Search engines
Search engines and online directories are the most popular
way for users to locate your website. This is of particular
importance when trying to attract large markets and consumer
markets who are more likely to search for what they want (keywords)
rather than by specific known companies.
Internet searchers make what is called a 'keyword search'
on these engines and this returns a list of results, listing
the websites in order of relevancy. This list can be thousands
of sites long, dependent on the keyword. A search on 'cheap
flights' for example will bring up thousands of results. 90%
of search engine generated traffic comes from the first three
pages of results, each page containing ten websites. The position
in these results depends on the specific algorithm of the
engine - meta tags are looked for on the site and their relevancy
is evaluated by criteria such as keyword density and frequency;
links to other sites are used as strong indicators, as well
as the relevancy of the sites that are linked to, as this
shows how active and relevant in a subject area the site is
on the web. The way in which they evaluate this is through
spidering (visiting) your site - the spiders of different
engines look for different things so you are unable to get
ranked highly on them all through simply submitting your site
domain name. It is obviously crucial that your website is
registered on the search engine, regular re-submission of
the domain name is important as it prompts the spiders to
return and re index the website, hopefully leading to a higher
ranking.
Search Engine Facts
AltaVista has now indexed 350 million web pages. (as of 1st
November 2000) This level of web pages on the engines' databases
is replicated across all the other engines, with the exception
of Google that has now exceeded 600 million. With these large
figures in mind it is now even more important to be assured
of your position and the traffic that ensues, otherwise you
can just be lost in space. 57% of Internet users search the
web each day
How people use the internet. (SRI,Feb 2000)
Internet users ranked search as their most important activity,
awarding it a 9.1 on a 10-point scale. The next most important
activity ranked only 6.3. (Jupiter Research, 1999)
84.8% of people use search engines to find new web sites.
(GVU 10th WWW Survey)
The future of Search Engines
There is currently a lot of changes going on within the search
engine community, with ad revenues falling they are seeking
to generate more money form their various offerings. The trend
is pointing towards paid for listings and sponsored links.
We are keeping a close eye on this and will inform our customers
of any major factors which will effect their listings.
If you require any further information on how we can create
or enhance your website then please do not hesitate to contact
us.
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