Search Engines
Search engines are one of the primary ways that Internet
users find web sites. That's why a web site with good
search engine listings may see a dramatic increase
in traffic.
Everyone wants those good listings. Unfortunately,
many web sites appear poorly in search engine rankings
or may not be listed at all because they fail to consider
how search engines work.
In particular, submitting to search engines is only
part of the challenge of getting good search engine
positioning. It's also important to prepare a web
site through "search engine
optimization."
Search engine optimization means ensuring that your
web pages are accessible to search engines and focused
in ways that help improve the chances they will be
found.
How Search Engines Work
Crawler-Based Search Engines
Crawler-based search engines, such as Google, create
their listings automatically. They "crawl"
or "spider" the web, then people search
through what they have found.
If you change your web pages, crawler-based search
engines eventually find these changes, and that can
affect how you are listed.
Crawler-based search engines have three
major elements:
First is the spider, also
called the crawler. The
spider visits a web page, reads it, and then follows
links to other pages within the site. This is what
it means when someone refers to a site being "spidered"
or "crawled." The spider returns to the
site on a regular basis, such as every month or two,
to look for changes.
Everything the spider finds goes into the second part
of the search engine, the index.
The index, sometimes called the catalog, is like a
giant book containing a copy of every web page that
the spider finds. If a web page changes, then this
book is updated with new information.
Sometimes it can take a while for new pages or changes
that the spider finds to be added to the index. Thus,
a web page may have been "spidered" but
not yet "indexed." Until it is indexed --
added to the index -- it is not available to those
searching with the search engine.
Search engine software
is the third part of a search engine. This is the
program that sifts through the millions of pages recorded
in the index to find matches to a search and rank
them in order of what it believes is most relevant.
Human-Powered Directories
A human-powered directory, such as the Open
Directory, 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 for free than a poor site.
Based on http://www.searchenginewatch.com
Furthermore Links:
|
