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Richard D. Vaughan
CCHM
The process
begins with a method called ‘spidering’ or ‘crawling’ to
determine how many pages are in a site and what the specified site
contains. This is performed through the use of software that can read
the code in a web page and follow the links it contains. As the software
‘crawls’ through the site, it’s pages are copied and the process
moves to its’ second stage.
The second
stage involves the web pages that have been copied in the first stage.
The web pages are ‘indexed’ into a directory. This directory
contains an exact copy of every page contained in the website, and
references these web pages in the third and final stage; the search.
The search
is facilitated through the use of software, and this is the only visible
stage of the whole process, and entails the user entering ‘keywords’
as a search query. The software then uses these keywords to return
results from the directory that are relevant to the search query.
Search
engines, such as HotBot, create their listings automatically. Search
engines crawl the web, then people search through what they have found.
If you change your web pages, search engines eventually find these
changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy
and other elements all play a role.
A directory
is a categorization system designed to document Internet addresses, and
they offer the same service as a search engine, although they differ
from them in one way; they are human controlled. Where a search engine
uses software to spider a sites pages, a directory will perform this
procedure manually.
A good
example of this is Yahoo. In this case, the actual web content is never
accessed. When someone searches for a keyword, this is referenced
against a database of sites that contain a title and description for a
particular site. Once again, this site is categorized by topic and the
title and description are submitted manually, which entails submitting a
short description to the directory for your entire site, or submitting
your site for review. A search looks for matches only in the
descriptions submitted.
Directories
do not update themselves either, meaning that you will have to contact
the directory directly if you want to change a listing. Directories do
not have information on the entire content of your site, only the
information provided by the person submitting the site.
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 than a poor
site.
Different
directories behave differently. In terms of categorization, acceptance
of submissions, and a lot of other things including giving you the
result and the way the result is ordered.
“Humans
do it better” is what one popular web directory claims, when compared
with the process of spidering.
In
directories the Internet addresses are submitted first. Usually you have
to choose a particular category in which your site will fit when you
submit and along with the addresses a short description and few
associated keywords which are relevant to the web site should also
given. Then these URL’s are evaluated by Directory Editors for
worthiness to be included in the directory, the description and keyword
are cross checked for relevancy and added to the directory in the
suggested category if it is found relevant.
In case of
search engines we just have to wait for the spider to come to site. Come
it will sooner or later if you submit your URL. And eventually your site
will get into the index. But this is not the case with directories.
Because Humans cannot work 24 hours a day and seven days a week like
those automated spiders and humans the decision making process is much
more complicated than that of the spiders. If an editor decides that
your site is not net worthy, you cannot do any thing to get listed.
Another important disadvantage is the rate at which the net grows and
new sites get submitted to these directories.
The search
results that are provided by the Directories are based upon the
directories and the short description and bunch of key words that goes
along with the URL. But of course humans do it better because their
evaluation process is much better than that of a spider.
The final
method of searching the Internet is through the use of a hybrid search
engine. Some search engines maintain an associated directory. Being
included in a search engine’s directory is mainly a combination of
luck and quality. Sometimes you can “submit” your site for review,
but there is no guarantee that it will be included. Reviewers often keep
an eye on sites submitted to announcement places then chose to add those
that look appealing.
AOL Search
AOL Search allows its members to search across the web and AOL’s own
content from one place. The “external” version, listed above, does
not list AOL content. The main listings for categories and web sites
come from the Open Directory (see below). Inktomi (see below) also
provides crawler-based results, as backup to the directory information.
Before the launch of AOL Search in October 1999, the AOL search service
was Excite-powered AOL NetFind.
AltaVista
AltaVista
is consistently one of the largest search engines on the web, in terms
of pages indexed. Its comprehensive coverage and wide range of power
searching commands makes it a particular favourite among researchers. It
also offers a number of features designed to appeal to basic users, such
as “Ask AltaVista” results, which come from Ask Jeeves (see below),
and directory listings from the Open Directory and LookSmart. AltaVista
opened in December 1995. It was owned by Digital, then run by Compaq
(which purchased Digital in 1998), then spun off into a separate company
that is now controlled by CMGI. AltaVista also operates the Raging
Search service, below.
Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves is a human-powered search service that aims to direct you to
the exact page that answers your question. If it fails to find a match
within its own database, then it will provide matching web pages from
various search engines. The service went into beta in mid-April 1997 and
opened fully on June 1, 1997. Some results from Ask Jeeves also appear
within AltaVista.
Direct Hit
Direct Hit measures what people click on in the search results presented
at its own site and at its partner sites, such as HotBot. Sites that get
clicked on more than others rise higher in Direct Hit’s rankings.
Thus, the service dubs itself a “popularity engine.” Aside from
running its own web site, Direct Hit provides the main results which
appear at HotBot (see below) and is available as an option to searchers
at MSN Search. Direct Hit is owned by Ask Jeeves (above). See the Using
Direct Hit Results page to learn more about Direct Hit.
Excite
Excite is one of the more popular search services on the web. It offers
a fairly large index and integrates non-web material such as company
information and sports scores into its results, when appropriate. Excite
was launched in late 1995. It grew quickly in prominence and consumed
two of its competitors, Magellan in July 1996, and WebCrawler in
November 1996. These continue to run as separate services.
FAST Search
Formerly called All The Web, FAST Search aims to index the entire web.
It was the first search engine to break the 200 million web page index
milestone and consistently has one of the largest indexes of the web.
The Norwegian company behind FAST Search also powers some of the results
that appear at Lycos (see below). FAST Search launched in May 1999.
Go / Infoseek
Go is a portal site produced by Infoseek and Disney. It offers portal
features such as personalization and free e-mail, plus the search
capabilities of the former Infoseek search service, which has now been
folded into Go. Searchers will find that Go consistently provides
quality results in response to many general and broad searches, thanks
to its ESP search algorithm. It also has an impressive human-compiled
directory of web sites. Go officially launched in January 1999. It is
not related to GoTo, below. The former Infoseek service launched in
early 1995. It is scheduled to be closed at the end of February 2000.
GoTo
Unlike the other major search engines, GoTo sells its main listings.
Companies can pay money to be placed higher in the search results, which
GoTo feels improves relevancy. Non-paid results come from Inktomi. GoTo
launched in 1997 and incorporated the former University of
Colorado-based World Wide Web Worm. In February 1998, it shifted to its
current pay-for-placement model and soon after replaced the WWW Worm
with Inktomi for its non-paid listings. GoTo is not related to Go (Infoseek).
Paid listing from GoTo also appear on other major search engines,
including AltaVista, AOL Search, Lycos, HotBot and Netscape Search.
Google
Google is a search engine that makes heavy use of link popularity as a
primary way to rank web sites. This can be especially helpful in finding
good sites in response to general searches such as “cars” and
“travel,” because users across the web have in essence voted for
good sites by linking to them. The system works so well that Google has
gained wide-spread praise for its high relevancy. Google also has a huge
index of the web and provides some results to Yahoo and Netscape Search.
HotBot
HotBot is a favourite among researchers due to its many power-searching
features. In most cases, HotBot’s first page of results comes from the
Direct Hit service (see above), and then secondary results come from the
Inktomi search engine, which is also used by other services. It gets its
directory information from the Open Directory project (see below).
HotBot launched in May 1996 as Wired Digital’s entry into the search
engine market. Lycos purchased Wired Digital in October 1998 and
continues to run HotBot as a separate search service.
IWon
Backed by US television network CBS, iWon has a directory of web sites
generated automatically by Inktomi, which also provides its more
traditional crawler-based results. IWon gives away daily, weekly and
monthly prizes in a marketing model unique among the major services. It
launched in fall 1999.
