You’ve probably heard the term “SEO” used by marketers or online, but do you know what it means? Do you know how search engines work and what effect they have on your website traffic (and your business)? Before we look at SEO, which stands for “search engine optimisation” let’s take a look at what a search engine is and how it works.
What is a search engine?
An internet search engine is a database of websites, videos, images and other content. Search engines determine what to include in their database based on many things (such as content quality, level of authority, etc). Once a website is included in a search engine, it’s considered to be “indexed.”
Note: If a website is not indexed, it won’t show up when people search for it, even if they type in a specific domain name such as www.yourbusiness.com.
There are many Internet search engines, including Yahoo!, Bing, MSN, Ask.com and AOL, but Google is arguably the most powerful and well-known.
Google and other search engines include a search tool which people use to find information, products or services on the web. (You probably use Google all the time yourself.) When you type in words for a search – like “picture frames,” for instance – Google immediately searches from millions of existing websites to find the best matches for those words, and then displays all the known websites that match in the order it thinks best and most relevant.
How does that work?
Search engines use software tools called spiders to help ‘crawl’ content, looking for information to bring back the the database about sites they visit. The information gets stored, which helps you get your search results more quickly.
When spiders visit web pages, they’re looking for a number of things, but two of the main things Google spiders look for are:
1) What words are used on a page, and
2) Where those words are found on a page.
If a spider comes across a website that is not in the search engine’s database already – and if it determines that the site is good – it will include the information in the database.
So how does knowing all this help you?
When you sell products or services on the web, you want people to find your website easily – not only that, but you want your website to be on the first page of results when people use search terms that match what you sell.
By knowing what spiders are looking for and building your website content to match, you make it easier for search engines and customers to find your site and purchase your products and services.
Have questions about this? Let us know – and stay tuned for future posts on optimising your site for search engines!
