Search Engine
Optimization and Algorithms
August 30th 2005
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Search Engine
Algorithms |
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Search Engines
have been critical in the development of the Internet. What
relevance would the Internet have if you were unable to find what
you were looking for? These Search sites house a multitude of
servers that categorize and link every known website. A user types
in some keywords and the Search engine searches for relevant sites.
Early search
engines relied on Meta Tags and keyword frequency of a webpage to
determine relevance. Many web designers were able to fool search
engines by repeating the same word many times in an article and
unseen metatags.
Google and other
search engines began using a new more effective algorithm. Instead
of determining relevance by word frequency or meta-tags, they
determined relevance by links. The more quality links a site had,
the more relevant it became. The equation includes site traffic and
other criteria. Most search engines are very secretive about their
particular algorithm.
Search engines
rely on programs called “robots” or “spiders” to retrieve data for
their databases. They actually “crawl” or read sites following
links from site to site and page to page. Unlike Google and
Yahoo-Search some search engines index only the main page.
Web Page
Directories are different. These sites use humans to review and
categorize sites that are submitted to them. The Open Directory
Project requires sites to adhere to rigid guidelines in order to be
included in their index.
Yahoo also has a
Directory. Yahoo may require commercial sites to pay a yearly fee
to be listed with them. This approach can create a good search
result giving the searcher a small number of high quality links. .
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A hybrid search
engine will combine a directory with a search engine. Google uses
open Directory Project’s directory to enrich its generated
listings. Yahoo started as a directory but now incorporates search
results from Overture and Google.
There are
hundreds of search engines on the Internet. About 95% of all
searches are done with databases from just three search engines:
Google, MSN and Yahoo. Web designers should focus on these three
search engines.
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By
Dan Wilson
Best Syndication Staff Writer
Search Engine Optimization Books
Keywords and misspellings: search engine
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