By now you probably have a fuzzy idea of how a search engine works, but there’s much
more to it than just the basic overview you’ve seen so far. In fact, search engines have several
parts. Unfortunately, it’s rare that you find an explanation describing just how a search engine
is made — that’s proprietary information that search companies hold very close to their
vests — and that information is vitally important to succeeding with search engine optimization
(SEO).
Query interface
The query interface is what most people are familiar with, and it’s probably what comes to mind
when you hear the term ‘‘search engine.’’ The query interface is the page, or user interface, that
users see when they navigate to a search engine to enter a search term.
There was a time when the search engine interface looked very much like the Ask.com page
shown in Figure 1-1. This interface was a simple page with a search box and a button to activate
the search, and not much more.
Today, many search engines on the Web have added much more personalized content in an
attempt to capitalize on the real estate available to them. For example, Yahoo! Search, is just one of the search services that now enable users to personalize their
pages with a free e-mail account, weather information, news, sports, and many other elements
designed to make users want to return to that site to conduct their web searches.
One other option users have for customizing the interfaces of their search engines is a capability
like the one Google offers. The Google search engine has a customizable interface to which users
can add different gadgets. These gadgets enable users to add features to their customized Google
search home page that meet their own personal needs or tastes.
Search has even extended onto the desktop. Google and Microsoft both have search capabilities
that, when installed on your computer, enable you to search your hard drive for documents
and information in the same way you would search the Web. These capabilities aren’t of
any particular use to you where SEO is concerned, but they do illustrate the prevalence of
search and the value that users place on being able to quickly find information using searching
capabilities.
When it comes to search engine optimization, Google’s user interface offers the most potential
for you to reach your target audience, because it does more than just optimize your site for
search: If a useful tool or feature is available on your site, you can enable users to have access to
this tool or feature through the Application Programming Interface (API) made available by Google.
Using the Google API, you can create a gadget that users can install on their Google Desktop,
iGoogle page, or Firefox or Chrome browser. This enables you to have your name in front of
users on a daily basis.
You can find more information about Google APIs in Appendix A in the section
‘‘Optimization for Google.’’
For example, a company called PDF24.org offers a Google gadget that enables users to turn their
documents into PDF files right from their Google home page once the gadget has been added. If
the point of search engine optimization is ultimately to get your name in front of as many people
as possible, as often as possible, then making a gadget available for addition to Google’s personalized
home page can only further that goal.
Search engine results pages
The other sides of the query interface, and the only other parts of a search engine that’s visible
to users, are the search engine results pages (SERPs). This is the collection of pages that are
returned with search results after a user enters a search term or phrase and clicks the Search
button. This is also where you ultimately want to end up; and the higher you are in the search
results, the more traffic you can expect to generate from search. Specifically, your goal is to end
up on the first page of results — in the top 10 or 20 results that are returned for a given search
term or phrase. Getting there can be a mystery, however. We’ll decode the clues that lead you to
that goal throughout the book, but right now you need to understand a bit about how users see
SERPs.
Let’s start with an understanding of how users view SERPs. Pretend you’re the searcher. You go
to your favorite search engine — we’ll use Google for the purposes of illustration because that’s
everyone’s favorite, isn’t it? Type in the term you want to search for and click the Search button.
What’s the first thing you do when the page appears?
Most people begin reading the titles and descriptions of the top results. That’s where you hook
searchers and entice them to click through the links provided to your web page. But here’s the
catch: You have to be ranked close enough to the top for searchers to see those results page
titles and descriptions and then click through them, which usually means you need to be in
the top 10 or 20 results, which translates into the first page or two of results. It’s a tough spot
to hit.
There is no magic bullet or formula that will garner you those rankings every time. Instead,
it takes hard work and consistent effort to push your site as high as possible in SERPs. At the
risk of sounding repetitive, that’s the information you’ll find moving forward. There’s a lot of
it, though, and to truly understand how to land good placement in SERPs, you really need to
understand how search engines work. There is much more to them than what users see.
Crawlers, spiders, and robots
The query interface and search results pages truly are the only parts of a search engine that the
user ever sees. Every other part of the search engine is behind the scenes, out of view of
the people who use it every day. That doesn’t mean it’s not important, however. In fact, what’s
in the back end is the most important part of the search engine, and it’s what determines how
you show up in the front end.
If you’ve spent any time on the Internet, you may have heard a little about spiders, crawlers,
and robots. These little creatures are programs that literally crawl around the Web, cataloging
data so that it can be searched. In the most basic sense, all three programs — crawlers, spiders,
and robots — are essentially the same. They all collect information about each and every
web URL.
Databases
Every search engine contains or is connected to a system of databases where data about each
URL on the Web (collected by crawlers, spiders, or robots) is stored. These databases are massive
storage areas that contain multiple data points about each URL.
The data might be arranged in any number of different ways and is ranked according to a
method of ranking and retrieval that is usually proprietary to the company that owns the search
engine.
You’ve probably heard of the method of ranking called PageRank (for Google) or even the more
generic term quality scoring. This ranking or scoring determination is one of the most complex
and secretive parts of SEO. How those scores are derived, exactly, is a closely guarded secret, in
part because search engine companies change the weight of the elements used to arrive at the
score according to usage patterns on the Web.
