DigitalWork Newsletter: Issue 3
Search Engines Part I - How Search Engines Work

Google, Yahoo!, Lycos, Mamma - these familiar names are synonymous with the Internet. Millions of users access information via these portals daily. However, there is a vast majority of Internet users who do not understand how search engines work. Most business owners establishing an online presence believe that simply submitting their web site to the search engines will drive heavy traffic to their site. While this may be the ultimate goal, it can be a daunting but not impossible one!

To gain a better understanding of search engines we must first discuss how they work. Search engines use computer programs (crawlers or bots) to crawl the Web and build their databases. Web sites are visited (spidered) and their information is indexed. When a user searches, the data requested is checked against the search engine's keyword database. The best matches for these requests are returned.

When a search engine visits a web site, it primarily looks at the information that is coded within the HTML (the common computer language used to build web sites) of your site and the actual content of your site. Specifically, it is viewing your Meta tags (your keywords and site description) and the text on the initial page of your site. This information is then stored within the database for users to search against. (Please keep in mind that the ways in which the data is submitted to the database, the information that is stored, and the way the information are listed, is wholly dependant upon the individual search engine).

For some sites, the term "search engine" is really a misnomer. Yahoo! is actually what is known as a directory. The difference is that directories rely on human editors to review the submitted web sites and write a fitting description for inclusion in their database. The results from a directory search match only what is found within these descriptions. Typically, because of the time consuming work involved with reviewing a web site, the directories charge significantly more to be reviewed. In the next issue we will cover how to properly submit your site to the search engines, what are good Meta tags to use, and how to avoid common errors that will negatively affect your rankings!

If you need additional information, please contact the DigitalWork Customer Care Department (for DigitalWork contact information, please visit www.digitalwork.com/contact.html).

Featured Web Site

We like to dedicate this area of the Newsletter to DigitalWork customer sites; however, since the subject of search engines is such a vast topic, we feel this would be a good opportunity to provide links to other web sites that we have found informative and helpful.

Search Engine and Site Promotion Web Sites:
Back to Newsletter Archives