Search engines allow Internet users to find you on the web, even if they have never heard of your company or website. They provide the greatest online opportunity available for you to reach customers that your traditional offline marketing is not reaching and, if you have a website, it’s important that you understand what they can do for your business. This fact sheet includes information on:

1. What is a search engine?

2. How do search engines work?

3. How do I get my website listed?

4. Choosing key search terms.

5. How can I improve my listing place?

1. What is a search engine?

Search engines are websites that help you search the Internet for other sites based upon keywords you put in. They are undoubtedly the most powerful means by which users search the Internet to find the content they are looking for. If you have a website then you need to be registered with them as effective search engine optimization can advertise your services to millions of people on the Internet. This can be done by achieving a high placing (ideally on the first page) of returns from targeted keyword searches across the major search engines. The most commonly used search engine is www.google.com, but there are numerous others including www.yahoo.com, www.altavista.com and www.dmoz.org.

2. How do search engines work?

The term "search engine" is used generically to describe different Internet systems, including portals, crawler-based and human-powered directories. These varying types of search engines each gather their listings in different

ways. Portals, such as www.business.com, are sites that specialise in reaching a particular audience, such as trade areas or residents of a region. These can be useful as they attract a regular repeat audience, almost entirely made up of

users with the interest that the portal caters for. Unlike other search engines, however, you usually have to pay to be listed on these. Crawler-based search engines, such as www.google.com, create their listings automatically. They utilise specially created software called ‘robots’ or ‘spiders’ to read website content and HTML coding to find you key search terms (most robots ignore

JavaScript, VBScript, Flash and other embedded scripts or plug-ins).

They look at various areas of the websites, but are generally interested in:

• The title tag-text displayed in the very top line of your browser window.

• All text displayed on your pages

• Your meta description tag (used by some search engines to describe your site when it (appears in a results listing)

• Your meta keywords (though quite a few search engines now ignore this area

completely)

• Any alt tags you use to describe images and graphics.

In contrast, a human-powered directory, such as www.yahoo.com, depends upon humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they find and review. A search looks for

matches only in the descriptions submitted. In the web's early days, search engines presented either exclusively crawler-based results or human-powered listings. Today it extremely common for both types of results to be presented. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favour one type of listings over another, but

will offer both (especially for more obscure queries)

be presented. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favour one type of listings over another, but will offer both (especially for more obscurequeries).

3. How do I get my website listed?

The actual process of getting your website listed on most search engines is actually quite easy. For www.google.com and many other crawlerbased engines it is simply a case of emailing your website address and a brief description of what it is you do into their online form. Their robots or spiders then add the website to those they search through. The robots also take care of updating the listings for the site by indexing new pages and getting rid of expired ones. They

usually tour a site at least once every eight weeks. Information on how to get listed and have an editor review your site on a human powered directory is usually available through a link on the homepage. For www.yahoo.com the process is that you check through the categories in the search engine listings and then suggest (via an email form) which one you would like your site to go into. An Editor from the team will then review your site and usually list it. Portals vary depending on who updates them. Usually the way to get listed is similar to a human-powered directory (which they are after all). The only difference is that they will usually expect you to that a good site, with quality and dynamic content, is more likely to be found and reviewed.

4. Choosing key search terms

Key word or phrase research determines what people search for when they look for your products and services online. For example, if you sell replica football kits do your customers look for ‘football shirt’, ‘football strip’ or ‘football

kit’ most often? Choose the most important key phrases rather than a large number of less important ones. Specific phrases relating directly to the site content are more likely to rank well and are more likely to convert into sales than more generic phrases. If you sell Notts County FC football shirts, but not any others you will find selling to someone who has searched for ‘Notts county shirt supplier’ much easier than someone who has searched for ‘football shirt supplier’. For ‘Notts County shirt supplier’, at the time of writing, there are 61 listed entries in www.google.com, whereas for ‘football shirt supplier’ there are over 40,000. If you can pinpoint your key features and turn them into key words or phrases, you will come up against far less competition in the search engine results.

A good way to begin seeking out ideal keywords is to sit down and make a comprehensive list of any words you think people might use if they are trying to find a website like yours. After you have done this, ask some friends to do the same and you will have a base to choose from.

After this you can seek the help of the Internet. Several online services reveal what keywords people use to search for certain products or services, including www.wordtracker.com and www.overture.com. Though you have to pay for some of these services, you may wish to take full advantage of their free trials.

5. How do I improve my listing place?

The systems search engines use to rank website listings are highly complicated and it is very hard for people to artificially alter their placing. There are, however, several ways that you can improve your ranking, some of which are free and some of which you have to pay for. Website content balances incorporating key search terms with selling your products. These two objectives should work to compliment each other, so if you describe your products well you will improve the keyword content and hence your listing place. Do not repeat your key search terms too often, however, or you will run the risk of your site being seen as ‘Spam’. Some webmasters try to trick search engines by using the syntax of HTML to gain an advantage. Robots note where overuse of certain HTML syntax occurs and I they think it indicates an attempt to ‘Spam’ the search engine they may penalize or ban the site. Your listings place will also improve with the amount of other sites you are linked to and from. www.google.com has a ‘PageRank’ system, which relies on the unique and democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of individual page values. In essence, it interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B, thus increasing their status. It also looks at more than the sheer volume of visits, or links a page receives and analyses the page that linked them to it. Visits from pages that are themselves highly ranked weigh more heavily and help to increase the ranking of other pages. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match the actual query. So www.google.com combines it’s PageRank system with sophisticated keyword matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. These days most search engines go far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page to examine all aspects of a page's content (and the content of pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for a query. If you think it may be worth paying to improve your listings on a search engine then there are

several ways you can go about this. Most of the popular search engines make their money from offering sponsored links or enhanced listings. On www.google.com these can be seen on the right hand side and usually allow for a description of your choice. On www.yahoo.com these usually come up at the top of the page. Details for how to purchase these can be found easily from search engine’s homepage The deals search engines offer for sponsored links vary. With some you pay a set amount of money for a set period and others work on a cost-per-click basis. With cost-per-click pricing, you pay only when users click on your ad and go through to your website. You are therefore able to control your costs by setting a budget for what you are willing to spend each day.