Search engine marketing: Top 10 search engine rankings

To maintain a competitive edge, commercial search engines companies closely guard how they acquire and rank their content.

Since these algorithms are not published, developers have difficulty creating web pages that will attract a particular search engine. However, most search engines have a few common traits and these issues will be addressed in this section.

Search Engine Spiders

Most search engines acquire content by using spider programs that "crawl" your website and index its contents. The search engines keep a "seed list" of URLs that are used to start the "spider" program on its way to your website. While the guiding algorithms for each spider are configured differently, all spiders capture specific information from the pages. Some spiders capture the title and first 1,000 characters of content. Others capture the title plus the description and keyword META tags. Some capture a combination of all of these.

Search Engine Indexing

Large or small, an organissation must find the means to be listed by the major search engines and directories.Search engine optimisation is one of the quickest and most cost-effective means for drawing traffic to a website. You can get your website listed by submitting information about the website to a search engine (or search engine listing service) requesting that your site be indexed. Although many listing services are free, some charge a fee. Once you’ve submitted your request, it can take several weeks or even months for your site to be indexed. If you can’t wait, some search engines offer "express" indexing for an additional fee. Express indexing moves your website to the head of the indexing queue so your site will be indexed sooner.

Search Engines and Directories

You may also submit information to a directory site that categorizes the World Wide Web based solely on input that has been submitted. The site’s representative submits information such as a site title, description, keywords, and URL. This information is then categorized by topic. In this case, a search engine never accesses the actual website’s content. When someone searches with a keyword, it is referenced against the database of sites for the closest match.

Search Engine Editorial Selection

The editorial selection process uses human editors who assess site content for searchable words and concepts. Yahoo uses editorial selection. Although it is a more personalized approach, the process does have problems. For example, editors often use inconsistent selection methodology. Also, editorial selection is not easily scalable and is a labor-intensive process that often causes lengthy backlogs.

Search Engines Link Analysis

Link analysis is one of the newer ranking methods that analyses the number and quality of links to and from your site. If many sites are linked to yours through a specific keyword, your site is considered to be a relevant site. In turn any sites that you link to also become more relevant.

Google is a search engine that utilises link analysis.

Search Engine Link Popularity

A site’s popularity is based on user traffic. Search engines monitor the search results people select most often for a given query. The links that appear to be the most popular are then listed in a sidebar called something like the "Top 10 Most Popular Sites." Similar to the books listed on the NY Times Best Seller list, the web "top-10" listings create a name recognition and web presence that bring in more users, while other lesser known sites are overlooked.

Search Engine Paid Placement

If your site appears in the first 10 search results, you have prominent web presence. To gain this competitive edge, some search engines invite site owners to purchase or bid on key words that pertain to their website. For example, if the site features sports-related information, the keyword "sports" might be purchased, ensuring that the site’s URL would be included in the first set of search results for "sports." The purchase agreement may also guarantee that a clickable ad for the sports site will appear on the page with the results.