Inktomi
Originally, there was an Inktomi search engine at UC Berkeley. The creators then
formed their own company with the same name and created a new Inktomi
index, which was first used to power HotBot. Now the Inktomi index also
powers several other services. All of them tap into the same index,
though results may be slightly different. This is because Inktomi
provides ways for its partners to use a common index yet distinguish
themselves. There is no way to query the Inktomi index directly, as it
is only made available through Inktomi’s partners with whatever
filters and ranking tweaks they may apply.
LookSmart
LookSmart is a human-compiled directory of web sites. In addition to
being a stand-alone service, LookSmart provides directory results to MSN
Search, Excite and many other partners. Inktomi provides LookSmart with
search results when a search fails to find a match from among
LookSmart’s reviews. Reader’s Digest backed LookSmart launched
independently in October 1996, for about a year, and then company
executives bought back control of the service.
Lycos
Lycos started out as a search engine, depending on listings that came
from spidering the web. In April 1999, it shifted to a directory model
similar to Yahoo. Its main listings come from the Open Directory
project, and then secondary results come from the FAST Search engine.
Some Direct Hit results are also used. In October 1998, Lycos acquired
the competing HotBot search service, which continues to be run
separately.
MSN Search
Microsoft’s MSN Search service is a LookSmart-powered directory of web
sites, with secondary results that come from Inktomi. RealNames and
Direct Hit data is also made available. MSN Search also offers a unique
way for Internet Explorer 5 users to save past searches.
NBCi
NBCi is a human-compiled directory of web sites, supplemented by search
results from Inktomi. Like LookSmart, it aims to challenge Yahoo as the
champion of categorizing the web. NBCi launched in late 1997 and is
backed by NBC. It was formerly known as Snap but had a name change in
late 2000.
Netscape Search
Netscape Search’s results come primarily from the Open Directory and
Netscape’s own “Smart Browsing” database, which does an excellent
job of listing “official” web sites. Secondary results come from
Google. At the Netscape Netcenter portal
site, other search engines are also featured.
Northern Light
Northern Light is another favorite search engine among researchers. It
features a large index of the web, along with the ability to cluster
documents by topic. Northern Light also has a set of “special
collection” documents that are not readily accessible to search engine
spiders. There are documents from thousands of sources, including
newswires, magazines and databases. Searching these documents is free,
but there is a charge of up to $4 to view them. There is no charge to
view documents on the public web—only for those within the special
collection. Northern Light opened to general use in August 1997.
Open Directory
The Open Directory uses volunteer editors to catalog the web. Formerly
known as NewHoo, it was launched in June 1998. It was acquired by
Netscape in November 1998, and the company pledged that anyone would be
able to use information from the directory through an open license
arrangement. Netscape itself was the first licensee. Lycos and AOL
Search also make heavy use of Open Directory data.
Raging Search
Operated by AltaVista, Raging Search uses the same core index as
AltaVista and virtually the same ranking algorithms. Why use it?
AltaVista offers it for those who want fast search results, with no
portal features getting in the way.
RealNames
The RealNames system is meant to be an easier-to-use alternative to the
current web site addressing system. Those with RealNames-enabled
browsers can enter a word like “Nike” to reach the Nike web site. To
date, RealNames has had its biggest success through search engine
partnerships. See the Using
RealNames Links page for more information about RealNames.
Yahoo
Yahoo is the web’s most popular search service and has a well-deserved
reputation for helping people find information easily. The secret to
Yahoo’s success is human beings. It is the largest human-compiled
guide to the web, employing about 150 editors in an effort to categorize
the web. Yahoo has over 1 million sites listed. Yahoo also supplements
its results with those from Google (beginning in July 2000, when Google
takes over from Inktomi). If a search fails to find a match within
Yahoo’s own listings, then matches from Google are displayed. Google
matches also appear after all Yahoo matches have first been shown. Yahoo
is the oldest major web site directory, having launched in late 1994.
