The secrets of the search engines.

A lot of a web site's traffic is generated by search engines and directories, so it's obvious that web masters will do anything to ensure their site is listed at the top. There are different search engines, and I'd like to discuss some of them briefly.

Search Engines are index web pages based on content. Each engine worksdifferently. They base the search results on Meta Tags, page content, title, ora combination of these. They get their content from spider programs.

Directories categorize the WWW based on input submitted by a human being. An example is Yahoo. When someone searches for a keyword, this is referenced against a database of sites that contain a title and description for a particular site.

Spiders are used by a search engine to index the web. They all capture specific information about a page. Some capture the title and the first 1,000 characters of content. Some capture the title and "description" Meta Tag. Some look only for the "keyword" meta tag. Some use a combination of all of these.

How do search engines work?

They send out electronic spiders that make copies of the pages they find on the web, store them in an index, or an encyclopedy of web pages. When people search, search engine software flips through this book to find pages that seem to match what they are looking for. They look for the search words in the title, meta tags and beginning of documents they have indexed.

You can increase their rankings in search engines and directories by placing the terms they want to be found in page titles, meta tags and in the HTML copy of their pages. However, do not be to obsessive about search engines. They are one way of getting traffic, but not the only way. Avoid submitting duplicate pages, heavy word repetition and using hidden text. Ensure that your web pages have not been dropped from the index -which can happen naturally. Check once a month, and if pages are missing, resubmit.

Before you submit a site to the Search Engines, read their no-spam policies carefully and check your pages to see if they are safe. Usually the no-spam policies are located into their help or add/URL section. If you're not sure about the validity of a web page, contact the Search Engine people and ask them if your page you could spam their index, when submitted. They will be happy to answer and may give some tips on how to modify your page in order to rank a little better.

TO BE CONTINUED!