How Search Engines Work

As a small business owner or organization interested creating or revising a website, it is in your best interest to understand the difference between a search engine and a directory.  It is critical to design your website to be both search engine and directory friendly in order to reach your target audience.

 

 

Examples of major search engines are:

• Google
• MSN
• Alta Vista
• Ask Jeeves

Examples of major directories are:

• Yahoo (although, it now defaults to a Google search of the web unless you tell it to search in directory)
• Searchbug.com
• Ipl.org (Librarians index to the internet)
• About.com
• Open Directory
• As well as local and regional directories.

Let's start with the similarities; site content is the primary similarity between search engines and directories.  Some would say that it’s the only similarity.  Both look for high quality subject information that meets the requests of their surfers.  They both frown on sites that provide an abundance of sales related information, unless of course you pay big dollars to appear in the sponsored results section. Site content is king, both directories and search engines determine where a site will rank within search results and whether a site will even be included based on content.   

This is similarity number two; there are two ways to position a website high in the search results, by purchasing a position or rising organically.  Purchasing a position is exactly what it implies; you pay to appear in the top three spots.  When you see a result highlighted in blue, yellow or listed as a sponsored link, these have been paid for.  Otherwise, the others that appear have risen to those positions organically.  When a site rises organically it’s generally because the content is superior within that search criteria and because of that the site gets lots of traffic.  While it takes some time, a well written site can and will rise to the top of the search results.  To illustrate this, type in “thomasregister.com” in your Google search box, when the results come back you will see that they occupy both the number 1 position as a sponsored result (paid for) and the number one result in the non-sponsored results (not paid for). This is an example of a site rising organically based on traffic.  Because Thomas Register is one of the largest online catalog suppliers to industry in the world they have chosen to continue to pay for that number one slot simply because they are expected to be there. 

The last similarity is that you submit your website to these directories and search engines for inclusion.

The differences boil down to human interaction or lack of it.  A search engine uses very complex software with weight algorithms to “crawl” a website  This software looks for keywords and link popularity within websites to determine where a site will rank in a search result.  Search engines compete on the size of their indexes not the quality.

On the other hand directories utilize human beings to determine whether a website will be accepted into the directory in the first place, then site content will determine where it places within the results (unless you have paid to be a sponsored result).  A directory is much smaller than a search engine and similar to a library catalog.  Because of this cataloging a directory will bring back higher quality results if you know exactly what you are looking for. Note: Search engines are becoming smarter and are constantly being redesigned to judge and rank websites based on their relevance to a customer’s need.

Now that the similarities and differences between search engines and directories have been outlined, here are some Do’s and Don’t's when considering how to produce your web site to maximize traffic:

DO:

• Have a crystal clear hierarchy for your content, preferably three tiers.
• Have links that are very easy to navigate.
• Include a site map.
• Use essential and precise keywords used in context with the site’s theme.
• Use relevant and informative content.
• Make meta tags descriptive and accurate.
• Be sure there are no broken links or incorrect HTML.
• Keep your server current so it will not block Google crawler.
• Crawlers will generally not recognize text embedded in images, so if the image is important to the information you are trying to convey include a text description.

DON’T

•  Cheat your users (the people that surf it) by providing irrelevant or misleading information.
• Link schemes to try to improve you site’s ranking.
• Use hidden text or hidden links.
• Create multiple pages, sub-domains, or domains with a lot of duplicate content just for search engines
• Use “doorway” pages created just for search engines.
• Use affiliate programs unless their site contain lots of original content.

By employing the above suggestions you will be well on your way to producing a website that will rise in the search engine and directory results increasing traffic to your website.  These users will become happy customers who come back again and again, visit your place of business, contact you for your services and recommend you and your web site to friends.

Contact us to schedule a free, no obligation consultation, or to request a quote.