The idea is to score pages based on the quality that site visitors derive from the page, not on
how well web site designers can manipulate the elements that make up the quality score. For
example, there was a time when the keywords that were used to rank a page were one of the
most important factors in obtaining a high-quality score.
Today, many search engines on the Web have added much more personalized content in an
attempt to capitalize on the real estate available to them. For example, Yahoo! Search, is just one of the search services that now enable users to personalize their
pages with a free e-mail account, weather information, news, sports, and many other elements
designed to make users want to return to that site to conduct their web searches.
One other option users have for customizing the interfaces of their search engines is a capability
like the one Google offers. The Google search engine has a customizable interface to which users
can add different gadgets. These gadgets enable users to add features to their customized Google
search home page that meet their own personal needs or tastes.
Search has even extended onto the desktop. Google and Microsoft both have search capabilities
that, when installed on your computer, enable you to search your hard drive for documents
and information in the same way you would search the Web. These capabilities aren’t of
any particular use to you where SEO is concerned, but they do illustrate the prevalence of
search and the value that users place on being able to quickly find information using searching
capabilities.
When it comes to search engine optimization, Google’s user interface offers the most potential
for you to reach your target audience, because it does more than just optimize your site for
search: If a useful tool or feature is available on your site, you can enable users to have access to
this tool or feature through the Application Programming Interface (API) made available by Google.
Using the Google API, you can create a gadget that users can install on their Google Desktop,
iGoogle page, or Firefox or Chrome browser. This enables you to have your name in front of
users on a daily basis.
You can find more information about Google APIs in Appendix A in the section
‘‘Optimization for Google.’’
For example, a company called PDF24.org offers a Google gadget that enables users to turn their
documents into PDF files right from their Google home page once the gadget has been added. If
the point of search engine optimization is ultimately to get your name in front of as many people
as possible, as often as possible, then making a gadget available for addition to Google’s personalized
home page can only further that goal.
Search engine results pages
The other sides of the query interface, and the only other parts of a search engine that’s visible
to users, are the search engine results pages (SERPs). This is the collection of pages that are
returned with search results after a user enters a search term or phrase and clicks the Search
button. This is also where you ultimately want to end up; and the higher you are in the search
results, the more traffic you can expect to generate from search. Specifically, your goal is to end
up on the first page of results — in the top 10 or 20 results that are returned for a given search
term or phrase. Getting there can be a mystery, however. We’ll decode the clues that lead you to
that goal throughout the book, but right now you need to understand a bit about how users see
SERPs.
Let’s start with an understanding of how users view SERPs. Pretend you’re the searcher. You go
to your favorite search engine — we’ll use Google for the purposes of illustration because that’s
everyone’s favorite, isn’t it? Type in the term you want to search for and click the Search button.
What’s the first thing you do when the page appears?
Most people begin reading the titles and descriptions of the top results. That’s where you hook
searchers and entice them to click through the links provided to your web page. But here’s the
catch: You have to be ranked close enough to the top for searchers to see those results page
titles and descriptions and then click through them, which usually means you need to be in
the top 10 or 20 results, which translates into the first page or two of results. It’s a tough spot
to hit.
There is no magic bullet or formula that will garner you those rankings every time. Instead,
it takes hard work and consistent effort to push your site as high as possible in SERPs. At the
risk of sounding repetitive, that’s the information you’ll find moving forward. There’s a lot of
it, though, and to truly understand how to land good placement in SERPs, you really need to
understand how search engines work. There is much more to them than what users see.
Crawlers, spiders, and robots
The query interface and search results pages truly are the only parts of a search engine that the
user ever sees. Every other part of the search engine is behind the scenes, out of view of
the people who use it every day. That doesn’t mean it’s not important, however. In fact, what’s
in the back end is the most important part of the search engine, and it’s what determines how
you show up in the front end.
If you’ve spent any time on the Internet, you may have heard a little about spiders, crawlers,
and robots. These little creatures are programs that literally crawl around the Web, cataloging
data so that it can be searched. In the most basic sense, all three programs — crawlers, spiders,
and robots — are essentially the same. They all collect information about each and every
web URL.
Databases
Every search engine contains or is connected to a system of databases where data about each
URL on the Web (collected by crawlers, spiders, or robots) is stored. These databases are massive
storage areas that contain multiple data points about each URL.
The data might be arranged in any number of different ways and is ranked according to a
method of ranking and retrieval that is usually proprietary to the company that owns the search
engine.
You’ve probably heard of the method of ranking called PageRank (for Google) or even the more
generic term quality scoring. This ranking or scoring determination is one of the most complex
and secretive parts of SEO. How those scores are derived, exactly, is a closely guarded secret, in
part because search engine companies change the weight of the elements used to arrive at the
score according to usage patterns on the Web.
The idea is to score pages based on the quality that site visitors derive from the page, not on
how well web site designers can manipulate the elements that make up the quality score. For
example, there was a time when the keywords that were used to rank a page were one of the
most important factors in obtaining a high-quality score.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment