Basics of Search Engine Positioning

A. TermsSearch Engine: A machine "tuned" by humans to indexweb pages. For instance, Excite.Algorithm: The way in which the search engine is"tuned". An algorithm is the way the search engine willdetermine ranks - it is the way the search engine isprogrammed to determine ranks. An algorithm may takeonly certain things into account - like keywords in the titleor link popularity. Some engines use cyclical algorithms -meaning they may change algorithms from week to week.Directory: A list of sites compiled by humans. For instance,Yahoo!Spider: A spider goes to your site and finds your pages.It then stores those pages in a database for future retrievalby the search engine.Indexing: When the search engine takes the pages fromthe database that the spider has created and places themin an order based on the algorithms of that engine. All searchengines have a different indexing process - due to differentalgorithms - that's why you get different results in different engines.Query: The keywords that a person types into a searchbox. A person is "querying" the search engine.Crawling: When the spider follows the links from the page yousubmit - the spider is "crawling" your site.Automatic Update: When the spider returns to your pages atperiodic intervals to check to see if you've made any changes.Optimizing: You can optimize, tune or configure your webpages for a specific search engine. This means that you areemploying specific strategies for specific engines.Spam:- Using the same keyword more than three times in yourkeywords tag.- Putting keywords into your tags that has nothing to do withyour actual page content.- Using text, spacers, or borders the same color as thebackground.- Using tiny text with keywords in an attempt to increase ranks.B. Search Engines v. DirectoriesThere is a difference between a search engine and a directory.A search engine is a machine - or a "robot". A human may programalgorithms for a search engine, but a human will have nothing to dowith your site when the spider is visiting your site or the engine isindexing your pages.A directory can be compiled by a robot, but more often than not,it is compiled by humans. Yahoo! is a prime example of a directory.When you submit your site to Yahoo! a human will review your site forconsideration in their index.The lines between search engines and directories arebecoming jaded. This is because each major "search engine" isassociated with a "directory." For instance, we used to call AltaVistaa search engine. However, we have to be careful with that terminology.When you go to AltaVista and you type in a search - you are definitelygetting results from the "engine" part of AltaVista. But when you searchdown through the "categories" - you haven't typed anything into the"search box" - you are now getting results from a directory (these resultscome from two directories - Open Directory Project and LookSmart.)There is a relationship between search results in the "engine" and thedirectory or directories that are associated with a particular searchengine. It appears that many search engine's algorithms have beenset to include results based on the directory. Therefore, it is imperativethat you are listed in the directory associated with each search engine.C. What happens when I submit my site to a search engine?First, the search engine's spider will visit your site immediately,and schedule your site for inclusion in the search engine's index.Second, usually within a few weeks, the engine will place your sitein their index.Third, the spider will revisit your site, to include any updates. Onceyou are included in the index, the spider will usually revisit everytwo weeks. The spider will also begin to "crawl" your site byfollowing the links off of the page that you submitted. This processis also called "automatic update". With Excite - these new updatesseem to be automatically included once the spider has visited thesite. However, if you are dealing with the Inktomi spider - slurp -which gathers data for Hotbot, Snap, Yahoo! and others, thisinformation may not be included in each particular engine's indexfor several weeks.Fourth, when someone uses a search engine, they type"keywords" into the search box. They are submitting a query to asearch engine. The search engine, depending on how it has beentuned, will pull up all of the relevant sites which pertain to that query.D. Variables That Affect RanksWhen you are optimizing your web pages for certain engines,you must always keep in mind that keyword frequency in text andlocation of your keywords, is the most important part of how theengine will rank your pages. ALL search engines rank pagesbased on frequency and location of keywords.Some engines also are programmed to give a boost to pageswhich meet the following criteria:1. link popularity2. keywords in the title, most important keywords first3. keywords in the names of the linked pagesfor instance: educational toys4. keywords in alt tags5. keywords as names of imagesfor instance: 6. keywords in the description tag7. keywords in the keywords tag, most important keywords first