Showing posts with label search engine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label search engine. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Have You Registered Your Business Yet?

It is a small business or entrepreneurs main goal in business it to reach their target audience. Not only is it important to have the top search engines to list their websites, it is also valuable for a business to appear in local search results as well.

It is common for a business to be listed within local search results even if the actual business does not submit their own company information. This happens when major search engines collect data from a variety of sources. As a result, a business description may appear in the local listings.

Search engines such as Google, Bing/MSN, and Yahoo give businesses the option of submitting information regarding their company directly to them. Doing so is a great way to increase the possibility of being found during a local search and expanding the amount of information that is viewed.

Submitting specific information to Google, Bing/MSN, Yahoo, and other search engines is very important. Each engine requires different data, but most of them ask for the same basic information. Below is a list of the typical elements submitted to a local search engine:

• Description of company
• Street address
• Phone and fax numbers
• Year of establishment
• Link to your company website
• Operating hours
• Brands which are sold by you
• Payment methods accepted by your company
• Languages spoken by company

Visit the different search engines listed below to learn more about their local listings.

• Yahoo Local Listings – www.listings.local.yahoo.com
• Google Local Search – www.google.com/local
• MSN Local Search – https://llc.local.live.com/BusinessSearch.aspx
• Ask Local – http://city.ask.com/

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Re-Indexing Your Site

Indexing a web site should not be looked at as a onetime occurrence. Web search engines are known to occasionally reindex pages. It may sound scary but being reindexed is a great way to make sure that the proper information is being listed in specific search engines.

Indexing is the process of collecting and storing data to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval. Search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, use indexers (spiders, crawlers, and robots) to gather information about your web site in order to be listed.

An initial index is conducted after the first time a web site’s URL is submitted. From time to time, the search engines will reindex sites. By indexing pages, the engines can verify that the pages still exist and update the database reference to the page if necessary.

If a page does not exist anymore, search engines will remove the references from their listings. Finding and removing used pages is not a quick process. If a site is busy, down, or isn’t responding to a request, the search engine simply marks the web page and moves on. Be very cautious because once a web page can’t be found on several occasions, the web page is removed from the database.

It is very important to understand what indexing and search engines are really about. Doing so will save you a lot time and energy when hoping to achieve high search engine result listings. Visit the top search engines to read more about their services.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Monday, April 26, 2010

Search Engine Fundamentals

Before designing a web site for your local Charlotte Pet Sitting company or your small sandwich shop, it is best to learn as much as possible about search engines and the perks of search engine optimization. Understanding exactly what search engines are and how they work will help your web site receive high search engine listings.

According to Wikipedia.org, a web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also provide information for open directories and other databases.

Think of a search engine as one big application that works together to find and retrieve information. The three applications within a web search engine are:

Indexer – locates and indexes pages for inclusion in a database; also known as spiders, crawlers, and robots.
Database – stores the index references to web pages
Query Interface – handles the queries submitted by users

Creating a web site won’t automatically get you listed in search engine results. To assist search engines, you must first register your web site with them. Another way to be found is by linking with other sites and pages.
Top Web Search Engines

Google
Yahoo
MSN/Bing

After a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, has found your site, it uses the links within your pages to find additional pages as well. The crawlers or robots follow these links in order to navigate around the site. The information is then stored into its database for search results.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Does a CMS affect SEO?

Web designers should be aware of the affects a content management system (CMS) can have on search engine optimization (SEO). There was once a time when content management system applications actually published content with drawn out, complicated URLs or created numerous copies. The end result was search engines rejecting the URLs and ranking the web site lower than normal. In the present day, CMS applications are a lot more SEO friendly.

A content management system (CMS) is a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment.

Search engine optimization plays a big role in web site ownership. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are beginning to focus on ways to receive higher rankings within search engines. They often use more technological assistance, which includes SEO help.

Today, a large number of CMS applications have been designed to improve a web site’s SEO. When looking to invest in a CMS, you should ask the following questions:

“How does the software or application help with my SEO?”
“What specific parts of the application or software will help to advance my SEO efforts?”

Also, take into account the structure with which it will help develop your text content. This is an important aspect because a CMS was created to uphold your content in an orderly manner. It will also assist with your content strategy and your web site structure.

There are six main categories of a Content Management System (CMS):

Mobile CMS
Component CMS
Media content management system
Enterprise CMS (ECMS)
Web CMS (WCMS)
Document management system (DMS)

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Monday, February 15, 2010

Who Has All of the Information?

It is something that we all do. When we see a commercial ad introducing a new product, such as Google Buzz, what do we do? Majority of the time we head straight to our computers or BlackBerry and search for it. Keyword: search. All marketing, media, and communication direct millions of people from around the globe to the Internet ready to search for information.

Where do we go to find this information? The answer is quite easy – a search engine. Examples of search engines include: Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Google is the #1 search engine on the Internet.

A search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. According to Wikipedia.org, the search results are normally presented in a list and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Keywords and phrases are also included in those listings. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories.

There are three types of search engines:

Primary
Secondary
Targeted

A business should choose the search engine that works best for them. The one they choose should offer advertising opportunities and should boost online visibility.

