Web content was the main buzz in the online marketing world in 2011, mostly due to changes in the Google algorithm updates known as ‘Panda.’ When these changes began on February 24, 2011, many website owners woke up to find their Google rankings had taken a nose-dive and their traffic from Google had ceased. Loss in traffic means loss in income.

Panda was originally known as the “Farmer” algorithm change because significant Google ranking changes occurred in so-called ‘content-farm’ sites. Famous URL’s such as Suite 101, eHow, DemandMedia, EzineArticles, Squidoo, HubPages, and Yahoo’s AssociatedContent were hit hard by Panda.

Google’s Panda evaluates the quality of the content found on all pages of a website. Because content farms are notorious free-for -alls which attract many amateur writers, those sites were hit the hardest.

Google engineer Amit Singhal posted this advice on the Google blog:

“One other specific piece of guidance we’ve offered is that low-quality content on some parts of a website can impact the whole site’s rankings, and thus removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content.”

Content farms scrambled to react to their changes in search engine ranking throughout 2011, as Google made more than a dozen adjustments to Panda.

The notorious site, eHow.com, has made no recovery in Google rankings and traffic as 2012 begins. Suite101, EzineArticles and DemandMedia are still on a downward spiral since the first Panda rollout. Squidoo.com has recovered about half of the traffic it lost when Panda began.

AssociatedContent, acquired by Yahoo in mid-2010 for over $100 million, has taken the drastic measure of taking down the website and launching a revamp as Voices.Yahoo.com. The new site was launched on December 1, 2011, by uploading content from the original site, minus 75,000 pages of culled content. The URL change was made with this announcement from Yahoo: “Only content that meets our revised submission guidelines will be accepted moving forward.”

HubPages.com reacted to Panda by putting its authors on individual subdomains. This suggestion was actually recommended to the company by a Google employee. The subdomain concept puts the onus of poor quality content on the individual author. According to Alexa traffic graphs, HubPages has only recovered about a third of its pre-Panda traffic with this tactic.

Google sought to increase the quality of its search results by implementing Panda. And there are websites that have benefited from Google Panda. The mega article site Wikipedia, for instance, has experienced a marked increase in traffic.

As 2012 begins, Google Panda is still on the radar of website owners and internet marketers in the daily quest for high rankings on Google search engine results.

Writer Fox is a Web Content Writer, providing Web copywriting information, services, and SEO help for writers and for webmasters. Writer Fox writes content to engage, secure trust, convince and push to the desired action. Read more about Google Panda and steps to take.  This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

If you have a business that has an online presence, you are probably aware of just how important the search engines are to your eventual success. Search engines have always been used extensively by almost anyone seeking information online. As one of these users types in particular keywords, the search engines look through potentially millions of pages in order to display the most relevant websites. The order of these results is ranked based on a large number of factors.

Most people using a search engine will only consider looking at the first few results on the first page. Some will continue down the first page and read the description of each listed site to see if it relates to their question, but very few will actually go to the second page of results.  So if you are attempting to marketing your business online, its very important to take the steps necessary to make sure your website shows on the first page for the most relevant search terms, or keywords, to your business.

There are hundreds of different search engines out there that all use different criteria when it comes to ranking a website. Trying to build, and optimize, a website that meets the criteria of each one might take years. Fortunately, 2009 study by comScore showed that the two most popular search engines, Google and Yahoo, are used for over 83% of all online searches. Most of the remaining searches are done on Ask, Microsoft, and AOL. This means that focusing your website and SEO efforts on the top few search engines should suffice.

One of the most important steps of search engine optimization is the first one – choice of keywords or phrases.  These phrases basically tell the search engines exactly what your website is about so that they can begin to determine its ranking for each one. It’s important to do all the necessary research so that you find the best possible keywords for your business.  The best ones will be extremely relevant to your niche, have a large number of monthly searches, and relatively low competition. Once you have chosen your preferred keywords, optimizing your website using both on and off page tactics will really improve your pagerank on google toolbar and help move your website up the rankings for them.

