*Include directories in your off-page SEO plan. Some of the smaller, local-focus directories are free to list in and have decent reputations with the search engines.

*Annotate images. If you have an important image on a page, include it in your website optimization. Social media campaigns can help you promote your site off-page, but they can also help promote your site within your own pages by appealing to other social media users.

Human-Powered Directories
The first “search engines” were not actually search engines as we think of them today, but searchable directories of websites organized by hierarchical categories. A site is added to a directory when the website owner fills out a submission form on the directory’s website requesting their site be included in the directory and include their website’s title, description, URL (web address), and category. A moderator later reviews the site and if it meets the directory’s criteria a listing for that site is added or activated. The original Yahoo was originally a human-powered directory, and directories like Open Directory Project continue on today.

The downside of the human-powered search engine is that it only includes websites that have been submitted to it, which means you may not find what you’re looking for especially if it’s a new web page. The other downside from the directories’ point of view is that reviewing every site submitted is very labor-intensive and costly. I know because my company’s “search engine”, OurChurch.Com’s Directory of Christian Websites, like almost all church/Christian “search engines”, is a human-powered directory.

Crawler/Spider-Powered Search Engines
The next generation of search engines has programs which actively seek out new sites and read them into their indexes. These programs are called crawlers, spiders, robots, or bots. All of largest and most popular search engines today are of this type, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.

The rest of this article is focused on how these crawler/spider-powered search engines work because more than 99% of searches are done on this type of search engine.

The Crawler
As mentioned above, the first part of a search engine is the crawler (AKA spider, robot, and bot). The crawler reads pages into the search engine raw database of every page the search engine crawler has read. Some important things to know about crawlers…

1) Search bots periodically reread every web page in their database. Why does this matter?

• You don’t have to do anything when you change your site. If your site is already listed in a search engine and you make changes to your website, search engines will eventually update their information.
• You do have to be patient. The frequency of re-crawling varies depending on the search engine, the importance of your site (as determined by the search engines), and how often you update it. It could take a day or it could take more than a week.

2) Search bots follow links on the pages that have already been crawled in order to find new pages. Why does this matter?

• If you add a new page to your website or create a new website, it’s important to add a link to it on a web page that is already in the search engines.
• If a web page that is already in the search engines has a link to your new page or new website, you do not need to submit a request to the search engines to crawl the new page or website, though it may still be worth doing just to be sure your website will be found quickly.

3) Some search engines have forms you can submit to request a website be crawled. Why does this matter?

• If you have a new website and no sites link to it, search bots will not be able to find it. In this case, submitting a form to the search engine requesting your site be listed or indexed can get it into search engines.
• Because human-powered directories do not have search bots/crawlers, to be listed in them you must submit a request form.

The Ranking Algorithm
Some time after a web page has been crawled by the search bot or crawler, the search engine then processes or indexes the page to determine what search words and phrases the page is relevant to as well as how relevant that page is compared with other web pages for those phrases. During this processing the search engine looks at many different factors including how many times each word and phrase occurs on the page, which words are in headings or bold, the domain name of the site, filename of the page, the pages that link to the page, and many more.

Exactly which factors a search engine looks at and how they’re weighted is called the search engine’s search ranking algorithm. It’s like the search engine’s “secret sauce.” Each search engine’s algorithm is different and each is a heavily guarded secret.

Why does this matter?

• There is time between when your site is crawled (or recrawled) and when it is processed or indexed. So, it can take as little as a few hours to many days or weeks before changes to your website may produce changes in its search rankings.
• Because each search engine’s ranking algorithm is different, a web page can be #1 in Google but #20 in Yahoo for a particular phrase.
• Because each search algorithm is a heavily guarded secret nobody outside of a few select engineers at each search engine knows exactly how much each particular factor weighs into the rankings of each search engine. But, people who spend their professional lives helping sites rank better in search engines have gained very good idea as to what factors matter most.
• Because the search ranking algorithms look at text, headings, and other elements on a web page, changing things on the web page can change where that web page appears in the search results.
• Search ranking algorithms look at factors outside of a web page, such as the age of a website and links to the web page. So, there are other factors which you may have less influence over.

The goal of every search engine is to display to the user the information or websites the user is looking for. In other words every search engine wants to provide the best, most relevant results. As a result, search engines are constantly improving their algorithms and including new factors which they think will produce better search results. Why does this matter? As search algorithms change, so will your website’s search engine rankings.

The Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
The crawling of websites and indexing of web pages are constantly going on even when no one is searching. The last part in the search process is part that you’re probably most familiar with – the actual search. You type in a word, short phrase, or question, and the search engine displays a list of websites.

That list of websites is called the search engine results page and sometimes referred to as the SERPs.

If you do a search and look at the SERP, you’ll notice two columns. Above the right column it says “Sponsored Links.” These are paid advertisements. The companies and organizations listed here pay a fee to Google for each person who clicks their ad, so they’re often referred to as Pay-Per-Click or PPC ads.

In the left column are the unpaid search results also sometimes called the organic results or natural results. These are the websites the search engine believes are most relevant to the search phrase that was queried. Sometimes search engines also display sponsored links in the left column above the natural results or will even place a block of pay-per-click ads in the middle of the natural results. Sponsored links are always labeled, though not always very clearly.

Why does this matter?

From the searcher’s perspective, there is nothing wrong with clicking on a paid link. You may find what you’re looking for there. But it’s important to be aware of which websites paid to be in the results and which are there naturally.

From the web administrator’s perspective, it’s important to understand there are two opportunities to get to the top of the search engine rankings, through natural results and by purchasing pay-per-click advertising.

Help the Search Engines
With a better understanding how search engines work, you can make better decisions about the marketing of your website though search engines. Search engines need your help to find your website and to know what words and phrases it’s relevant for. Give them the help they need. That’s where search engine optimization comes in, but I’ll get to that on another day.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the amount and quality of traffic to a website by making its contents Search Engine friendly. Many website designing and development companies in Pakistan are offering Search Engine Optimization service during construction of website and even after designing and publishing of a website. These companies can be easily found through Search Engines by putting any keyword like “Search Engine Optimization in Pakistan” or “SEO experts in Pakistan”.

Entrepreneurs get developed their company website but forget to invest on its Search Engine Optimization. From now on, job of SEO experts starts to follow rules and regulations of famous Search Engines to make available optimized website against keywords by the visitors in a search engine. Search Engines work by following this specific order i.e. Web crawling, Indexing and Searching. Search Engines usually extract information of the website from its title, description, heading, special fields (meta-data) and file names.

While optimizing a website, two important aspects of Search Engines should never be forgotten: Robots.txt and Sitemap. Sitemap is used to inform Search Engines about available webpages on a website for its crawling.

What Are Niche Pay Per Click Search Engines?

Google is a search engine. Each time someone clicks on one of the adverts, the advertiser pays Google a determined amount. You see, Pay Per Click traffic is one of the most cost effective, targeted, profitable and popular ways to drive traffic to a website. When you set-up a niche search engine your aim is to focus on ONE TIGHT & SPECIFIC NICHE.

Someone searching for a hotel to stay in within the UK would probably prefer to look in a search engine that is dedicated to just that.

Multiple Ways To Profit From Your Niche PPC Search Engine

The good thing about setting up a niche PPC search engine is that you can build multiple sources of profit from it. How To Pick A Dynamic, High Profit Niche To Set-Up Your PPC Search Engine

We looked at the UK hotels niche as a good tightly focused niche. What makes it this a good niche, and how can you identify literally hundreds of additional niches with outstanding potential?

For speciality niches where you can charge say $20 per click you may be able to get away with a small target market. However, if you’re only charging $0.05 per click then you’ll need a large volume of prospects.

Look for niche markets that are proven to be highly popular.

The first step towards cost-effective search engine optimisation is to make sure that your site keyword rich content. The content of your site, provided that it is enriched by keywords, will be extremely helpful to make sure you get good search engines.
Second – When it comes to optimizing search engine, when it comes to cost-effective search engine optimisation, you must pay attention to the domain name that you choose for your website. Choosing the right domain name can help to increase your search engines.

The third step involved in the search engine optimisation is recognizing that the problem can be well served to hire a professional SEO. There are many well qualified as SEO professionals in business today. By using the services of a reputable and reliable SEO professional, you will be well on your weight to increase the effectiveness of your website.

The fourth step necessary to ensure the profitability of search engine optimization is to ensure that you continue to review and revise your strategy in the plan. The Internet is constantly changing. Keywords those were effective today as part of a strategy of search engine optimisation can be outdated tomorrow. By staying on top of trends and changes on the network, you will ensure the profitability of the program of search engine optimisation.

Finally, when it comes to the search engine optimisation, you will want to make sure you use all the tools available to you. Do not focus on one aspect of the search engine optimisation. Instead, develop a comprehensive program to ensure that you enjoy, cost-effective search engine optimisation success today and in the future.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide.