Search Engine Optimisation – SEO
What is a search engine and how do they work?
Search engines allow users to search the Internet for content using keywords. There are a number of search engines that people can use today’s search is dominated by Google. When a person types in a word or phrase, know as keywords, into any search engine, within seconds a results page is returned. Pages are ranked in order of their ‘relevance’. This ranking is done differently across search engines and other factors such as location and prior searches can also determine what is showing on each page.
How do search engines work?
Search engines use programs, often referred to as spiders, robots or crawlers, to search through the millions of pages hosted on the Internet. These programs are used by search engines to build an index of the Internet. However, although most search engines will provide tips on how to improve your page ranking, in an attempt to avoid misuse the applied rules are a well-guarded secret and can move the goal posts at any time, changing the rules regularly. By following a few well accepted search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques you can ensure that your website is well indexed and remains high in the rankings.
How do these search engine methods differ?
These three main search engines use different methods to rank websites. Understanding these methods will help you understand the SEO strategies outlined in this guide at this time.
The three main search engines are:
Google – Google’s PageRank assesses the value of a webpage based on the number of backlinks ie links back to your website. Each link is counted as a vote, from one page to another. Google also analyses the content on the page that makes the link. Votes cast by pages that are themselves seen as important by Google weigh more heavily and increase the ranking of the linked pages.
For example if you had a link back to your website from a highly respected government site, you are seen as likely to have more value for the person conducting the search
Yahoo! – Yahoo! began as a manually edited directory. It now uses link analysis tools to determine page relevancy, though content is also important in deciding search relevance. Other factors that are important include backlinks and a good site design.
Bing – Microsoft’s Bing search engine ranks websites based on the webpage content, the number and quality of websites that link to your pages, and the relevance of your website’s content to keywords.
For more detailed information on how to best optimise your website for a particular search engine, refer to their webmaster pages. All the leading search engines provide information and tools to help you improve your SEO.
Google http://www.google.com/webmasters/
According to 2010 June 26 figures from Hitwise (Top Search Engines by Volume).
Top Search Engines for 2010
| 2010 | Yahoo! | Bing | Ask | AOL Search | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-06-26 | 71.65% | 14.37% | 9.85% | 2.19% | 1.15% | 99.21% |
| 2010-05-22 | 72.00% | 14.58% | 9.20% | 2.18% | 1.06% | 99.02% |
| 2010-05-08 | 71.56% | 14.79% | 9.31% | 2.27% | 1.07% | 99.00% |
| 2010-03-06 | 71.07% | 14.46% | 9.55% | 3.01% | 0.98% | 99.07% |
| 2010-02-06 | 71.35% | 14.60% | 9.56% | 2.55% | 1.06% | 99.12% |
| 2010-01-02 | 72.25% | 14.83% | 8.91% | 2.53% | 0.77% | 99.29% |
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