Search Engine FAQs
- What is a search engine?
- What is a directory?
- Do I need to be listed on the search engines and directories?
- What is a spider?
- How do I get listed on the major search engines and directories?
- How long does it take to get listed?
- Is there a way to speed up the process?
- I was listed on a search engine for a long time, and then suddenly my listing has disappeared, what happened?
- My site was #1 for a long time, now it's slipped to #12? What can I do?
- I own several domain names that I'd like to use. Can I submit them all?
- Will my domain name have an affect on my ranking?
What is a search engine?
Simply put, a search engine is a coordinated group of automated programs
that search documents for keywords and returns a list of documents where
the keywords were found.
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What is a directory?
Directories are similar to search engines with the exception that humans
examine documents manually. Results may be listed in alphabetical order.
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Do I need to be listed on the
search engines and directories?
Yes! If you aren't listed on the major search engines and directories,
your site won't be found unless your URL is used. Think of it as not
being listed in your telephone directory? Hard to imagine, isn't it?
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What is a spider?
A Spider (also called a "crawler" or a "bot") is the actual program that
visits a web page on Web sites, reads it, and uses hypertext links on
each page to discover and read a site's other pages.
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How do I get listed on the
major search engines and directories?
The first step is making sure your web site is optimized for search
engines. In order for a search engines to spider your site, a web site
should be "search engine friendly", otherwise, the spider will move on
to another site, rejecting your web site.
The second step would be submitting or registering your web site with
the various search engines and directories. In theory you could visit
each major search engine and search for the page that explains how to
submit to it's database, but again, most web site owners find the
process time consuming, and complicated.
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How long does it take to get
listed?
Every search engine is has it's own schedule, therefore, it could take
anywhere from a week or two, to several weeks for the search engine to
review your listing. Furthermore, when a search engine or directory
reviews your site it doesn't guarantee it will actually list it.
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Is there a way to speed up the
process?
Yes, there are several paid inclusion programs offered by various search
engines which speeds up the entire process. Generally, the various
programs offer a review of your web site in a more timely manner, often
within a few days to one week. In some instances, however, paid
inclusion can become costly and may be redundant as some databases are
used for several search engines. The decision on which paid programs to
use is primarily based on how competitive the category of your keyword
search may be and the time frame you are prepared to wait to be listed.
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I was listed on a search
engine for a long time, and then suddenly my listing has disappeared,
what happened?
Search engine results can change from day to day, even from computer to
computer!
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My site was &1 for a long
time, now it's slipped to #12. What can I do?
Search engines may change how they rank web sites They may have newly
added a partner that provides different results, gone to a paid
inclusion only program, be experiencing intermittent glitches. It may be
as simple as your web site may have dropped in "link popularity" and
work to increase your popularity could restore your position.
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I own several domain names
that I'd like to use. Can I submit them all?
No, search engines do not accept duplicate sites. They will likely
reject duplicate submissions or worse penalize the web site Make a good
choice of a single domain name and allocate your promotional resources
to promoting your selected domain.
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Will my domain name have an
affect on my ranking?
Selecting a domain name is a very important step in developing a
successful web site There are several considerations to be made,
including search engine ranking.
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