 |
|
|
|
| |
How Can Search Engines Help You with Your Business?Written by Dmitry Antonoff, Irina Ponomareva
What Are Search Engines? Most of us often face problem of searching web. Nowadays, global network is one of most important sources of information there is, its main goal being to make information easily accessible. That's where main problem arises: how to find what you need among all those innumerable terabytes of data. The World Wide Web is overloaded with various stuff related to diverse interests and activities of human beings who inhabit globe. How can you tell what a site is devoted to without visiting it? Besides, number of resources grew as quickly as Internet’s own development, and many of them closely resembled each other (and still do). This situation necessitated finding a reliable (and at same time fast) way to simplify search process, otherwise there would be absolutely no point to World Wide Web. So, development and deployment of first search engines closely followed birth of World Wide Web. * How It All Began At start, search engines developed quite rapidly. The "grandfather" of all modern search engines was Archie, launched in 1990, creation of Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University, Montreal. Three years later, University of Nevada System Computing Services deployed Veronica. These search engines created databases and collected information on files existing in global network. But they were soon overwhelmed by fast growth of net, and others stepped forward. World Wide Web Wanderer was first automated Internet robot, whereas ALIWEB, launched in Autumn of 1993, was first rough model of a modern web directory that is filled up by site owners or editors. At about same time, first 'spiders' appeared. These were: JumpStation, World Wide Web Worm, and Repository-Based Software Engineering** starting new era of World Wide Web search. Google and Yahoo are two of their better-known descendants. http://galaxy.com/info/history2.html. Search Engines Today Modern web searchers are divided into two main groups: • search engines and • directories. Search engines automatically 'crawl' web pages (by following hyperlinks) and store copies of them in an index, so that they can generate a list of resources according to users' requests (see ‘How Search Engines Work’, below). Directories are compiled by site owners or directory editors (in other words, humans) according to categories. In truth, most modern web search combine two systems to produce their results. How Search Engines Work All search engines consist of three main parts: • spider (or worm); • index; and • search algorithm. The first of these, spider (or worm), continuously ‘crawls’ web space, following links that lead both to within limits of a website and to completely different websites. A spider ‘reads’ all pages’ content and passes data to index. The Index is second part of a search engine. It is a storage area for spidered web pages and can be of a huge magnitude (Google’s index, for example is said to consist of three billion pages). The third part of a search engine system is most sophisticated. It is search algorithm, a very complicated mechanism that sorts an immense database within a few seconds and produces results list. Looking like a web page (or, most often, lots of pages), it contains links to resources that match users' queries (i.e., relevant resources). The most relevant ones (as search engine sees it) are nearer top of list. They are ones most likely to be clicked by user of search engine. A site owner should therefore take heed of site's relevancy to keywords it is expected will be used to find it. http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2168031 A Relevancy calculation algorithm is unique for every search engine, and is a trade secret, kept hidden from public. However, there are some common principles, which will be discussed in following paragraph. http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167961 What to Do to Have Your Web Site Found through Search Engines There are some simple rules to make your resource relevant enough to be ranked in top 10 by majority of search engines. Rule 1: Work on body copy A search engine determines topic of your site judging by textual information (or content) of every page. Of course, it cannot comprehend content way humans do, but this is not critical. It is much more important to include keywords, which are found and compared with users' queries by programme. The more often you use targeted keywords, better your page will be ranked when a search on those keywords is made. You can increase relevancy of your targeted keywords still more if you include them in HTML title of your page ( tag), in subheaders (<h1>-<h6> tags), in hyperlinks (<a> tag), or just emphasize them with bold font (<b> or <strong> tags). Meta tags <meta name="Keywords" content="your keywords"> and <meta name="Description" content="your description"> were introduced specifically to help search engines. Unfortunately, they are rapidly losing their significance because it is too easy to abuse them. Webmasters should therefore concentrate mainly on body copy, which is<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128019"> part of textual content placed between<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128020"> <body> and<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128021"> </body> tags. One should take into account<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128022"> facts that<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128023"> search engines' algorithms are constantly improving and that index databases are updated. When you have aquired<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128024"> desired position in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128025"> listings, do not rest on your laurels. Site optimisation should become a permanent job for all site owners who regard web presence as an important part of their business. http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2168021 Rule 2: Build links to your site As we have mentioned before, a spider scans<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128026"> web following<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128027"> links placed by site owners onto their pages in order to inform their visitors of where to find something that might be of interest. So,<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128028"> greater<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128029"> number of website owners agreeing to list your site,<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128030"> smaller<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128031"> time that will pass before all existing search engines will find out about you. What's more, those pages that are linked from multiple sites are considered by crawlers as more important. Google (http://www.google.com/) implements this concept via a so called Page Rank; other engines analyse your site's popularity in different ways. Remember that a link from a site that itself ranks well, is much more valuable than just any link. Also note that content relevancy of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128032"> site linking to you further increases<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128033"> importance of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128034"> link. <br><br></font></td><!