All the search engines use extremely complex algorithms that follow unique and very specific rules. It’s practically impossible to figure out exactly what these rules are, but its commonly accepted that one of the important factors is the location and frequency of the main keywords on a particular website. It’s also accepted that the rules give a lot of weight to backlink population, which is basically the amount of webpages that link to the website. Each backlink is treated almost as a vote for the website, and each vote gives the site more authority. The best backlinking strategies use different phrases as anchor text (which is the exact words used to link to the site) and link to different pages on the website. It’s also good to have backlinks from a variety of different sources.

A recent study indicated that over 90% of all internet users find what they are looking for online by using a search engine. Using both on and off page search engine optimization tactics to ensure that your website shows up on the first page for keywords relating to your business is a huge step towards enhancing your online presence. Search engines are likely here to stay, so any business that doesn’t use them to maximize their targeted traffic and increase overall revenue is potentially leaving a lot of money on the table.

For more information on the major search engines and how to make sure your website is correctly optimized, please click here. You can get more ideas on how to enhance your online presence by reading our SEO Services article or by visiting our search optimization page.

The term blog is short for web log, which started out meaning a personal online journal. Back in the late 1990s when blogs first emerged, they were usually filled with personal posts about the owner’s daily life, thoughts, and problems. They have since evolved into invaluable online marketing tools. Blogs are now a “must-have” resource for any online business.

So jump into the 21st century and read below to see why your business demands a blog…

1. Corporate Headquarters – Every company needs a home-base or corporate headquarters, so to speak. A blog would be the hub of your business and establish your online presence.

2. Easy to Manage – The choices available to you when creating your blog are limitless. With widgets, plug-ins, templates, etc. it is one of the easiest and quickest ways to build an effective, powerful website. You will be amazed at the things you can do with your blog, even if you are technically-challenged.

3. Customer Interaction – A blog encourages customer interaction by allowing people to post their comments, opinions, questions, etc. This will enable you to provide more effective customer service. It will also enable your customers and visitors to get to know you better which in turn will build trust and credibility. Your blog will become an active community attracting more and more subscribers, followers, etc. by building relationships.

4. Cost-Effective Marketing – Research has shown that businesses with a blog have reduced marketing costs. Not only are the costs lower with blogs, but the results are much more successful. Blogs do generate more customers at a lower cost!

5. Value and Education – Because of regular postings and fresh content, your blog will educate your visitors as well as add value to their visit. For example: if you own an online jewelry store, you can add posts educating your visitors on jewelry. How it’s made, the value of the different gems used, the quality of the workmanship, how to take care of your jewelry and much more helpful information can be given to your customers. This will also help establish you as an expert so people will continue to come to you for help and information as well as for the products and/or service they need.

6. Free! – One of the best things about an effective blog is you can get one for free. You do not have to pay a professional web designer hundreds or thousands of dollars to create your business headquarters. Blogger and WordPress are two of the top blog providers.

7. Social Connections – A blog allows you to stay connected with your social sites more effectively. You can also allow your visitors to share with their social pages as well. With social media plug-ins and widgets, your visitors can simply click a button to share your site with all their followers, fans and friends. All these social connections could spin a pretty big web of customers.

8. Business Connections – Through your blog, other online business owners can find you more easily, thus increasing your chances of forming business connections and alliances. Joint ventures with other business owners can help get both sides more exposures, leads and sales.

9. Higher Traffic and Sales – Higher traffic and sales is a goal sought after by every online business owner. Having a blog on your site can help you achieve this goal by the more effective marketing results it can create. Your marketing is more efficient, your site is more valuable and educational, your online presence is much more announced and your networking circle is always expanding. This should all lead to more traffic and increased sales.

10. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Good blogs consistently provide fresh and updated keyword-rich content. This is exactly what Google and the other engines look for in a site. Blogs also increase your chances of getting more quality inbound links. This is another thing the search engines like. As your blog grows and gets more visitors, the importance of it will also grow. This can help you in the search engines as well. Overall, a blog will more likely do better in the search engines than a standard website.

There are many more benefits to blogging than what I have mentioned in this article so if you are not already a blogger, you need to seriously consider becoming one. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much it can benefit your business.

Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

There is no point in building a business website unless there are visitors coming to it. A major source of traffic for most sites on the Internet is search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Bing and others. This means that by designing a search engine friendly site, you will likely rank higher on the search engines and obtain more visitors.

These search engines use programs called crawlers or robots to index websites to list on their search result pages. These programs basically follow links to a page, read the content of the page and then record it in a database so that they can show it when people are searching for related terms.