Factors associated with search engines:

Searching - Once keywords or phrases are entered, the engine examines the database to produce search results.
Crawlers – used to “crawl” from web site to web site creating a copy of written content for later processing by a search engine.
Indexing – grouping or cataloging content into a database.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Don't Get Delisted by Search Engines

If you are well within your Search Engine Optimization plan, you are probably aware of everything that you need to complete to gain top ranking. You may have been studying so hard that you skipped right over what could keep you from reaching the top spot.

If you search around the Internet, chances are you won’t be able to pin point the actual penalties that could decrease your web site ranking. Search engines aren’t reluctant to publicize this type of information.

A search engine may delist (remove your web site from their index) for many reasons. Keyword stuffing, cloaking, linking schemes, even over optimization – are all ways to potentially cause you to be delisted.

Just because you have been delisted does not mean it will stay that way forever. It is a great idea to correct the errors and then give search engine crawlers a chance to revisit your web site. Afterwards, you will then be relisted back into their index. Some listings take up to a few months to appear.

Besides being delisted, a web site owner could also find their self simply losing a higher ranking. Chances are this isn’t because of any penalties from the search engine. A drop in ranking is due to problems with the site or web server.

Here are a few reasons why your ranking may fall:

Spam links
Another site is redesigned
Hosting and web server issues
Algorithm change in a search engine

When your web site has been delisted, investigate the problem as soon as possible and try to fix it quickly. Try not to let the same issues reoccur.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Top Search Sites

Online visitors can search for websites at many places. There are literally thousands of sites that provide users with the capability to search the World Wide Web. Most searches are carried out at a small number of search sites.

Measurement of the world’s most popular search sites all depends on how you define popularity:

Total number of searches carried out at a site
Total number of visitors
Total number of hours visitors spends searching at the site
Percentage of site visitors (audience reach)

According to Search Engine Optimization for Dummies: 3rd Edition by Peter Kent, the following list identifies the world’s most popular search sites. The information is based on one month of searched conducted during August of 2007. The results were from approximately 8 billion searches according to a Nielsen/NetRatings study.

Google.com – 53.6% - Many people search the Google index; it also feeds numerous sites
Yahoo.com – 19.9% - A large important site
MSN.com – 12.9% - MSN Live Search creates its own index and gets many searches
AOL.com – 5.6% - AOL actually gets search results from Google and from the Open Directory Project
Ask.com – 1.7% - It has its own search engine and feeds some other systems
My Web Search – 0.9% - This system searches through other systems’ search indexes
BellSouth Search – 0.5% - Results come from Google; not recommended
Comcast Search – 0.4% - Again, results come from Google
My Way – 0.4% - Uses data from Ask.com; not recommended
SBC Yellow Pages Search – 0.4% - These results come from the Yellow Pages

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Monday, December 21, 2009

Link Popularity Software

There are many ways to help generate links to your website. The easiest step is to ask friends and family for links. The most difficult step to do is to actually wait for those links to appear.

Online tools, such as LinkPopularity.com, can help companies find links. Other tools are also available. Search Engine Optimization for Dummies: 3rd Edition suggests a link popularity software called SEO Elite (www.SEOElite.com). The program costs $167 and it is designed to look for links to a site in various search engines, visit each of the pages containing the links, and then return with the following information:

The URL of the page linking to the website
The Internet protocol (IP) number of the website on which the page is held
Whether the link that the search engine thinks in on the page is still there
The PageRank of the page
The Alexa rank of the page
The anchor text (link text)
The number of outbound links on the page
The total number of links on the page (outbound plus internal website links)
Whois information – data about who owns the website on which the page sits
The link value – an estimate of the value of the link, based on the PageRank divided by the number of links on the page
A contact e-mail address pulled from the page

SEO Elite also gives you the ability to find potential link partners and e-mail them, and a way to search for potential link submission pages and quickly submit information on them.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com

Friday, December 11, 2009

The Importance of Keywords

During your Search Engine Optimization efforts, trying to come up with the perfect combination of keywords and phrases to drive in traffic to your site can often be challenging. You must make sure that the words you choose are relevant to the content of your website or else it will affect your site ranking.

Once you have properly chosen your specific phrases and keywords, it is now time to start putting those words to work. Be sure to place each word in the correct place and use them appropriately. This will help you toward making your Pay-Per-Click campaigns successful.

When a visitor uses a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, they typically type in a word or words and click the “search” button. The search engine then looks in its index for those words.

Suppose that you typed Charlotte Web Design. In general, the search engine looks for:

Web pages that contain the exact phrase Charlotte Web Design.
Web pages that don’t have the exact phrase Charlotte Web Design, but do contain the words Charlotte and Web Design in close proximity.
Web pages that have the words Charlotte and Web Design somewhere, though not necessarily close together.
Web pages with word stems Charlotte Web Design.
Web pages that have links pointing to them, in which the link text contains the phrase Charlotte Web Design.
Web pages with links pointing to them with the link text containing the words Charlotte and Web Design, although not together.

As a result, choosing the right keywords is critical. If a specific keyword or phrase does not appear in your pages, your website will not appear when someone enters those keywords into the search engine.

About CODANK Charlotte Web Design

CODANK is a top Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company located in Charlotte, NC. The company is dedicated to providing a broad range of web design services. CODANK specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Online Marketing, and Web Design and Development.

For more information, visit CODANK Charlotte Web Design and Internet Marketing Company at www.codank.com