WebTop
WebTop is a crawler-based search engine that claims an extremely large
index. In addition to listing web pages, WebTop also provides
information from news sources, company information and WAP-related
content in its search results. The company also offers the WebCheck tool
(formerly called k-check), which is an Alexa-like search and discovery
tool. WebTop is backed by Bright Station, the company that acquired some
search technology and other resources from the former Dialog
Corporation. A different company, the Thomson Corporation, now owns the
Dialog search service itself.
It is
necessary to take a view of the relation between page design and
submission, and how design affects submission. When designing a page and
optimising it for submission, you will need a global view of how a
spider works.
A spider,
whilst capable of reading a web page, is little more than an old browser
in terms of technical proficiency. There are a variety of designs that
will seriously hinder a spiders’ ability to search through a site. The
first of these is the use of frames in a page. A spider will only be
able to read through the first frame and the links it contains. As a
result of this, your first frame would need to contain all of your
navigation options in order to get the site spidered properly.
Theoretically, this is possible, although in practice the effect on the
aesthetics of the page renders this nearly impossible.
Secondly,
the use of dynamically created content on the main page for submission
should be avoided at all costs. The reason for this is that a spider
cannot read dynamically created content, and this will result in the
page becoming inadmissible in a search engine. Additionally, the use of
newer coding standards, such as XML or ASP, is highly inadvisable for
the same reason.
Positioning
of keywords and META tag development are key factors at this stage, as
they will have the largest effect on search engine ranking. Where
possible, keywords should be at the top of the page, and also repeated
in the title. Wherever possible, keywords should be repeated in the main
body of the page, in order to increase the frequency of keywords
throughout the document. META tags should be used to define the sites’
description and keywords for search engines.
The process
of submitting a site to a search engine can be actuated in one of two
manners; through the use of specifically written software programs, or
through directly submitting your site to a search engine. However, these
are just the two methods of submitting a completed site to a search
engine, and this procedure is not recommended until the pages or site
for submission have been properly optimised.
Before
considering optimisation techniques, it is important to understand how a
search engine actually ranks submitted pages, and how this will affect
the site or pages’ position in search results.
Search for
anything using your favourite search engine. Nearly instantly, the
search engine will sort through the millions of pages it knows about and
present you with ones that match your topic. The matches will even be
ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.
Of course,
the search engines don’t always get it right. Non-relevant pages make
it through, and sometimes it may take a little more digging to find what
you are looking for. But by and large, search engines do an amazing job.
As
WebCrawler founder Brian Pinkerton puts it, “Imagine walking up to a
librarian and saying, ‘travel.’ They’re going to look at you with
a blank face.”
Unlike a
librarian, search engines don’t have the ability to ask a few
questions to focus the search. They also can’t rely on judgment and
past experience to rank web pages, in the way humans can. Intelligent
agents are moving in this direction, but there’s a long way to go.
So how do
search engines go about determining relevancy? They follow a set of
rules, with the main rules involving the location and frequency of
keywords on a web page. Call it the location/frequency method, for
short.
Remember
the librarian mentioned above? They need to find books to match your
request of “travel,” so it makes sense that they first look at books
with travel in the title. Search engines operate the same way. Pages
with keywords appearing in the title are assumed to be more relevant
than others to the topic.
Search
engines will also check to see if the keywords appear near the top of a
web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of
text. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention those
words right from the beginning.
Frequency
is the other major factor in how search engines determine relevancy. A
search engine will analyse how often keywords appear in relation to
other words in a web page. Those with a higher frequency are often
deemed more relevant than other web pages.
The process
of submitting a site to a directory entails submitting information about
the site to a directory. The data submitted should include a brief
description of the site, it’s keywords, the URL of the homepage, and
the category to be included in. This process should always be completed
manually.
The process
differs from a submitting to a search engine in that a directory creates
its listings through the use of human editors. This results in listing
position being more difficult to forecast, as a human decides a sites
placement in a listing.
Whilst
there are a variety of submission options that can be used to improve a
sites ranking in a search engine, the only way to get a good ranking in
a directory is to have relevant, clear and well designed pages in your
website.