If you want to know how to get in search engines, you need to allow your site to be easily crawled by the search engines.  One way to do so is to avoid using frames on your website. Frames tend to confuse search engine robots so they might even begin to avoid the website.  Frames can also make it difficult for users to bookmark a specific page on your site without using long, complicated scripts.

Its also wise to avoid presenting important information in flashplayer movies or embedded within images. Search engine robots can only read the text on the source code so if important text or words are presented within movies and images rather than in simple textual form, the sites search engine ranking could be affected dramatically.

A website should also use meta tags accordingly on each and every page of your site so that search engine robots can quickly know what that particular page is about and whether or not to index it. By using meta tags, the search engine robot’s job is easier so they will crawl and index the site more frequently.

Another way to make sure the website is easily viewable to the search engines is to avoid using some dated HTML tags such as <font> to style your page. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) instead because they are more effective and efficient. By using CSS, you can eliminate redundant HTML tags and make your pages much lighter and faster to load. It also makes editing the webpages much easier because changing a single line of code will edit the entire site, rather than editing each page individually.

For more information on making sure your site is indexed and listed on the major search engines, please click here. You can get more tips and tricks on enhancing your online presence by reading our backlinks article or visiting our search optimization page.

While great content will always get you noticed, I have come to the somewhat obvious conclusion that “Content is NOT King, Google is King” on the web. This is a slightly different mindset when it comes to getting traffic and marketing on the net.

This new mindset doesn’t change the fact that you still have to create great content, but it changes the way one goes about promoting that content on the web.

In the last few years, Google’s share of the search market has grown to 65% or much more in most areas of the world. This domination of online search puts Google in control of what content is seen – regardless of its quality.

It plays a major role in your content’s visibility, a role so great that without Google’s approval, your content is not exactly dead in the water, but your chances of succeeding is much less than with a thumbs-up from Google.

Now, the real turning point (light bulb moment) for me was Google’s recent promotion of its own products or data, as in the whole “Google Plus Your World” search results features which were introduced a few weeks ago. Google is actively showing and promoting its Google+ profiles and posts within its SERPs.

Many believe Google is sacrificing both relevancy and quality by only showing its own data (as opposed to Twitter’s and Facebook’s profiles/posts which Google claims it no longer has access to) when Google users are logged into their accounts.

Those same critics also believe Google has stepped over the line and has become too self-promotional in the way it is now handling search. These critics say Google is promoting its other products such as YouTube, Blogger… over other outside entries in their search results.

Regardless of your view on this matter, there’s no denying Google has become much more pro-active in promoting its products. You can now see ads on TV and elsewhere for Google Chrome, Android, Adwords… all promoting Google’s products.

Why is all this important?

Many believe, myself included, that Google is aiming for control of all aspects of the web – not only search, but video and social as well. They want to control what web users search, see and how they socialize on the net. Google wants to be in the driver’s seat – plain and simple.

But Google’s influence will go much further than those three areas; Google probably would also like to control the browser (Chrome) we use, the operating system (Android) and the device (Chromebook) we view those results on. Only Microsoft comes close to doing the same thing, but they have really not presented a search engine which can beat Google and fall short in this respect.

This leaves Google in the Captain’s chair. It now controls what content on the web is seen and viewed. While this control is not complete, it is growing stronger month by month, year by year.

What is extremely troubling and a little hard to understand, Google is now JUDGING your WHOLE site instead of just the webpage/ content in question. This new attitude is reflected in the recent Panda Series of updates which was supposedly aimed at removing duplicate and low quality content from the web.

However, if a webmaster or site triggers just one of Google’s new rules… their whole site is lowered in the rankings, including their perfectly good high quality content. It is like saying you can’t have visitors into your house, because you have an untidy attic. Your visitors will never see the attic, but Google as Gatekeeper of the web, with the Panda Updates and other restrictions, makes sure your rightful visitors don’t even make it to the door.

This absurd, arbitrary ruling by Google is extremely hard to understand by small web site owners and businesses who don’t have the resources/manpower to re-design their sites at a drop of a hat. Whatever happened to Google’s motto of “Don’t be evil” or “Do no evil” when it comes to judging and penalizing WHOLE websites, instead of the pages in question. Many webmasters would be satisfied with “Don’t be cruel” when Google is ranking their sites.

