For website owners it is important to understand how, at least at a high level, search engines work so they can take advantage of the website traffic that only search engines can deliver.
Search Engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. There are differences in the ways various Search Engines work, but they all perform three basic tasks:
- They search the Internet or select pieces of the Internet based on important words, - They keep an index of the words they find, and where they find them, and - They allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index.
Early Search Engines held an index of a few hundred thousand pages and documents, and received maybe one or two thousand inquiries each day. Today, a top Search Engine will index hundreds of millions of pages, and respond to tens of millions of queries per day.
Before a Search Engine can tell you where a file or document is, it must be found. To find information on the hundreds of millions of Web pages that exist, a Search Engine employs special software robots, called spiders, to build lists of the words found on Web sites.
When a spider is building its lists, the process is called web crawling.
In order to build and maintain a useful list of words, a Search Engine's spiders have to look at a lot of pages. How does any spider start its travels over the Web? The usual starting points are lists of heavily used servers and very popular pages. The spider will begin with a popular site, indexing the words on its pages and following every link found within the site. In this way, the spidering system quickly begins to travel, spreading out across the most widely used portions of the Web.
To increase the likelyhood that the spiders find your website make sure you are listed on high ranked websites like Merchant Circle. You can create a free business page and blog that will not only increase your chances of being found but also be another place for potential visitors to find about about your website.
Once the spiders have completed the task of finding information on Web pages, the Search Engine must store the information in a way that makes it useful. There are two key components involved in making the gathered data accessible to users:
- The information stored with the data, and - The method by which the information is indexed.
In the simplest case, a Search Engine could just store the word and the URL where it was found. In reality, this would make for an engine of limited use, since there would be no way of telling whether the word was used in an important or a trivial way on the page, whether the word was used once or many times or whether the page contained links to other pages containing the word. In other words, there would be no way of building the ranking list that tries to present the most useful pages at the top of the list of search results.
To make for more useful results, most Search Engines store more than just the word and URL. A Search Engine might store the number of times that the word appears on a page. The engine might assign a weight to each entry, with increasing values assigned to words as they appear near the top of the document, in sub-headings, in links, in the META tags or in the title of the page. Each commercial Search Engine has a different formula for assigning weight to the words in its index. This is one of the reasons that a search for the same word on different Search Engines will produce different lists, with the pages presented in different orders.
You can get a customized Page Critic Analysis Report from Webs 4 Small Business that tells you how YOUR webpages should be set up to make sure give the search engines what they are looking for when they review your page.
An index has a single purpose: it allows information to be found as quickly as possible. There are quite a few ways for an index to be built, but one of the most effective ways is to build a hash table. In hashing, a formula is applied to attach a numerical value to each word.
The formula is designed to evenly distribute the entries across a predetermined number of divisions. This numerical distribution is different from the distribution of words across the alphabet, and that is the key to a hash table's effectiveness.
When a person requests a search on a keyword or phrase, the Search Engine software searches the index for relevant information. The software then provides a report back to the searcher with the most relevant web pages listed first.
Not sure what keywords you should use? Picking the right, or wrong ones, can make or break your chances at online success. Consider getting a customized Key Word Report from Webs 4 Small Business that tells you which keywords you should and should not consider for your site. These keywords are specific to YOUR website not a generic list of keywords.
So, why are search engines important to business website owners? Simple. You need traffic and Search Engines have lots of it. And, their purpose is to drive traffic to sites that they think match their visitors' needs.
The way to get a portion of that traffic, is to optimize your website (you've likely heard of Search Engine Optimzaiton or SEO). That way when a someone searches for a keyword that is relevant to your website, the search engines includes a link to your website in the search results. That puts traffic and potential visitors just a click away from you website.
If you're a small-business owner, you probably already know that you have lots of competition out there. Some may be like you, where they are small business, while others will be larger and have a bigger budget to attract competition. Even though you might think your size puts you at a disadvantage, it doesn't have to be that way. There are lots of ways that you can make sure your small business is successful and profitable. In fact, they will require little to no work on your part.
One very simple yet effective way to turn your small business into a success and keep it that way is by making sure you smile. When customers or clients come in, a smile can help break the ice or make someone's day, so when someone goes to buy a product or service, a smile can help them feel appreciated. It may even make you the one to go to if you've got a close competitor. At the very least, customers will feel appreciated, and at the very most, it will increase your business. Either way, it costs you nothing and takes very little effort. And remember that the customer is the reason you are succeeding in the first place. If you didn't have the customer, you wouldn't have your business. Therefore, make sure to smile when you can, not by faking, but by being sincere and wanting to do the best possible, including putting your best face forward.
Small talk, too, can make you more attractive to customers. Simply approaching customers and making sure that they know you're available without being intrusive can make them feel appreciated. For example, you can help a customer find something or ask about their day. Again, make sure you're not intrusive or too personal, but a small amount of small talk goes a long way to making a customer feel more important, noticed and appreciated. In fact, the better customers feel they are treated, the more likely they are to buy as well, so this is another reason to make sure even a simple pleasantry is offered to customers when they come in.
As with small talk, or a smile, simply saying thank you to a customer who takes the time to come in and give you your business is a simple way to offer much deserved appreciation. After all, remember that your customer has the option to go elsewhere or even to shop online these days, so whenever they come in, make sure they know you appreciate their business. What can set you apart even if she can't always offer the best prices is your customer service. Making sure customers are as happy as possible with what they buy from you is also important, but simply offering a good atmosphere and making yourself approachable by saying thank you and "please come again soon" if appropriate will help ensure return business and positive word-of-mouth advertising as well, which in turn will bring you even more customers.
Another way to help ensure that your business is successful is to make sure that you're polite on the phone to every caller. Although this is probably common sense, this can easily be forgotten. If potential customers call with questions about store hours or a product at times not convenient for you, you can't let them know it. After all, if they're calling during business hours, they're just doing what customers do and it's your job to help them. If you must, you can ask the customer to hold for a moment, but not for too long. Again, just as with any other behavior, your behavior on the phone is important and can draw customers in or drive them away. Make sure you maintain a pleasant attitude regardless of the situation. In fact, it helps to keep a smile on your face if you're on the phone, just as you do in person. The smile on your face will show in your voice when you talk.
The advice offered here is really simple common sense, but all too often these days, it's forgotten. Yet if you're friendly, patient and pleasant to be with, you're much more likely to attract new and return business. Your attitude alone can help make a positive name for yourself. This can help keep your business in effect for many years to come and give you a profitable livelihood as well.
Both Aubrey Jones & Kevin Sinclair are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Aubrey Jones has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, The Internet and Internet Marketing. Visit Webs 4 Small Business at to learn more about how we can help you optimize your website. You can also 'jump to the first of the line' with Paid. Aubrey Jones's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.
Kevin Sinclair has sinced written about articles on various topics from self improvement and motivation, Personal Development Plan and Ezines And Newsletters. Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of , a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.. Kevin Sinclair's top article generates over 450000 views. to your Favourites.