How the search engines work.

Hi Kevin here with a new post series on how the search engines work.

Yes we all think we know more than we do and what you learn here you probably
never considered before.

In real terms there are 3 major players in the Search Engine field.

1. Google

2. Yahoo.

3. MSN

Outside of these 3 there are bit players with degrees of accuracy but they are not really large players and essentially for us are an irrelevance.

AOL has a search capability but it draws its search material directly from Google so they are considered essentially part of that search engine albeit a separate entity from it.

Ask.com is all but dead as a search engine. It does not even index pages anymore so is slowly rotting in cyberspace and will not survive much longer.

Now the first thing you have to consider before you try to get indexed and get to that coveted No.1 spot on page 1 of Google is how insignificant you and you business are to these three Monster companies.

They don’t give two nanoseconds of their time to consider you in any form. Their only criterion for them is to satisfy the customer who is making the search. You don’t warrant a thought.  The customer is their Money target and their satisfaction is paramount. So the second you step out of line is the second you go from No.1 to nowhere, not seen and basically dead.

So before you try and apply your pathetic mentality against these companies remember this, they have an army  and I do mean an army of professor grade PHD’s whose sole existence is to make sure that Customer 1 is satisfied. So do not try and pit your wits or your measly few bucks thinking that your killer method of manoeuvring will escape their attention. Cheaters never win and the end result for you will be pain and financial loss on a scale you cannot afford.

So now it’s actually more cost effective to ensure that our online working methods are ethical so we don’t risk a cataclysmic shutdown of our site because we have been accused of SPAM activity. Recovery from these accusations may not always be possible and the damage to our reputation is just not worth it in the short or long term.

Now a search engine determines our site content and relevance by using “crawlers” which are basically robots to index pages on the web. Their job is to search your page follow links on your page to see where the end and to check the page relevance in terms of the search term used by the client.

What a search engine does not do is index every single thing on your webpage, such as Flash video or PDF files or office files. The crawlers will not follow “nofollow” links or broken links. Instead thesearch engine indexes WORDS specifically words placed in particular places on your webpage. Such as the words that make up your page “Title tag” the Meta tags and then the H1 to H6 sub header title tags. Links are also important and they follow these to see where they end and add a Value for those to your quality score.

So what this means for you is that the SERP (search engine results page) that is displayed for a given search term will search its cache and the web, plus check your title, meta, H1 – H6 tags check the page for relevance
for content and follow all the internal and external links then deliver a result in around 0.66 of a second.  So your page is effectively ranked against all the others with similar attributes in relation to the search in
less time than it takes to actually say the word “Ranked”.

The SERP’s that are displayed for the three majors are all broadly similar in style.

Google will display around 3PPC (pay-per-click) listings at the top of their list which will be pink
shaded and distinct from the organic (natural) search traffic below that. On the right hand side of the page will be more PPC advertisements. Google also shows a vertical search list such as video’s and maps at the top of their SERP. It is not unusual to find Video clips interspersed within the organic search
material, which is a relativelly new development driven by demand from sites like YouTube and
other social media. However even if your video is at No.1 it is still at least 3 clicks away from your site.

Yahoo will display 2 or maybe 3 PPC advertisements at the top, with the organic stuff below and more PPC to the right side of the page. Yahoo’s PPC is shaded light Blue to distinguish it from the rest of the search material. Yahoo also shows alternative potential listing titles and the vertical search terms inside the page header.

MSN will display their PPC advertisements at the top organic below and to the Lower right and a related search list top right. PPC is also shaded blue. Again the vertical search forms part of the header for the SERP

So in summary, your site is insignificant in the great scheme, SEO matters because content matters and all three of the largest players all paly the same game and trying to outwit them is foolish.

In my next post in this series  I will concentrate on Links and the value they provide and how ranking can be affected by the links you have.

So until the next time have a good one.

Kevin

Related links and posts:

<a href=”http://www.litereview.com/seo/search-engine-optimization-firm.html” rel=”nofollow”>Search Engine Optimization Firm | Lite Review</a><br />
<a href=”http://www.saadkamal.com/featured/keyword-research-for-organic-search-engine-optimization-seo/” rel=”nofollow”>Keyword Research – A Complete Walkthrough</a><br />
<a href=”http://www.girendra.com/index.php/2008/10/13/role-of-headings-in-search-engine-optimization/” rel=”nofollow”>Web Designing Tips, Tricks &amp; Tutorials   &raquo; Role of headings in se..</a><br />
<a href=”http://blog.bidforpr.com/how-to-build-a-search-engine-optimisation-site-people-wont-leave/” rel=”nofollow”>How To Build A Search Engine Optimisation Site People Won&#8217;t Leave | B..</a><br />
<a href=”http://www.pledgeveg.com/important-site-structure-in-search-engine-optimization.html” rel=”nofollow”>Important Site Structure in Search Engine Optimization  – Pledgeveg.com</a><br />
<a href=”http://www.positiongoldltd.com/SEO-Feed/seo/what-is-seo.html” rel=”nofollow”>What is SEO? | Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Feed from Position Gold Ltd</a><br />

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