Likewise, Google is rolling out another rule which states webmasters can’t have too many ads “above the fold” or their whole site will be penalized, not just the offending page in question. Ironically, at the same time, Google is actively telling webmasters to place Adsense above the fold… but they have no problem with placing their own ads above the fold.

What does this all mean?

To put it bluntly, you must make sure your content passes ALL of Google’s hurdles if you truly want it to succeed on the web. The long series of Panda Updates really pointed this out to many webmasters who failed to jump a few hurdles and saw their rankings drop from sight in Google.

To put it even more bluntly, webmasters and marketers must please Google if they want their content to have the best results. While quality content is still important, without Google’s approval your great content will go nowhere fast.

In addition, webmasters and marketers must optimize their content not only for Google search, but also for other Google products such as Google+, YouTube… and they must make sure their content displays properly in the Chrome browser because Google is taking data from these users to rank your content.

Quality content is no longer king of the web, Google is king of the web and you better play by Google’s rules or you might as well take your ball and go home.

All views, opinions and conclusions are solely those of the author, who is a full-time search engine marketer. He runs numerous niche sites, including two sites on Internet Marketing. To get valuable marketing tips for free click here: internet marketing tools or here: web marketing tools. Titus Hoskins Copyright 2012.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

It’s really simple: ownership of the copyright in work a business pays for can often be critical for successful commercialization of that work. Unfortunately, the U.S. Copyright contains arcane provisions that will often produce a counter-intuitive result – leaving full copyright ownership with the contractor. How could this possibly be? Internet attorneys, advisers and businesses cannot afford not to be aware of the applicable laws.

Background:

When copyrightable work is created by an employee, the work can become the property of the employer in one of two ways: either by qualifying as a “work made for hire” as defined in Section 101 of the U.S. Copyright Act or by having the employee assign the work to the employer.

A “work made for hire” can be created by an employee or by an independent contractor. If created by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, then all such work is automatically owned by the employer as a “work made for hire.” No written agreement or mention in an employee manual is required, though this may be recommended.

HOWEVER, when work is created by an independent contractor, then the law starts getting strange and, as time has passed, out of touch with reality. The work created by an independent contractor will only qualify as a “work made for hire,” and therefore owned by the employer, IF (1) there is a written agreement that the work is a “work made for hire” and (2) the work falls within one of the following categories: “a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas.” When was the last time you hired a contractor to prepare a test or an atlas?? If the work does not fall in one of these categories, then even a written agreement stating that the work is a “work made for hire” will not be effective in causing the work to be owned by the employer. In such a case, only a written assignment of copyright will be effective. Computer software, websites, graphic work, and music will often not be considered included in one of the “work made for hire” categories.

Let’s be clear on this, the default under the law is that copyright will be owned by the contractor UNLESS there is a written agreement that the work is a “work made for hire” (if it qualifies under one of the listed categories) or the work is assigned in writing to the employer. This is a counter-intuitive result – but that’s the law.

To make things worse, what if a business has all of the correct documents in place with the independent contractor, but the independent contractor, hired a different independent contractor, and did not have the correct documents in place with this second independent contract. Well, you get the picture.

What Is An Independent Contractor?

There are multiple factors that can be applied to determine whether there is an employment or an independent contractor relationship. Here some of the factors that will be considered and no single factor will be determinative:

1. Does the hiring party have the right to control the manner and means by which the work is created?

2. Who provides the equipment and tools needed to produce the work?

3. Is the hired party working on the hiring party’s premises or on their own premises?

4. Does the hired party have discretion when and how long to work?

5. Is the method of payment hourly or by the project?

6. Is the hired party getting any benefits offered to employees?

7. Is the hiring party withholding taxes?

Implied License:

If you don’t obtain copyright ownership in work you commissioned based upon the above analysis, then all might not be lost. Usually, when work is commissioned and paid for, then the hiring party and independent contractor understood that the goal of the project was that the hiring party was going to use the work that was created. This would create an implied license. Whereas, a “work made for hire” agreement or a copyright assignment, MUST be in writing, a license (other than an exclusive assignment) does not have to be in writing.

The complications begin when trying to define the scope of use granted by an implied license. For instance, if a website was developed for a business, then the business would have the right to use the website for the purpose for which it was created. However, could the business “white label” the website and license it out to third parties? Could the business modify the website or take components from the website and use them for a different purpose than for which is was originally developed?