When
considering the area of submission strategies, it is important to note
that there are no methods that will guarantee a good ranking in either a
search engine or a directory. Also, due to the uniform method of
submission for directories, this section will only consider submission
options for search engines.
·
The
use of META tags
The ranking
of a web page can be greatly increased through the use of well-defined
META tags. META tags are included in the source code of a web page, and
are mainly used to contain information on a sites keywords and
description. The description element of this tag is used to provide
information for a directory listing of a web site, and the keyword
element is used to generate the keywords that will be available to a
search engine’s database, and therefore searchable to the end user.
·
The
importance of keywords
Keywords
are the most important factor in submitting pages to either search
engines or directories, as they are what determines what a user sees as
search results. For example, a computer manufacturer will have
‘computers’ as a keyword. When a user searches for ‘computers’
this company will be included in the search results (assuming that they
have submitted their site to the search engine being used.) As a result
of this it is vital to have a knowledge of how to exploit the use of
META tags to gain a higher ranking in a search engine.
There are a
few key rules regarding the use of keywords that will increase search
engine ranking. Generally, a search engine would expect a certain amount
of repetition of keywords throughout the body of the page, to ascertain
a level of keyword relevance in relation to content. In addition to
this, it is generally wise to ensure that your keywords are represented
in your pages’ title. The final point is to place your keywords as
close to each other as possible.
Additionally,
it is important to ensure that your keywords have been carefully
selected, and that they are utilised effectively. For example, using
pluralized keywords will result in more examples of your site appearing
in search results. (This is caused by the fact the a search engine will
provide results for both singular and plural forms of your keywords.) It
is also important effectively use space to portray all your keywords.
Most search engines will set a limit of how many keywords you can
submit. As a result of this, it is useful to use power combinations.
Power
combinations refer to linking two keywords together, or to using a
phrase as a keyword. In a recent study conducted by one of the major
search engines, it was revealed that over 65% of all searches made use
phrases rather than single words. As in the example of using pluralized
keywords, a search engine will return results for either of the keywords
used in the search.
·
META
redirect tags and ‘Bait’ pages
The use of
META redirect pages and ‘Bait’ pages do not display good netiquette,
although they do offer a quick route to higher rankings. A page that
utilises the META redirect tag is a page that, in aesthetic terms, is
poorly designed. However, a redirect page is designed to provide all the
basic requirements of a search engine and to enhance a sites ranking.
This works by redirecting the user automatically to the actual page
required before they actual see the redirect page on screen.
A
‘bait’ page operates along the same lines as a redirect page,
although it requires a little more work. The format works by submitting
one page to a search engine that is designed to meet all the basic
requirements of a good ranking. This page is then spidered and indexed
by the search engine, and ranked in its directory. Once the page has
been indexed, the first ‘bait’ page is replaced with the actual file
for viewing, meaning that the page in the search engines’ index is
incorrect, although the hyperlink to it will still work.
·
Hidden
Input and Invisible text
Hidden
input refers to the practice of inserting your keywords into the source
code of a web page to increase repetition and improve placement of your
keywords. The result of this is that the user will not see the repeated
keywords, although the spider will read them. This could be considered
bad netiquette, and is frowned upon by certain browsers, although offers
an effective method of increasing ranking.
Invisible
text is the use of keywords, typed in text that is the same colour as
the pages’ background colour. Once again, the user cannot see this
text, although the spider can. However, this is less effective than
hidden input, as it will affect the look of the page.
When
developing a submission strategy, it is vital that you consider which
search engine(s) you are targeting, and develop keywords and META tags
to meet their requirements.
After
having developed a set of keywords and META tags, it is advisable to
perform a test submission. This can be done in one of three ways.
Firstly, you can submit your site directly to a selection of search
engines and directories. Secondly, you can use software to submit to a
wide range of search engines, or you can use software to ‘replicate’
a search engines’ listings and test the submission offline.
