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Driving Targeted Traffic To Your Web Site

What are search engines?

Search engines are web sites that list other web sites. There are two types: robots and directories.

A robot is a computer program that scans the contents of your web site to build an index of words and phrases used in your site. The process of scanning your site is known as "spidering" or "crawling" and the program that carries out this task is known as a "spider", "bot" or "crawler". Examples of robots include Google, MSN, AOL, AltaVista, HotBot and Lycos.

In comparison, a directory is a catalogue of web sites compiled by humans. Directories are divided up into subject headings or categories, and each category is subdivided into further sub-headings. Information about your site comes from two sources: from you when you register your site, and from the person or persons maintaining the directory. Examples of directories include Yahoo, Looksmart, NBCi.com (formerly Snap) and Open Directory.

The database of information compiled by a robot can be searched by entering keywords. If the keywords entered match those in a page on your site then that page will be listed in the search results. The ranking your page is given will depend on the frequency of those keywords in your document. The algorithms used to determine your ranking are a closely guarded secret of the companies maintaining the database and vary from robot to robot.

In comparison, a directory is searched by clicking on a heading or sub-heading and selecting an item from a list. This item may be another subject heading or the description of a web site with a link to that site. Most directories can also be searched by entering keywords, however, only the index is searched not the content of your site.

Why are search engines important?