizing a site for search engine placement,
- Carefully submitting the site to search engines and directories,
- Monitoring placement so corrective action can be taken, and
- Using pay-per-click programs
as required.
Content is King
What are the three most important features of a site with respect to
search engine placement?
- Content
- Content
- Content
What is content to a search engine? - TEXT
Search engines want to present to their users a list of sites with
relevant text. Graphics, while pretty or informative, cannot be read
by search engines. If a home page is loaded with graphics and no text
(which many are) it essentially has no content. What should be
the site's most significant page for search engine placement - is actually
a liability.
Link Popularity
Search engines are increasingly using link popularity as an indicator
of site value and adjusting placement accordingly. The number of sites
linking back to your site as an indication of popularity. Your customers,
suppliers, and contractors are good potential candidates to link to
your site. It takes work to get this to happen. There are specialists
who can do this hard work for you.
A note of caution: there are automated services to maintain thousands
of links to your site from other sites. Do they work? Usually not, and
may result in a decrease in a site's rankings.
Search Engines and Directories Defined
It is important to understand the difference between a "search
engine" and a "directory" (also known as an index). Often
the term "search engine" is used to include directories.
Search Engines - A search engine robot "visits" a
site and gathers information about it, which is then placed in a data
base The search engine robot periodically revisits the site to update
its database. One can submit a site to a search engine, which simply
alerts the search engine to the site's presence. The site will be included
in the database only after the robot has visited and indexed the site.
Directories - For directories, one submits detailed information,
which then is cataloged by the directory. For some directories, a real
person visits the site to check if it is "worthy" of inclusion
and to check if the submitted information is accurate. Part of the submitted
information is the category which you believe best fits your site. The
directory is organized by these categories, similar to the way businesses
are listed in the Yellow Pages.
Many search web sites actually use both a directory and a search engine.
For example, the Yahoo Directory portion of their search results are
from their directory. The Yahoo Search portion uses the Yahoo search
engine.
Making the Internet
Work for You™
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area includes Seattle, Renton, Bellevue, Kent, Kirkland, Redmond, and
Tacoma, WA. However, we also serve clients across the U.S.A.
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Skip Echert Web Associates
15917 SE Fairwood Blvd.
Renton, WA 98058 |
e-mail: skip@SkipEchert.com
or
SkipEchert@comcast.net
office voice: (425) 255-0789
cell phone: (206) 841-8784
fax: (425) 917- 0104
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