At this
stage, it is important to perform an analysis of the site, and to
readjust and redevelop the source code to suit a wider range of browsers
and to maximise ranking increases. The procedures for doing this are
outlined below.
·
Site
Traffic Analysis and Ranking Analysis
After
having submitted a site to any search engine or directory, it is
imperative that you check for increases in site traffic. This can be
done through analysis of your servers website access logs, and should
allow you to ascertain an exact number of extra hits after submission.
For example, comparison with old server logs will show differences in
the number of people visiting your site. As the main aim of submitting
your site to a search engine is to gain traffic to your site, it is
important to bear these figures in mind when analysing the effectiveness
of your site.
However, it
is also important to analyse your websites ranking across the search
engines and directories that it was submitted to. Whilst an increase in
hits to a page can be used to demonstrate an improvement in website
promotion, it will not always offer valid information (i.e. A site that
has just launched will not be able to compared traffic increases through
server logs.)
·
Keyword
Analysis and META tag Analysis
In addition
to analysing the affect on site traffic and search engine ranking, it is
of key importance to analyse the keywords and META tags. This procedure
is done by analysing the keywords and META tags used by the top ranking
sites under the same keywords. This is done to get a good benchmark of
your site against your competitors’ sites.
Through the
analysis of your competitors META tags and keywords, it is possible to
draw a comparative analysis of your sites performance. Once the routes
taken by the top ranking sites have been established, it is possible to
build up a plan of redevelopment and re-submission of your site to
improve rankings. However, it is not possible to guarantee a higher
ranking through the use of this procedure, as a search engines’
criteria is not fixed, and is constantly changing.
After the
analysis and redevelopment are complete, you will have gained an insight
into how your site works in relation to search engines. At this stage,
it is important to get a clearer idea of the overall procedure for
submitting a page to a search engine.
Submitting
a site to search engines and directories requires a four-stage process;
selection of submission strategy, general submission to search engines,
general submission to directories, and focused submission to targeted
search engines and directories.
The first
stage of this procedure is the most important factor to consider when
submitting a site to a search engine or directory. There are two schools
of thought on this matter; how to achieve the highest possible ranking,
and how to achieve the highest sustainable ranking. Whilst it is
possible to achieve very high search engine rankings through the use of
the strategies detailed above, although it is not advisable to utilise
all of these strategies for the promotion of a professional, corporate,
or transactional website as they are liable to be rejected by any number
of search engines. The second school of thought will not necessarily
result in lower rankings, but will provide a greater guarantee of the
site being accepted by all the search engines, as well as a more
sustainable position.
The second
stage of the submission process is the easiest to facilitate, and is
normally actuated through the use of software to automate the process.
The aim of the second stage is to submit the page generically to as many
search engines as possible, and the net benefit of this is maximum
exposure. However, this technique does not offer very high rankings
across all these search engines, as it uses a standard set of keywords
and META tags to submit to all the search engines specified in the
software program.
Stage three
entails manual submission to directories. The most efficient method of
doing this is to use a standardised set of META tags to submit the site
to a wide range of directories. This process is the most time consuming,
and may not offer any rankings at all (due to the way a directory uses
human editors to compile its’ listings and rankings), although is
still a valuable exercise with regard to exposure.
The final
stage is of key importance, as it allows you to target various search
engines and directories, and submit your site according to their
requirements. For example, it is sensible to submit a special tailored
and tweaked page to Yahoo! (Who process 50 million searches a day) in
order to improve your listings with them. This procedure is part of a
cyclical process of continual redevelopment and resubmission in order to
achieve the highest long-term ranking possible.
With the
range of options available for submitting a site, it is vital to have a
clear idea of how you want to submit your site. The key factors to
consider here are the make up of your target audience, the key goals of
your site, and how long you want the site to hold a high ranking for.
It is with
these factors in mind that you should consider your submission options.
