1. Page 1 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search Making it easier for users to find your content

2. Page 2 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search Background Improved search a requirement for new V3 RI.gov portal State no longer had resources to manage Find-It White paper drafted on search in Q1 2005 New RI.gov search engine launched May 2005

3. Page 3 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search How Search Engines Work Indexed Database of text and metadata information Websites Search Engine Program

4. Page 4 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search The Search Process Search Interface Search Engine Results Content Query Language Query Builder Metadata Controlled Vocabulary User Will Ask, Browse or Search Again Until They Succeed or Give Up Ranking & Clustering Algorithms Interface Design ? User’s Query

5. Page 5 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search What makes one search better? Scope –How many pages are indexed? Parsing Strength –Thesaurus, Spelling, Natural Language? Relevance Ranking –What order are the results in?

6. Page 6 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search The RI.gov Search Based on Swish-e Spiders 90+ high level domains Indexes each site 2-3 links deep Finds Web and script files as well as PDF and DOC files Rolls up all index results into one large index Parses that index as well as links database for results

7. Page 7 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search RI.gov Relevance Ranking Frequency of keywords Proximity of keywords to each other Placement of keywords (where on the page) Keywords in title and metadata ranked higher

8. Page 8 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search Search Engine Dos Clean house to get rid of old pages and non-used pages Make sure each page has a unique title that truly matches the content Make sure important content is at the top of the page Don’t abandon metadata just because Google™ has! Use both “Rhode Island” and “RI” wherever possible Help each other by cross linking between sites

9. Page 9 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search Search Engine Don’ts Don’t use image maps for navigation Don’t use framed pages Don’t rely only on acronyms such as RIEDC, use Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) Don’t rely on metadata alone Don’t include metadata keywords that are not on or relevant to the page

10. Page 10 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search What you can do Check links to your site via Goggle™ –Enter your URL and select “Find sites that link to…” Test RI.gov search engine for keywords important to you –Are we searching deep enough? Send us keywords for your links on RI.gov Visit http://searchenginewatch.comhttp://searchenginewatch.com

11. Page 11 June 2, 2015 Optimizing for Search Next Steps Currently RI.gov is working with DOIT to set up search tools for individual site searches –Timetable unknown but should be weeks rather than months The state is continuing to examine search options including Google Box™