How Search Engines Work

At this point in time there are basically three search engines that drive the vast majority of search traffic: Google, Yahoo and MSN search. According to some market research firms, those three search engines account for more than 90% of all search engine users. All three basically use the same technology; spiders are sent out to visit websites and gather information by reading the code. The information is the processed to build a ranking structure. Each search engine has its own internal scoring system it assigns to a site and each particular page. These ranking algorithms change on a constant basis.

It is useless to submit your pages to the search engines. They will find your site once a link to your page is found by a robot on another indexed site. SEO companies trying to sell 'resubmission packages' are trying to scam you. They are a complete waste of time and money.

Is it possible to perform effective search engine optimization with all three major search engines?

In our opinion, a resounding yes; if you have an informative, well designed and optimized website it is very likely that it will fare well with the big 3.

This said, it is not uncommon for a site to be in the top 10 in one search engine and not the other two. Usually after a while good sites will score all across the board.

Google

This is the 800 pound gorilla in the search engine optimization arena: When we analyze web logs to see who is searching what from each engine, 60% or more of all inquiries are conducted from Google. Top rankings are essential to reach most customers. Google employs at this time possibly the most sophisticated algorithm. Recent advances in artificial intelligence ontological research suggest they are implementing smart text recognition. In other words, it is likely that this software is able to discern contextual text and weed out pages that make no sense and are exclusively written for spiders. Google is, as far as we can tell, still using an aging factor while ranking many websites. It is commonly called the sandbox effect.

Yahoo!

Yahoo! is not sitting back and being content with staying in the #2 position. This portal still has a loyal following and is implementing innovative features. Yahoo! does not seem to be updating its rankings as often but its spider (Slurp!) is very active. Recent changes in the algorithm suggest Yahoo! is also employing sophisticated text recognition. Do not ever discount this search engine; on top of being the second most used, it is creating an array of new products. Yahoo! has powerful resources, is financially stable and will be for many years to come a great force to be reckoned with. Search engine optimization for Yahoo! seems to be somewhat easier as it follows set patterns. Lately, we have seen an algorithm change in Yahoo! that seems to suggest they are weighing keyword relevance in the domain name and URL string. While this is not new with search engines, Yahoo! is heavily rewarding this feature compared to Google.

MSN search

MSN used to receive results from Inktomi. As of February 2005, MSN has its own technology and it looks a lot like Google. We have seen sites that are ranking fairly high by using spamming techniques such as invisible text. We are confident these glitches will be ironed soon. Again, one common trait is content rich sites, which seem to rank well with all the big three. Search engine optimization will not work and even be less effective in the future without good copywriting. Microsoft owns MSN. As we know from history, this company has a track record for focusing on a task and giving its competition a lot to worry about. We believe it will be the case with the internet search as well; be aware that disregarding its importance would be a serious oversight of any SEO campaign.