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The DFN Weekly

Search and Employ

by Robbo
Sex Nexus

Here is a little insight on search engines that I`ve gleened while plying the shark infested waters of coveted listings. While more for the newbies other webmasters may have something to gain in this article as well.

One thing we all know is that search engines are a database of information in the form of links. Somewhat like a library but even more so. Search engines not only list particular domains or sites but each page contained therein under normal circumstances. A mind boggling amount of information that requires complex algorithms to acquire sort and maintain.

In our pursuit of traffic we optimize our pages and target search engines we do well in. We know that these listings can be among the best given the right ones. But I find there is a key element that can make you a better builder for the search engines. And that is knowing how to search for yourself!

How can one fully capitalize on a tool without knowing at least a bit about how they work? Think about how you search. Are you an effective searcher or do you frquently come up empty handed when looking for something? These days most everyone is "googling". But do they "know how best" to google? Do you? Part of our job is is to learn these things so we ourselves can find info and use the knowledge to build more effective sales pages for search engines to pick up.

On the board this past week Voltar started a list everyone added to of terms that search engines tend to ignore such as "the" "and" and "or". There is a good example of what I am taliking about. There was a lesson in knowing all those terms tend to get ignored and knowing that increases our effectiveness as webmasters when used to our advantage. Knowing what not to search for as much as knowing what to search for is equally important.

To give an explaination of viable search criteria we can break a search down much like a sentence. We can search for our noun only or we can add an a verb, adjective or both to the query to further narrow in on our target. Very often multi word queries are the norm using more than one verb or adjective. Very exact descriptions of what one seeks. Of course there are many factors as to why you would search one way or another but that`s to find out by doing. The point is by becoming a better searcher you can then kow better how your targeted surfers will be searching. And that should gain you some ground!

So next time your using a search engine think of the ways you know how to search and relay that back to your building. Try a few different random searches in a variety of ways and see what results you come up with. What searches yield similar or identical results? Which ones yield vastly different ones? It can only help your understanding of how search engines work and that translates into making pages that search engines like!

Until next time search and employ!

Robbo