Bottom Line:

Make sure you don’t fall into this trap for the unwary, and end up paying a lot for a product that you cannot properly exploit.

William Galkin, Esq is an Internet lawyer who has dedicated his legal practice to representing Internet, website, e-commerce, computer technology and new media businesses in the U.S. and around the world. Go to http://www.galkinlaw.com/services to learn more about agreements needed by websites.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Online and offline marketing methods can be polar opposites. Although they both possess the same fundamentals, there are vast differences on how their respective strategies are implemented. Many businesses new to online advertising can quickly find themselves in trouble financially by following the same basic rules that they did in their offline advertising.

If you are new to online advertising, the first step you should take is learning about all the various online advertising tools. As you learn what advertising options are available, each one should be analyzed to see what best matches the strategy you are trying to implement. Most business owners find that the most effective way to market online is to develop a variety of strategies instead of only focusing on one or two.

There are numerous resources available to help you learn about your options, but developing the proper mix of advertising campaigns can be tough when first getting started. If you are at this stage, you can probably expect a lot of trial and error until finding what works for you within your budget.

The fundamentals of choosing an online advertising mix is similar in comparison to choosing an offline mix, but priority issues differ quite a bit. These priorities include the type of business you’re in, your available budget, targeted clients, skills, time factors, and more. The overall goal should be to find out how to make Google search engine put your website near the top of the results for your preferred keywords.

In deciding on how to choose your online advertising mix, list the factors you must consider and put them in order of priority. Once you have organized this, it makes it easier to determine what your choices should be. For example, your budget might be your top priority. If this is the case, you know that you should focus on the lower cost options until you begin to see a good return on your investment.  After you have achieved a solid ROI, perhaps the budget won’t be the top priority anymore.

Most successful online marketers have found that the best advertising campaigns have a good amount of flexibility. Priorities do change. When they do, the transition to a different campaign should be fairly seamless. If you start an inflexible marketing campaign, you may find yourself stuck doing something that isn’t working and quickly find yourself throwing good money after bad to change things. For example, you need to know how to check google indexed pages and how to get on google search before you spend too much time promoting these pages.

Whatever mix you decide will not guarantee results since many factors come into play such as the economic climate, general preferences, and more. If you use the various tools out there to test and track all your campaign results, use these results to chart your next move, and have the adaptability to make changes, chances are you’ll find your own path to success.

For more information on building and promoting a website, please click here. You can get more tips and tricks on enhancing your online presence by reading our backlinks article or by visiting our search optimization page.

If you own an online business, you need to provide an About Us page. Unfortunately, many sites neglect to give this page the attention it needs and deserves. Many people do not realize the importance of an effective About Us page.

Your About Us page has the distinct purpose of letting people get to know your company, which will help build the foundation of trust and respect that is needed for a successful online business. For certain businesses, the About Us page can also be used for recruiting new employees, sales reps, etc.

So, take some time, look over your About Us page and see if it utilizes any or all of the ten features listed below.

1. Company History – Give a brief history of your company and how you got started. Explain how long you’ve been in business, the purpose of your business and your experience. This is also a good place to add your mission statement.

2. Focus on Benefits - Be sure to focus on the benefits your company will provide the customer. Your potential customers want to know what you can do for them, not how you do it.

3. Introduce Yourself and Crew – Be sure to give your name and the names of those who work with and/or for you. You would be surprised at how many About Us pages I have read that contain no names whatsoever! Give a very brief background on yourself and your workers so your visitors can get to know them.

4. Special Skills and Accomplishments– Highlighting any special skills you have or accomplishments can help to build your credibility and separate you from your competitors. If your company is a green company be sure to highlight that as well. Let people know what your company stands for and against.

5. Toot Your Horn – Provide testimonials, awards and names of notable clients. Don’t be afraid to let people know exactly how accomplished you and your company are. This will also help build credibility and trust.

6. Use Photos – Be sure to add some photos of yourself and your workers (if any) so people can feel more human contact. Actually seeing the person or people behind the website will make it more believable.

7. Personality and Passion– Give your company some personality. Accentuate the passion and commitment your company possesses. Let your readers see the human side of your company.

8. Social Media – Be sure to add your social media site links. This will give your readers another avenue to keep in touch with your company.

9. Coffee Clutch – Write all of this information as if you were sitting over coffee and chatting with your visitors. Don’t make it sound like a dull cookie cutter page. Add life, vigor and sparkle to your writing.

10. Contact Info – ALWAYS thank your visitor for coming to your site and offer your contact information. Let them know you are available to answer any questions or concerns. Adding your physical address is shown to raise the level of confidence in your company as well.

Although the About Us page is often overlooked by the site owner, it can be a very powerful way to attract customers and increase your conversion rate. Do the research and take the time to write a compelling and powerful About Us page that will boost your credibility and gain the trust and respect your business needs to survive!

Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Public relations can be one of the most valuable forms of marketing in that it tends to deliver mass exposure at a fraction of the cost. For example, it can provide a level of credibility that can’t really be fabricated. It also helps to create a buzz around a business if conducted appropriately. For these reasons, PR can be a particularly effective tool for small business owners.

Unfortunately, public relations agencies often work on monthly retainers and require a significant budget to get the ball rolling with even small-scale marketing campaigns. So, how can the average small business owner afford a PR campaign that delivers results without committing to fixed monthly fees or blowing their whole marketing budget?

Public relations doesn’t have to have an expensive, high profile campaign to yield results.  In fact, a simple press release can be a highly effective tool in generating media exposure without having to worry about creating a truly innovative idea designed to take the world by storm.  A press release that covers the fundamentals of a story, is interesting, and is as easy as possible for a journalist to implement can generate significant exposure on both a local and national level. This can also cement the resources and contact lists for future PR campaigns.

Finding a unique angle for a story is one part of the PR mix that takes a little getting used to and one that’s often hit or miss.  It ultimately comes down to crafting a news angle that appeals to the specific person on the other end of the message. If the journalist or news agency you send it to agrees with your vision and its relevance to their readers, it has a good chance of being accepted.

Have a look at the kind of features your chosen publications have recently run with and think about ways you can integrate elements of these stories into your press release. These are the kinds of angles that they feel appeal to their readership thus has a greater chance of mainstream coverage.

It’s also important to take the time and effort to build relationships with the journalists and bloggers with whom you interact.  You may get coverage by blindly emailing your story to a list of recipients. But sending to a small, targeted group and then following up with a quick phone call to each recipient will help you form a personal rapport that can only ultimately benefit your cause.

Public relations is an extremely powerful strand to the marketing mix and requires a creative, consistent approach that’s tailored to the needs of each chosen media outlet.  By spending your own time to compensate for a lack of budget, it is possible to achieve the same (and even greater) results than many of the PR companies within the small business price bracket.  By choosing your syndicated publications carefully and taking a unique, personable slant on your newsworthy angle, it’s possible to see real, meaningful media coverage and further stretch your marketing dollar.

Search engine optimization is one of the most cost-effective ways to drive targeted traffic to your website.  This means that, as a business owner, its  important to know how these search engines actually work and how they present information to the user initiating a search.

They use programs called ‘spiders’ to index websites. This spider is an automated program that crawls a website, reads the content on the it and follows the links that the site connects to. The spider then returns all that information back to a central depository where the data is indexed. It will visit each link listed on the website and index those sites as well. Some spiders will only index a certain number of pages on your site, so its not recommended to have a website with more than 500 pages.

The spider will periodically return to the sites to check for any information that has changed. The frequency with which this happens is determined by the moderators of the search engine. A spider is almost like a book that contains the table of contents, the actual content and the links and references for all the websites it finds during its search, and it may index millions of pages a day.

When someone asks a search engine to locate information or goes to search a website on google, it is actually searching through the index that it has created and not actually searching the page itself. Different engines produce different rankings because not every one uses the same algorithm to search through the indices.

One of the things that a search engine algorithm scans for is the frequency and location of keywords on a web page, but it can also detect artificial word stuffing or spam-dexing. Then the algorithms analyze the way that pages link to other pages in the Internet. By checking how pages link to each other, an engine can determine what a page is about if the content of the linked pages are similar to the content on the original page.

For more information on the major search engines and how to make sure your website is listed correctly, please click here.  You can get more ideas on how to enhance your online presence by reading our backlinks article or by visiting our search optimization page.