Search Engineers
| Category: Search engines - Optimisation | Date: 2003-06-12 |
We have received many articles about search engines, involving tips, tricks, technicalities and general advice. We have published the best two for you to read (click here).
There are lots of ways to list a website higher up in the search results of a given search engine. The way websites are classified determines which sites are worth viewing, and which ones are worth less attention. Knowledge about search engine classification criteria can enable one to design a website so that it will be at the top (or at least close to the top) of a search result list.
We can compare search engines to catalogues of books in a library. However, when you go to a library, how do you search?
Do you choose the book that is the first one on a given subject?
Do you physically look at a few books and then choose, in your opinion, the best one?
Do you already knowing exactly what book are you looking for?
I bet that scenarios 2 and 3 apply to most of us. It would be rather strange to immediately choose the book that is the first in the catalogue. The first book is there because catalogues always work on some form of classification system, usually alphabetical, and not on the basis of being more or less popular.
Suppose now that the average library user really did always choose the first book in a catalogue. What would you have to do to make people read your book? If the cataloguing system is alphabetical, you would naturally choose a pen name and title that begins with "A", such as "Aaron Aaba" and "Abandon Old Ways of Thinking and Use My Methods". You could go further and call yourself "Aaaabb" and your book "Aaa Aa Aaaa". This would be a very simple tactic to eliminate the competition, regardless of the quality of the book. Would this tactic, however, make such an author popular and rich? Of course not: rubbish will stay rubbish, wherever way it is listed.
Internet search engines cannot work like catalogues in libraries for they use different methods of classifying websites as "better" or "worse"; these are more or less related to given search keywords. Search engines analyse, among others:
meta tags
meta descriptions
titles
URL names
contents
link popularity
the number of links to a website
This makes the system open to abuse and explains the general trend to "trick" search engines into listing websites of dubious quality. Website owners make enormous efforts to come first in search results, forgetting that people react the same way on-line as off-line, i.e.:
They choose (in their opinion) the best website
They search for a given website (recommended by others, or advertised elsewhere)
Your website should be so good that people stay on it, keep coming back and advise others to visit it. Furthermore, a website should be popular because the service and advertising off-line are so good that people get to know its name - this is called branding.
Search engines are merely catalogues that help people to look for something on the World Wide Web. Tactics to trick search engines may backfire badly, if the websites contents and service are poor - it might be that thousands of visitors will bypass the site with a firm intention of never coming back, and never recommending the website to others.
You might argue that a new business website needs the initial exposure of a search engine to attract as many potential clients as possible. You might also say that certain tactics could indeed secure a better position on a search engines listing, allowing you to be seen and giving you thus a chance to compete with bigger businesses. However, do you really think that people who visit you for the first time will always make informed decisions - especially if they visit your on-line facility accidentally? The truth is that if you are new, and not known for any other reason but a good position on a search engine, visitors drop in only because your link has come up on their search results, and not because your service is excellent, your product superb or your reputation solid.
Dont be discouraged by thinking there are millions of several "hits" one can come up with in a given search. People know how to refine searches by using parameters such as phrases, languages, additional keywords and domain names. For example, Chinese individuals could elect to search only websites written in Chinese. Given that China has a population of over one billion people, maybe it would be better to invest in Chinese translation than try to "trick" search engines?
Naturally, we do care to list on many major search engines. We rely on a professional service that submits our URL to those engines on a monthly basis. However, we understand that the rest depends on our hard work, popularity, off-line advertising and customer care. We try to keep customers rather than finding new ones who will probably just by-pass our website with no intention of coming back. In short, we understand that search engines will by themselves not improve the quality of our service.
When you list your website on a search engine, think about your business - is it ready to be listed? If you receive 10,000 responses today, because you are the first one on Yahoos list, will you be able to respond to all those e-mails in the recommended time of 6 hours?
People search for quality - not for URLs: their search does not end on the search engines facilities. It goes beyond it. Do not become a "Search Engineer" who makes sure that thousands of people find a website - just to forget about it in the next second.
About the Author
Fabian Krause is the founder of The Internet Clinic. His teaching is based on simplifying seemingly complicated business issues in three steps: (1) in-depth analysis (2) extracting the most practical aspects of a given problem being analysed and (3) presenting results to the public in a form that is easily understandable, educational, entertaining and practical. His publications are usually enhanced with diagrams, tables and pictures since there is no language in this World that can describe a given problem better than a simple graphic.
