INTERNET LIBRARY BASICS

This section explains how search engines find and rank web pages. It will explain how Internet search engines operate, and what you can do to improve your web site ranking. If this is a first time visit, read the following pages in order, to learn about the basics of search engines and how they can affect the traffic to your web site.

UNDERSTANDING SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS | INTERNET LIBRARY RESOURCES | COMMON SITE ERRORS

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS | TOP 100 KEYWORDS | EMAIL US

UNDERSTANDING SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS

When you go to a search engine and plug in a keyword, subject, or title, that search engine parses millions of documents and almost instantaneously puts those pages in an "order of relevancy." While search engines are very quick, they are not known to be 100% accurate in their retrievals. Engines and directories often times bring irrelevant pages into the results, meaning it may take a while longer and more investigation to find what you're looking for.

Overall, search engines do a tremendous job in pulling up relevant information, and getting your site listed in the top of these engines can mean tremendous results for your site. Search engines don't have the ability to ask questions, so they rely on what you've entered for your search. While this may be changing with the likes of intelligent agents, don't expect the same kind of customer service you might find from your local librarian.

There are a number of ways that search engines pull up your pages. The first thing almost all engines look at is the Title of a site. If the keyword is found in the title, it's considered to be more relevant and will pull up more quickly than a site without the keyword in the title.

Search engines will also check to see if the keywords you've entered appear in the top of the web page, like in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of text. Engines will assume that if the topic is important, it will be mentioned within the first part of your site. Frequency will also factor in how search engines determine relevancy. A search engine will determine how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Those with a higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than a page with a lower frequency of keywords.

Note: Some search engines index more web pages than others. This means that no two engines will bring up the same pages. Each has their own method of pulling up information, resulting in different information being considered more relevant. Some search engines also give web pages a bonus for various reasons. For example, WebCrawler uses link popularity as part of its ranking method. It can tell which pages in its index have lots of links pointing at them. These pages are given a slight bonus during ranking, with the reasoning being if a page has a lot of links to it, it's probably a very popular page. Some combination type engines, those containing directories, may give a bonus to sites they've reviewed.

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INTERNET LIBRARY RESOURCES

The Major Search Engines

For web surfers, the major search engines generally mean more dependable results. These search engines are much more likely to be updated frequently and to keep up with all the new pages submitted every minute.

For webmasters and site owners alike, getting listed in the top 40-60 positions in a search engine is much more likely to bring hits to one's site. For example, a website that is listed in AltaVista will most likely receive more traffic than one listed in Magellan. While both are fantastic engines, AltaVista is much more well known and likely to drive more users to your site.

Search Engines, Directories and Combinations of the Two
A webmaster and web surfer should know the difference between these types of sites, because they are often misused and confused.

Directories
A directory such as AltaVista depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted. Changing your web pages has no effect on your listing. Things that are useful for improving a listing with a search engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The only exception is that a good site, with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed than a poor site.

Search Engines
Commonly referred to as "spiders" or "crawlers," search engines are searching the web for new pages at all times. Because they are automated and index so many sites, search engines may often find information not listed in directories. To the flip side, they may also pull up unrelated information for the topics you're searching for. Search engines, such as HotBot, create their listings automatically. Search engines crawl the web, then people search through what they have found. If you change your web pages, search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.

Combination Search Engines
Some search engines maintain an associated directory. Being included in a search engine's directory is usually a combination of luck and quality. Sometimes you can "submit" your site for review, but there is no guarantee that it will be included. Reviewers often keep an eye on sites submitted to announcement places, then choose to add those that look appealing.

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Common Site Errors

Some search engines see the web the same way someone using a very old browser might. They may not read image maps. They may not read frames. You need to anticipate these problems, or a search engine may not index any or all of your web pages.

Beware Maps
Often, designers create only image map links from the home page to inside pages. A search engine that can't follow these links won't be able to "walk down" the site. Unfortunately, the most descriptive, relevant pages are often inside branch pages rather than the home page.

You can easily solve this problem by adding some HTML links to the home page, a strategy that will benefit your human visitors, as well. If you put the HTML links down at the bottom of the page, the search engine will find them and follow them.

Also consider making a site map page with text links to everything in your web site. You can submit this page, which will help the search engines locate additional pages within your web site.

Frames may not be read
Some of the major search engines cannot follow frame links. Make sure there is an alternative method for them to enter and index your site, either through meta tags or smart design.

Avoid Dynamic Pages
Generating pages via CGI or database-delivery? Expect that some of the search engines won't be able to index them. Consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly. Also, avoid symbols in your URLs, especially the "?" symbol. Search engines tend to choke on it.

Search Engine Spamming can also effect your web site position
Spamming doesn't always work with search engines. It most likely will backfire. Search engines may detect your spamming attempt and penalize or ban your page from their listings.

Also, search engine spamming attempts usually center around being top ranked for extremely popular keywords. You can try and fight that battle against other sites, but then be prepared to spend a lot of time each week, if not each day, defending your ranking. That effort usually would be better spent on networking and alternative forms of publicity.

Compare search engine spamming to junk email. No one likes spam mail, and sites that use spam mail services often face a backlash from those on the receiving end. Sites that spam search engines degrade the value of search engine listings. As the problem grows, these sites may face the same backlash that spam mail generates. The content of most web pages ought to be enough for search engines to determine relevancy without webmasters having to resort to repeating keywords for no reason other than to try and "beat" other web pages. The stakes will simply keep rising, and users will also begin to hate sites that undertake these measures.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: How often should I be submitting my site?
A: You should be submitting your site about once a month to the major engines and more often if needed to the directories and link pages.

Q: Why are submissions failing?
A: Submissions fail for a number of reasons, but the main reason is due to Net traffic and how busy the engines server is at the exact moment we submitt your pages.

Q: What can cause a failure?
A: Unfortunately, this isn't a short answer. Things that can cause a registration failure range from simply a "typo" in the URL (making it a non-conforming URL) or an out-of-date submission script that won't take http://mysite.org as a valid URL, but will ONLY accept http://www.mysite.org as valid.

Q: What is a Free For All Links Page?
A: A Free For All Links Page is a directory with usually 8 sections with a limited number of links in each section.  When a new link is added an older link is deleted.   Your link can last from 1 day to 30 days depending on how popular the FFA page is.

Q: How Long Does It Take For My Web Site to Get Listed?
A: Your Listing will appear in the FFA Link pages immediately.  Infoseek usually lists and ranks your page within a few days while Yahoo can take up to 8 weeks or more!

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