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) --><td align="top" width="10%"></td><td align="top" width="45%"><h2>Inappropriate Website Promotion Methods</h2><font size="2">Written by Dmitry Antonoff, Irina Ponomareva</font><br><br><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5766870852072819";
google_ad_width = 234;
google_ad_height = 60;
google_ad_format = "234x60_as";
google_ad_channel ="9238851329";
google_color_border = "CFB9A1";
google_color_bg = "CFB9A1";
google_color_link = "000000";
google_color_url = "431B02";
google_color_text = "431B02";
//--></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
<br> <font size="2"> The list of dubious means of search engine optimisation lengthens year on year. In theory, of course, we could all employ such means, but there are ethical issues to be tackled. And even if we ignore fair-play principles for a moment, it’s worth pointing out that cheap, scam-like promotion methods usually look cheap and scam-like, annoy Internet users and have a short lifespan because counter-measures are created. This article describes misleading, illegal and unethical methods of search engine optimisation, explains why they are wrong and highlights<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar "> possible adverse results. Spam keyword density In their naive quests for high positions in search engines’ listings, some web site owners simply cram as many key phrases as possible into<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127960"> body text of their resources. However, if a key phrase is mentioned too often in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127961"> text (so-called keyword damping),<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127962"> website may be overlooked by<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127963"> more advanced search engines. Moreover, site content will undoubtedly be unreadable for visitors. Nevertheless, few people know what keyword density is optimal or at what point keyword damping begins. Unfortunately, this can mean that innocent web site owners or editors can leave an undesirable content by chance, just because of a lack of attention or experience. To help prevent having your resource rejected by search engines, just keep to<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127964"> following recommendations before launching your web site. 1.Look through your text once again. Do you see certain words and phrases dancing in front of your eyes? If not, you can pass your text through to<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127965"> next test. If you do, try reducing<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127966"> number of sentences, writing alternative phrases or even consider starting again from scratch. 2.Read out<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127967"> text of your web page to co-workers or friends or ask them to read it to you. Does it sound annoying or amateurish because of excessive keyword density? If not,<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127968"> page is ready for launching. Hidden text Hiding text is another means of fooling search engines, but one that is becoming more futile. Body text is hidden when: •the font is exactly<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127969"> same colour as, or differs very slightly from, a web page’s background colour, or •when it is so tiny on<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127970"> screen (1 or 2 pixels) that visitors don’t see it. The idea behind<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127971"> scam is that search engine spiders will read<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127972"> code that makes up<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127973"> page but human visitors will not notice<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127974"> text, or will see it as a detail in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127975"> graphic design. So<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127976"> theory goes, webmasters can place commonly searched words in these unseen areas that will hoist their pages up<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127977"> search engine rankings, even if<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127978"> true content has nothing to do with<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127979"> subject searched for. They think that hiding ‘Britney Spears’ on their mountain resort’s web page will cause an avalanche of visitors and increase sales. Life isn’t that simple! If you put yourself in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127980"> user’s position, you’ll soon see why this won’t work. You won’t be too pleased about having to scroll through endless pages filled with absolutely useless content when searching for<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127981"> resource that you need. Because<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127982"> best search engines (i.e.,<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127983"> ones that people actually use) can efficiently resist this kind of cheating, dishonest webmasters will have their rankings reduced or be left off indices, even if<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127984"> penalty is not instant. Remember also that a search entry‘s very popularity means that a page thus ‘optimised’ will be just one of millions of others, further reducing any perceived competitive advantage. Link exchange networks (link farming) The Web is by nature a network of interconnected sites supporting one another via hyperlinks. Some search engines use<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127985"> number of links pointing to a site as a factor in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127986"> site’s popularity