By this stage, you will have a clear idea of the aims and goals of your
site, in both the long- and the short-term, and will need to consider
the various options detailed in the main body of this report. Whilst it
is possible to generate a high ranking quickly and easily through the
use of some of these options, it is highly advised to avoid this route.
As a
general rule, there is no substitute for good design and concise and
well-structured content, although these do not necessarily lead to the
highest rankings. The is no guaranteed method of getting high rankings,
and the most effective manner of gaining rankings in one search engine
will not work with another. In addition to this, the algorithms used by
search engines to determine relevance of content, and thus generate
rankings changes frequently, meaning that the process of submitting a
site to a search engine is a perpetual cycle.
As a
result, of these considerations, it is necessary to contemplate site
design and submission options in a more structured way. This will
provide a benefit in reduced analysis times and a reduced need for
redevelopment of keywords, META tags, and site design.
The first
point to consider is the design of your site, and how it will affect
your rankings. Whilst the use of framesets is advisable as a method of
reducing download time, it is not conducive for easy submission to
search engines and directories. It is also wise to ensure that graphics
appear after the first section of body text (which should contain your
keywords), and that the “alt” attribute should also contain a
repetition of your keywords. However, both of these tips will require a
design concession to facilitate a site that is conducive to good
rankings.
The second
area to contemplate is the development and choice of keywords. This is a
vital point of concern, as it is your keywords that determine which
searches your site will rank in. A good principle to adopt here is that
your keywords will already be selected for you, through you main
business activities and the copy on your site. The main factor here is
how to effectively utilise economy of space, and which keywords to
submit. The main issue that arises from this is how to reduce the number
of keywords offered through the body copy of your website and your
business activities.
I would
recommend a thorough analysis of your site to determine how this should
be achieved. For example, a company with a household name should not
include their name as a primary keyword, as a large number of users will
not search for a company name, and it may prove more effective to use
examples of products or services offered by the company as a priority.
Once the
keywords have been selected, they should be used in the META keywords
tag to allow a search engine to read and verify the submitted keywords.
It is vital that the keywords are displayed in the META tags in the same
order is they were submitted to the search engine, as this will affect
your ranking.
Boolean
search: A
search allowing the inclusion or exclusion of documents containing
certain words through the use of operators such as AND, NOT and OR.
Concept
search: A
search for documents related conceptually to a word, rather than
specifically containing the word itself.
Full-text
index: An index containing every word
of every document catalogued, including stop words (defined below).
Fuzzy
search: A search that will find
matches even when words are only partially spelled or misspelled.
Index:
The searchable catalogue of documents
created by search engine software. Also called "catalogue."
Index is often used as a synonym for search engine.
Keyword
search: A
search for documents containing one or more words that are specified by
a user.
Phrase
search: A
search for documents containing an exact sentence or phrase specified by
a user.
Precision:
The degree in which a search engine lists
documents matching a query. The more matching documents that are listed,
the higher the precision. For example, if a search engine lists 80
documents found to match a query but only 20 of them contain the search
words, then the precision would be 25%.
Proximity
search: A
search where users to specify that documents returned should have the
words near each other.
Query-By-Example:
A search where a user instructs an
engine to find more documents that are similar to a particular document.
Also called "find similar."
Recall:
Related to precision, this is the degree
in which a search engine returns all the matching documents in a
collection. There may be 100 matching documents, but a search engine may
only find 80 of them. It would then list these 80 and have a recall of
80%.
Relevancy:
How well a document provides the information a user is looking for, as
measured by the user.
Search
Engine: The software that searches an
index and returns matches. Search engine is often used synonymously with
spider and index, although these are separate components that work with
the engine.
Spider:
The software that scans documents and adds
them to an index by following links. Spider is often used as a synonym
for search engine.
Stemming:
The ability for a search to include the
"stem" of words. For example, stemming allows a user to enter
"swimming" and get back results also for the stem word
"swim."
Stop
Words: Words
which cannot be used as keywords for submission, such as “the”,
“at”, or “and.”
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