Fifteen years ago, if we needed information, we usually had to go to the library. Writing reports and preparing for tests meant spending hours scanning shelves of books, feeding change into the copy machine, checking out stacks of books, and squinting at microfilm. The internet has changed all of that. Now, when we need to learn something, all we have to do is boot up a computer and connect to the internet.
Most people keep an extensive favorites list on their computers. With a simple click of the mouse, they can go straight to a favorite website. This is especially useful if you do a lot of online shopping at a particular store or spend a lot of time in a specific chatroom. But when people need to use the internet to gather information, most turn to an online search engine.
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help people locate information. Most people are familiar with Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com. Search engines work when a user types a keyword into the small search box. After the word is entered, the search engine scans its files and provides the user with a page full of options, often around twenty results. The user then scans the list and opens the result that seems most likely to meet their needs. Search engines use something called search engine optimization to help determine the ranking of each web address.
Search engine optimization is the art and science of making web pages attractive to search engines. The more a website appeals to a search engine, the higher it is likely to rank.
Crawler-based search engines determine the relevancy of a website by following a set of guidelines called algorithms. One of the first things a crawler-based search engine looks for is keywords. The more often a website uses a certain keyword, the higher the website may rank. Search engines assume that the more frequently a word appears, the more relevant the website is to that topic.
The location of the keywords is just as important as their frequency.
The first place a search engine looks for keywords is in the title. Web designers should include a keyword in their HTML title tag. They should also make sure keywords appear near the top of the page. Search engines operate under the assumption that web designers will want to make important information obvious right away.
Spamdexing is a term used to describe a webpage that repeats a certain word hundreds of times in an attempt to push the page to the top of search engine rankings. Most search engines use a variety of methods, including customer complaints, to penalize websites that use spamming tactics. Very few internet search engines rely solely on keywords to determine website ranking. Many search engines also use something called "off the page" ranking criteria. Off the page ranking criteria are ranking factors that webmasters cannot easily influence. Two methods of off the page search engine optimization are link analysis and click through measurement.
Speak Your Mind