CEMIT Ireland

Increasingly customers are searching online to find products and services they require. It is now more commonplace for users to access websites via search engines rather than the web address. To ensure that your website is appearing prominently in the natural listings, ie the free listing on a results page, you can do certain things. Search engine optimisation (SEO) helps tune website content to improve visibility.

Search engine visibility is the key to online success. Search queries bring interested users directly to a website or service. However, the vast majority of those using search engines will not go beyond the first page of results. The higher you rank in a search engine's index, the more visible you will be. This means more visitors, who can be turned into customers.

This guide will show you how search engines work and provide practical advice on how to improve your SEO. It also advises on unacceptable techniques that can damage page ranking.

What is a search engine and how do they work?

Search engines allow users to search the internet for content using keywords. Although dominated by a few, there are a number of search engines that people can use. When a user enters a keyword or key phrase into a search engine, a results page is returned, ranking the found pages in order of their 'relevance'. How this ranking is done differs across search engines.

How do search engines work?

Search engines use programs, often referred to as spiders, robots or crawlers, to search the internet. These programs are used by search engines to build an index of the internet. However, although most search engines will provide tips on how to improve your page ranking, in an attempt to avoid misuse the applied rules are a well-guarded secret. Search engines also change these rules regularly. But by following a few well accepted search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques you can ensure that your website is well indexed and remains high in the rankings.

Different search engine methods

Each of the three main search engines use different methods to rank websites. Understanding these methods will help you understand the SEO strategies outlined in this guide.

The three main search engines are:

• Google - Google's PageRank assesses the value of a webpage based on the number of backlinks ie links back to your website. Each link is counted as a vote, from one page to another. Google also analyses the content on the page that makes the link. Votes cast by pages that are themselves seen as important by Google weigh more heavily and increase the ranking of the linked pages.
• Yahoo! - Yahoo! began as a manually edited directory. It now uses link analysis tools to determine page relevancy, though content is also important in deciding search relevance. Other factors that are important include backlinks and a good site design.
• Bing - Microsoft's Bing search engine ranks websites based on the webpage content, the number and quality of websites that link to your pages, and the relevance of your website's content to keywords.

For more detailed information on how to best optimise your website for a particular search engine, refer to their webmaster pages. All the leading search engines provide information and tools to help you improve your SEO.