What is a search engine?
A Search Engine is a web-based tool that allows users to find information on the World Wide Web. Popular examples of search engines include Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search. Search engines use automated software applications (called robots, bots, or spiders) that travel across the Web following links from page to page, website to website. The information gathered by the spiders is used to create a searchable Index of the web.
How do search engines work?
Any Search Engine uses various complex mathematical formulas to generate search results. The results of a given query are then displayed on the SERP displayed. Search engine algorithms take the key elements of a web page, including page title, content and Keyword-density, and develop a Rankingin which they specify where the results should be placed on the pages. The algorithm of each Search Engine is unique, so that a topRanking on Yahoo! no prominent Ranking guaranteed at Google and vice versa. To make matters even more complicated, the algorithms used by search engines are not only closely guarded secrets, but are also constantly modified and revised. This means that the criteria for the best possible optimization of a website must be conjectured through observation as well as trial-and-error - not just once, but continuously.
Search engines "see" only the text on web pages and use the underlying HTML structure to find the Relevance to determine. Large photos or dynamic Flash animations mean nothing to search engines, but the actual text on your pages does. It's difficult to create a Flash site that is as search engine friendly, so Flash sites tend not to rank as highly as sites developed with well-coded HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets - a complex mechanism for adding styles to web pages beyond normal HTML). If the terms you want to be found by don't appear in the text of your website, it will be very difficult for your website to rank high in SERPs.
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