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Search Engines: How do they work? 

How do search engines and directories work? 

Search engines use spiders to travel throughout the World Wide Web 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, finding and indexing web pages.  These search engine spiders then return with this information which is then catalogued and indexed to be found when you type certain words into a search box, when you are looking for information. These words which you use to search for information are referred to as “keywords". Directories (such as Yahoo) are a little different but also share some characteristics with your basic search engines. 

Directories are slightly different from search engines in that they do not send out spiders to review and index information. Directories rely upon Webmasters to submit the address (URL) of the web site or addresses of specific pages within a website to be reviewed by real people rather than spiders, who then compile and index the information to then be supplemented by the use of a search engine. 

Search engines: Basic elements 

There are usually about three basic elements to search engines: 

1. The search engine database operates similar to the same principles used in a web site database. It consists of indexed descriptions of web pages including links as well as a small description for each link.  When you submit a search term request, the search engine will then peruse the indexed information utilizing a special search algorithm to find relevant web pages.
2. Search engines use their special search algorithm to give each web page a ranking in terms of the highest level of relevance to each specific search term used. Relevant scores reflect several factors including the number of times a search term appears, if it appears in the title, at the beginning of the page or HTML tags, and also if the search terms are in close proximity to each other.  However, a search term that is used too many times within a single page may be considered spamming (for which search engines penalize the page and reduce its relevancy ranking), so you do not want to overuse a keyword or phrase on a specific page (don't exceed the 15-25 range).
3. Each search engine has its own peculiar ranking method or algorithm.  For example, if there are no links to other sites or pages within a web site (a single page web site) some search engines will not list that web site in their index or in your search inquiry.

There is much, much more to the use of search engines in your marketing efforts.  Search engine marketing requires an understanding of the basic fundamentals as well as specifically how information is found and indexed in each specific search engine. 

Some information provided by The Complete E-Commerce Book by Janice Reynolds 

Paul Susic MA Licensed Psychologist  Ph.D. Candidate CEO/President  Susic Psychological Consulting P.C.