Search Engines

A search engine is basically a program or database that searches Websites for specific keywords and returns a list of
the Websites where the keywords were found.

A search engine works by sending out a 'spider' to gather as many Websites as possible to input into its database. Once this is complete an 'indexer' then analyses these sites and creates an index based on the words contained in each Website.

There are three types of search engines:

- Those that are powered by robots (spiders).

- Human monitored submission engines.

- and those that are a combination of the two.

The main search engines that we initially focus on are Google, Yahoo! and MSN. This is because the majority of Internet searches and traffic come from these different engines and there results.

The ultimate goal for any business is to be number 1 amongst these search engines, and in doing so, are likely to be in a very positive position in terms of generating revenue through their Website, whilst increasing their online visiblity.

Each search engine has its own set of rules (algorithms) for ranking a Website, which means different elements of SEO techniques are taken into consideration when placing a Website in a search engines results page (SERPs).