How the Different Search Engines Work

How the Different Search Engines Work

(via Online Information Free)Monday, December 25, 2006

How Search Engines Really Work

Understanding how search engines work is only one step of being a true SEO. In order to be successful as a SEO it’s important to fully understand how search engines operate.

Search engines display their results from a large index of web pages that was found by spiders. Spiders (Or some people call them robots.) are nothing more than programs running on computers that use no human intervention. Spiders download webpages somewhat like the browser you are using right now. Each search engine has it’s own spider and each spider acts different.

Spiders find web sites two different ways, one is following links to other sites and two by webmasters submitting their site. The most common way spiders find new sites is by links, often search engines will use directories such as Yahoo! or The DMOZ (Also known as Open Directory Project) to find new sites.

After a spider has found and indexed your web page it’s sent to a database (It’s also know as the index.) that has large amounts of other web sites. The web sites in the index are now part of the search results and ranked against each other. Search engines will rank your web page based on the information spiders gathered from your web page and other sources. Each search engine ranks sites differently than other search engines.

How the Altavista Search Engine Works

How Altavista works and who is behide it. Altavista was created in a research project at Digital Equipment Corporations in Palo Alto California. Altavista hit a milestone and became the first searchable, full text database on the internet. Altavista’s spider is called Scooter, Scooter usually spiders about 1 to 12 web pages per web site in a week, sometimes less than that.

So, it will take some time to get your full web site indexed and in the search engine results. Altavista which is now owned by Yahoo, gets their search results from Yahoo’s index now. Altavista Is now said to be more of a research project for Yahoo than a search engine. If you want to SEO your site to get a high ranking on Altavista you should learn more about how Yahoo’s search engine works.

How the Ask / Teoma Search Engine Works

Ask Jeeves (Also known as Ask) acquired Teoma in the year of 2001, so if a site is in Teoma it will also appear in Ask Jeeves search results. Since than they have grown their index to over two billion web pages. For right now you cannot submit to Teoma, but if you have a few good backward links you should get included in their search engine results.

Like most search engines Teoma puts a large amount of weight on link popularity. Getting links should be one of the first things you do if you want to rank high on Teoma. It’s also important where you get the links from, it’s better to get a link from a related sites to your site than a non-related site. It’s also important to get them from sites that have high link popularity.

Teoma also looks at the content on your web page. You should have your main keyword in the first few sentences and should try to get a keyword density of 5 to 15%. The main keyword should appear in the title and in the meta tags. It should also be placed in the header tag and in bold text.

How the Google Search Engine Works

Google, Inc. is an United States based corporation and was established in the year of 1998. Google is headquartered (Also known as the Googleplex.) in Mountain View, California, United States, but also has offices in many another countries and employs over 3,000 employees. Google started back in 1996 at Stanford University in California as a research project. Google was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.Google indexes the web using what are commonly called spiders, crawlers or robots. These spiders mainly find new web pages by following links, but you can submit your web site to their database to be spidered. After a spider finds a new web pages it in put into their database for searching. The contents of each web page are then analyzed to determine where they should rank in the search results.

Google uses a system know as Page Rank, this is done by Google calculating how many backlinks a web site has.. The more sites that link to you, the better. They should come from web sites that are related to your web site’s subject. Your keyword should appear in the anchor text, but don’t over use the same anchor text over and over, but change it around and use all of your keywords. You should not just get links to the homepage, but also to deep pages on your web site, this will allow Google to spider your web site far better.

Having good content that’s related to your web site’s topic establishes a theme for your web site. Having good amount of content will allow you to target more keywords. Also don’t forget that Googles loves web sites with large amounts of good content such as articles or news because most web site with large amounts of web pages that are unique tend to offer for internet surfers.

The title tag is likely the most important on-page optimization method you have because most web pages that are about something will put it in their title and the search engines know this. It should be short and to the point. Try to put your keyword in the first few words. Also remember that internet sufers will see this, so don’t just make it with Google in mind.

Keyword density plays a important role in the way Google ranks sites. Keywords are search phrases that surfers use to search with on search engines. It is important to have your main keywords in the heading tag and also appears in the first 25 words of your web page. Frequency is the other factor in how Google determines the relevancy. The keyword should appear at the top, middle and bottom of the web page.

How the Inktomi search engine works

Inktomi has died down in popularity since it use to power Yahoo search database. In Fact they are more dead than anything. Inktomi’s popularity grew when they use to supply Yahoo’s secondary search results. They are now owned by Yahoo and are used more as a testing search engine for Yahoo’s search engine. Inktomi spider’s name is Slurp and Slurp will rarely deep crawl a site, it can take a few months to have all of your web pages crawled.

Inktomi does not allow free search engine submission, but you still can get listed in Inktomi’s search results, Inktomi spiders the web, so if you have good backward links, you should get listed without paying them a penny. If you can’t get listed for free it likely not wroth paying to get included in Inktomi’s.

Inktomi provides their search index to other search engines, such as Overture’s secondary search database. They won’t send you much traffic like Google or Yahoo. Unless something major happens look for Inktomi to die out all the way.

How the MSN Search Engine Works

MSN started in around late 2003, but did not go live to 2005. As you likely know they are owned by Microsoft. MSN search is not used by other search engines like Google or Yahoo is, but they are still a popular search site and you should include them as part of your search engine list to submit to.

The MSN algorithm determines a site’s ranking by factors such as title tags, link popularity and keyword density. Try to get a keyword density between 5 and 20%. The keyword should be used in the first few sentences and should be in the title tag. The main keyword should also be in bold and the heading tag. It’s should also be in the meta tags as well.

One of the other factors in the MSN algorithm is link popularity. Building your link popularity with related web sites is best. You should never exchange links with web sites that are not related to your web site’s theme. In fact trading links with sites that are not related can hurt your ranking. You can start by submitting to local directories and directories that are related to your topic.

How the Yahoo Search Engine Works

Yahoo! Inc. is an United States based corporation and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Yahoo was founded by Stanford graduate students David Filo and Jerry Yang in late 1994 and incorporated on March 2, 1995. Yahoo started out as a ‘little guide to the internet’, but quickly grew into a major portal with new features such as email, shopping, searching and games.

After buying Inktomi and Overture Services, Inc., Yahoo stopped using Google search results and decided to start using their own search engine technology. Like Google, Yahoo’s search engine likes links, but not as much as Google and Yahoo looks at on-page factors more then Google does. It’s essential to place your most important keywords in the title, best if the first word is your keyword.

Yahoo looks at keyword density on the page to determine your ranking. You should use the keyword once in first few words, in bold and in the heading. Best to get a keyword density between 5 and 15%. You should also spell check your web page, some suggest that this is looked at by Yahoo!, but even if they do it would be very limited.

Besides Yahoo’s search engine, Yahoo also provides a directory, which will not allow adult sites in the directory. You can get in free if you are not a commercial site, but if you have a commercial site you can get in by paying $299 and will be reviewed within 7 days. That don’t mean you will get listed and if rejected, you will lose your money. If you do get listed in Yahoo directory you will get found by the search engines and can help you stay listed in the search engines.

posted by Info Admin @ 3:42 AM,