"81% of internet users say that search engines help them locate websites"

Science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke, once observed that, 'getting information from the internet is like getting a glass of water from Niagara Falls'.

Millions of internet users have been frustrated with the internet at some point. One of the reasons is the sheer volume of information available on the internet. Billions of pages exist so it isn’t surprising that we have all been stumped at one time or another.

Fortunately help is at hand. The internet has several specialist websites that point you in the direction of the information you need. These are called search engines and are specially designed to locate the web pages and sites you want in a rapid and efficient manner. They seem to work as well.

What is a search engine?

In simple terms, a search engine is the place to go online to get listings of sites that interest you. By entering a particular keyword in a text box located at the top of the page you will be given a list of websites containing relevant information. The list will vary in length and description depending on the subject, relevancy and detail of the words entered.

However, many search engines may not hit the spot first time as the category entered may be too broad. As WebCrawler founder Brian Pinkerton noted: “Imagine walking up to a librarian and saying ‘travel.’ They’re going to look at you with a blank face.” If you still don’t get the information you require the next step is to carry out an advanced search.

Why do we need them?

The important thing to remember is that a search engine is not a directory. A search engine, such as Google which operates on keyword relevancy, is stored electronically and controlled by software, whereas a (search) directory, such as Yahoo is a human operation controlled by individuals who collate website submissions and make a decision on where and in what order to categorise them.

As well as being a haven of information, search engines are useful for research and competitor analysis. As a business tool a search engine is invaluable. For example, someone working in the soft drinks industry, can research prices of ingredients and new suppliers. Checking on your competition is equally important.

If your business has any kind of online presence, search engines could be the way to find new customers. Search engines are the traffic generators of the web. They link the public and the business community to the outside world. Search engines can be one of the best marketing tools on the internet.

If your site is well placed within several search engines, you could find that the vast majority of website traffic is generated from it. This is especially good news for small businesses that don't have massive advertising and marketing budgets.

Major players such as Yahoo, Google and Ask may attract a lot of traffic but they are not the only ones on the market. In recent times there has been an increase in the number of specialist search engines. These range from UK specific engines and directories attached to specific industries. A good example of this shift is www.electropages.com, a site dedicated to the electronics industry.

SEO Jargon Buster

  • Metatags: Lines of code which identify certain aspects of the web page such as the page title, a brief description of the page, keywords that are relevant to the page as well as the author

  • Optimisation: Ensures that your web pages are available to search engines and targeted to improve their chances of being recognised by search engines and found by internet users

  • Ranking: Search engine speak for the order in which individual web pages are allocated and placed. Get to the top and you’ll gain attention

  • Spam: Repeating words on your web pages and in your metatags is called spamming. This can result in search engines blacklisting, penalising or banning your pages. Many people use this technique to create offensive or explicit pages from a popular topic. A famous example is ‘Princess Diana’, whose name was used as a link to pornographic material

  • Spider: Software used by search engines to retrieve web pages from the internet and collate them into a database in order to place them on the web. The program is called a crawler or spider that scans individual pages, saves them, creates an index and then summarises and analyses page content

  • Traffic: Search engines are the traffic generators of the web. Traffic itself is the amount of times you receive visits (or hits) from users clicking onto your site or linking to your site

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