Search Engines: Friend or Foe (Pt 2)

Last week we talked about the mechanics of search engines and how they work.  Whenever a search is performed, the search engine will go through its list of indexed sites, fetch and display these sites (or pages) in the form of search listings.  This week, we share more about how search engines decide which pages to list, and in what order to list them.

Search Engine Spiders & Page Indexing

Remember that before a search engine can display your webpage it has to have a record of it.  Search engines send out an automated program known as a spider or a bot, that goes to a website and starts to make a copy of all the content on the site.  Once it has gotten enough information, it brings these results back to the search engine for indexing.  Within this information, there are links to other sites, and the spider will then follow these links to the new websites and index them.  This means that if you place a link to your website from another site that is already in a search engine’s cache (or records), your site will get indexed faster.   Read more about getting your site indexed in Google.

The architecture of your website is very crucial to indexing.  Each trip that a spider makes to your site, it has a limit of how much time to spend there and how much content it can copy.  If your website uses Flash or other non spider-friendly elements, the spider may not be able to index your site.  For this reason, when we design websites, we make sure that the site is both user-friendly, and visible to search engines.

How Search Engines Decide if Your Content is Relevant

Once you have your pages indexed, search engines will display your pages as results when a user searches for a relevant term.  The search engine is a computer and it has no way of reading the content on your page.  What it does however is make use of a mathematical formula ( that takes into account hundreds, if not thousands of factors on your page) to determine a “relevance score”.  All the webpages that meet a basic score are then displayed as results in descending order.  These formulas or algorithms vary from search engine to search engine, and they are closely guarded secrets.  Imagine if people know what factors went into these formulas, they would be able to “beat the system” and probably abuse it for personal gains (hey, we’re only human).

While we don’t know exactly what all these factors, we do make calculated guesses at what some of them are.   All this guesswork eventually evolved into a practice known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  It is a proven fact that websites that are optimized for search are more visible to search engines and perform better in search results.

Some SEO Techniques Include:

• Search Engine-Friendly Architecture – Where special programming rules and methods are used to build websites, making it easier for spiders to visit them and collect data
• Backlink Building – Having more websites pointing to yours will increase the chances of your content getting indexed.  Google has also officially mentioned that the number of backlinks to your site is a factor in its algorithm.
• Content Generation – The amount of content on your website and the frequency with it is updated also plays a big part.  Imagine that you are an avid book reader.  Wouldn’t you like to go to a huge store where they stock titles every week compared to small shop that hardly changes its displays?

Overdoing It = Spam

Before you get all psyched up and start posting your links everywhere, most search engines are coming down quite hard on websites that take a shady approach to SEO.  Remember that search engines are all about relevance amd if they start to notice an unnatural growth trend in your website’s backlinks or content generation (especially duplication), you might run the risk of getting your listings removed altogether (Google’s notorious for this).

As with all things online, think about SEO techniques and how they can benefit your users eventually.  As long as you think along those lines, you’ll do fine.

To do great, contact the professionals today

5-Paged Websites No Longer Work!

It’s the year 2009. You have a website right? What content have you put up on it? if you’re the average Singaporean business owner, your website has 5 pages. You use one page for a splash image or flash intro, one to tell visitors about your history, two to describe your products or services and the last one contains a nifty contact form. Does it generate enough leads every month (enough for you to brag to your peers at least)? If it does, give yourself a pat on the back, class is dismissed. Just in case your site generates 2 leads in a year and you’re starting to wonder why you should renew that annual contract for hosting and domain name registration; here’s the truth about the 5-paged websites: they no longer work.

In the late 90s, there was a new phenomenon. Companies started building websites and offered pages and pages of catalogues and products that people could buy online and have those orders delivered to their doorsteps. Consumers in Singapore took to it like snails to salt.

“It’s a small island and easy to get around, no point taking a chance with putting my credit card details online, not with all the internet fraud reported in the papers.”

Business owners realized this was how most locals felt about ecommerce and were generally disheartened so we can understand why they didn’t see the need to place too much emphasis in their web presence. They moved on, but this dark era would leave its mark forever in their hearts and minds especially when during budget planning meetings.

Then things changed. A new generation of consumers who grew up with the internet started to go to work, earned and spent money, and made decisions. Theirs is the age of Google and not Yellow Pages. They watch movies online, make friends online, and learn more from Wikipedia than they were ever taught in school (ok, i exaggerate, but you get the point). These are the upcoming decision makers, who will eventually decide whether to use your products or your competitors’, whether to engage your services or the other guy’s.

It is the year 2009. I think the 5-paged website is going to be a tough sell.

The flaw about the 5-paged site, is that it’s no longer enough just to have a web presence. Businesses need to be sincere in their efforts to reach out to their target audience on the internet. Most importantly, your website has to stop being all about you and start to offer value to your client. Put yourself in the shoes of your visitor, you’re more interested if you can get a better deal in terms of pricing or quality or service, not the model numbers and technical descriptions. Think about what your customer stands to gain every second he or she is on your site. Think about the reasons why visitors would even go to your site. When you’ve got it, give them everything they want and promise them that there’s more to come. Before long, your site will be growing to offer more valuable content and information, and along with it, a loyal following of repeat visitors.

Developing and maintaining a website for the benefit of your users is going tough, but hey, who said being in business is easy? The good news is: it’s never too late to revamp your website. Plan your objectives, prepare your offerings of value and seek out your web designers! If they offer you an “affordable 5-paged website package”, slowly disappear into the shadows and run for your life.