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What do they do?There are two main elements that make the Internet what it is. First, there is the general public that is in search of information, entertainment, communication, etc. Second, there is a vast wealth of information, entertainment, communication tools, etc. They are both trying very hard to find each other. The search engines have proven to be the best means for bringing the two elements together. The public visits a search engine site [like Google, Yahoo or Msn] and types in keywords, or phrases, to find websites relevant to their needs and wants. The Search engines use proprietary algorithms which filter through every website on the net to find the best match for the keywords given. Search engines use "spiders" or "robots" ('bots') to compile their databases, which crawl through the Internet from link to link and site to site, identifying the content of each site. After a spider finds pages, it passes them on to another computer program for "indexing." This second program identifies the text, links, and other content in the page and stores it in the search engine’s database files so that the database can be searched by keyword, or whatever other approaches are offered, and the page will be found if your search matches its content. Search Engines are extremely important for generating traffic to your site. More than 90% of Internet users use search engines to find products, services and information that they are looking for. When a search engine reviews your website, it uses it’s ranking algorithm to find the relevant keywords and key phrases on your site to decide where on it’s search results you should appear. Some types of pages, or links, are excluded from most search engines because of structural & technical barriers, which cause search engine spiders not to access them. Pages that are excluded are referred to as the "Invisible Web." It’s the pages you don't see in search engine results. |
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