:To contact see details below.
fabiankrause@internetclinic.org
http://www.internetclinic.org
There are lots of ways to list a website higher up in the search results of a given search engine. The way websites are classified determines which sites are worth viewing, and which ones are worth less attention. Knowledge about search engine classification criteria can enable one to design a website so that it will be at the top (or at least close to the top) of a search result list.
We can compare search engines to catalogues of books in a library. However, when you go to a library, how do you search?
Do you choose the book that is the first one on a given subject?
Do you physically look at a few books and then choose, in your opinion, the best one?
Do you already knowing exactly what book are you looking for?
I bet that scenarios 2 and 3 apply to most of us. It would be rather strange to immediately choose the book that is the first in the catalogue. The first book is there because catalogues always work on some form of classification system, usually alphabetical, and not on the basis of being more or less popular.
Suppose now that the average library user really did always choose the first book in a catalogue. What would you have to do to make people read your book? If the cataloguing system is alphabetical, you would naturally choose a pen name and title that begins with "A", such as "Aaron Aaba" and "Abandon Old Ways of Thinking and Use My Methods". You could go further and call yourself "Aaaabb" and your book "Aaa Aa Aaaa". This would be a very simple tactic to eliminate the competition, regardless of the quality of the book. Would this tactic, however, make such an author popular and rich? Of course not: rubbish will stay rubbish, wherever way it is listed.
Internet search engines cannot work like catalogues in libraries for they use different methods of classifying websites as "better" or "worse"; these are more or less related to given search keywords. Search engines analyse, among others:
meta tags
meta descriptions
titles
URL names
contents
link popularity
the number of links to a website
This makes the system open to abuse and explains the general trend to "trick" search engines into listing websites of dubious quality. Website owners make enormous efforts to come first in search results, forgetting that people react the same way on-line as off-line, i.e.:
They choose (in their opinion) the best website
They search for a given website (recommended by others, or advertised elsewhere)
Your website should be so good that people stay on it, keep coming back and advise others to visit it. Furthermore, a website should be popular because the service and advertising off-line are so good that people get to know its name - this is called branding.
Search engines are merely catalogues that help people to look for something on the World Wide Web. Tactics to trick search engines may backfire badly, if the websites contents and service are poor - it might be that thousands of visitors will bypass the site with a firm intention of never coming back, and never recommending the website to others.
You might argue that a new business website needs the initial exposure of a search engine to attract as many potential clients as possible. You might also say that certain tactics could indeed secure a better position on a search engines listing, allowing you to be seen and giving you thus a chance to compete with bigger businesses. However, do you really think that people who visit you for the first time will always make informed decisions - especially if they visit your on-line facility accidentally? The truth is that if you are new, and not known for any other reason but a good position on a search engine, visitors drop in only because your link has come up on their search results, and not because your service is excellent, your product superb or your reputation solid.
Dont be discouraged by thinking there are millions of several "hits" one can come up with in a given search. People know how to refine searches by using parameters such as phrases, languages, additional keywords and domain names. For example, Chinese individuals could elect to search only websites written in Chinese. Given that China has a population of over one billion people, maybe it would be better to invest in Chinese translation than try to "trick" search engines?
Naturally, we do care to list on many major search engines. We rely on a professional service that submits our URL to those engines on a monthly basis. However, we understand that the rest depends on our hard work, popularity, off-line advertising and customer care. We try to keep customers rather than finding new ones who will probably just by-pass our website with no intention of coming back. In short, we understand that search engines will by themselves not improve the quality of our service.
When you list your website on a search engine, think about your business - is it ready to be listed? If you receive 10,000 responses today, because you are the first one on Yahoos list, will you be able to respond to all those e-mails in the recommended time of 6 hours?
People search for quality - not for URLs: their search does not end on the search engines facilities. It goes beyond it. Do not become a "Search Engineer" who makes sure that thousands of people find a website - just to forget about it in the next second.
About the Author
Fabian Krause is the founder of The Internet Clinic. His teaching is based on simplifying seemingly complicated business issues in three steps: (1) in-depth analysis (2) extracting the most practical aspects of a given problem being analysed and (3) presenting results to the public in a form that is easily understandable, educational, entertaining and practical. His publications are usually enhanced with diagrams, tables and pictures since there is no language in this World that can describe a given problem better than a simple graphic.
:To contact see details below.
fabiankrause@internetclinic.org
http://www.internetclinic.org
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