and, therefore, its ranking. For example, there are thousands of pages linking to NASA’s website, so it ranks highly and is spidered frequently. As with all relevance calculation methods, this one is open to abuse. In<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127987"> hope of multiple inbound links improving a website’s ranking, web pages, called link farms, are created containing nothing but links to other sites. However, this method of promotion is quite insecure, for three main reasons: 1.as a rule, such pages contain nothing but endless rows and columns of hyperlinks with no description of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127988"> resources, therefore<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127989"> search value of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127990"> link farm itself is tiny; 2.such linking is useless, since pages which contain too many links transfer almost no value to<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127991"> individual sites they link to; and 3.hardly any visitors are going to click on a site from such a page, as<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127992"> probability of a successful click on a page full of potential clicks is minimal. Keep away from link farms. Many owners of popular and well-promoted websites have already got sick of daily emails saying things such as: ‘I’ve visited your website, I like it, so I’ve placed a link to it and I’m waiting for you put a link to mine on your page’. The point is that it is<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127993"> quality of links that is of high importance for modern search engines when ranking a website, not<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127994"> quantity. Relevance is everything, and search engines are getting better at detecting and rewarding it. So, what are quality links? The simple answer is links to web sites devoted to related issues. Therefore, it is better to exchange links with business partners, sites with common themes or information portals dealing with problems of a similar business sphere. Also, you should insist upon adding short descriptions of your resources to hyperlinks. The value of simple reciprocal linking in terms of search engine optimisation has diminished over<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127995"> last few years. We can suggest another method, which tends to be much more promising: publication and wide distribution of articles that may be of interest to visitors. The articles contain links to sites and certainly attract your targeted audience. Cloaking Cloaking is another technology that is widely used by dishonest webmasters. Its effectiveness lies in identifying robots, which crawl around<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127996"> Web, by their IP addresses or host names. A special doorway page, developed beforehand and polished for SEO purposes but unreadable for humans, is shown to<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127997"> robot and added to<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127998"> search engine’s index, while a human visitor will see a very different page. However, modern search engines are able to unmask those who specialise in such tricks. For example, a robot can come from an unknown IP address or disguise itself as numerous human visitors and come from different addresses. Moreover, ‘sneaking’ is encouraged by<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 127999"> managers of some search engines, whereby visitors report that<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128000"> content of a particular web site found by a search engine has nothing in common with its description on<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 128001"> search engine result page. Then, if a search engine’s staff discover that a webmaster is employing illegal methods, his or her site will instantly be ejected from that index. <br><br></font></td><!-- google_ad_section_end --></tr><tr><td>Cont'd on page 2 ==<a class="mlink" href="2-How_Can_Search_Engines_Help_You_with_Your_Business-27961.htm">></a></td></tr></table><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-5766870852072819";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
google_ad_format = "728x90_as";
google_ad_channel ="8831454965";
google_color_border = "CFB9A1";
google_color_bg = "CFB9A1";
google_color_link = "000000";
google_color_url = "431B02";
google_color_text = "431B02";
//--></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="770" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="48" align="center" background="images/bg_nav_bottm.jpg"><span class="style3">ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005<br> <a href="terms.html" rel="nofollow">Terms of Use</a></span></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
</table>
<script type="text/javascript">
var HASH_ESCAPED="%23";
function TrackIt(adUnit){
if (window.status)
{
var adDomain = escape(window.status.substring(6));
var pyPage = document.location.pathname;
var params = document.location.search;
var hasAnchor = params.lastIndexOf(HASH_ESCAPED)!= -1;
params = hasAnchor? (params.substring(0, params.lastIndexOf(HASH_ESCAPED))) : params;
pyPage = escape(pyPage.substring(pyPage.lastIndexOf('/') + 1));
pyPage = pyPage + params;
var curTime = new Date().valueOf();
var bug = new Image();
bug.src = '/track/adsenseTrack.php?pyPage=' + pyPage + '&adDomain=' + adDomain + '&adUnit=' + adUnit + "&time=" + curTime;
}
}
function TrackIt0() {TrackIt(0); }
function TrackIt1() {TrackIt(1); }
function TrackIt2() {TrackIt(2); }
var elements = document.getElementsByTagName("iframe");
for (var i = 0; i < elements.length; i++)
{
if(elements[i].src.indexOf('googlesyndication.com') > -1)
{
//elements[i].onfocus = TrackIt;
if (i==0) elements[i].onfocus = TrackIt0;
if (i==1) elements[i].onfocus = TrackIt1;
if (i==2) elements[i].onfocus = TrackIt2;
}
}
</script>
<!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup" startspan ALT="Site Meter" -->
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">var site="s19improve"</script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript1.2" src="http://s19.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=s19improve">
</script>
<noscript>
<a href="http://s19.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s19improve" target="_top">
<img src="http://s19.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=s19improve" alt="Site Meter" border=0></a>
</noscript>
<!-- Copyright (c)2002 Site Meter -->
<!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup" Endspan -->
</body>
</html>
|
| |
