Search Engines & Marketing Your Web Site Dr. Soe, Dr. Westfall & CIS Dept. California Polytechnic University, Pomona, Updated August common/searchplace2.ppt

Agenda Introductory exercise: Googlewhacks How do Search Engines work? How do you get your web site listed? Search Engine exercise Internet information issues

Googlewhacks identify two words, NOT in quotation marks, that get only one result in Google examples (used to work) examples Exercise: find another Googlewhack

Search Engine Placement Search engines return lists of links based on search words entered by user Most users only look at items in search output before changing wordslook at 3 Placement--how high a web page is in the listings--is critically important in generating traffic from search engines

High Search Engine Placement "We can guarantee you a top 10 ranking" what's it worth? how can they do it? Ixquick search on telecommuting productivity Ixquick does not include Google, bur see next page

High Search Engine Placement Google searches on specified words telecommuting productivity Westfall research Mrs. Westfall (also try Norwalk Brethren Elementary) Mrs. WestfallNorwalk Brethren Elementary textbook ripoff notes

Types of Search Engines Spiders, webcrawlers, robots automatic indexing of key- and other words Google, list of otherslist of others Web subject directories built by humans who review web pages Yahoo!, Open Directory (Yahoo used to look like this)Open Directory Hybrids = spiders + humans Hybrids

How Web Crawlers Work Automated index building crawlers or spiders (indexing robot programs) go to web sites examine pages & extract indexing information may simply locate words may identify key words, phrases, links store data in search engine’s database with URL for page

Search Engines Deliver Indexes User requests information via search page Query engine searches database Delivers list of web resources creates results web page based on search Listed in order of a calculated index value index values based on search words, and also on "popularity" of site but usually preceded by "paid placements"

Automated Index Building Problems No standards HTML Documents are not structured so that robots can extract routine information: Except for <meta> tags: keywords, description, publication date, author, etc. Robots index text, not graphics, movies, etc. Search turns up inappropriate documents

Some Results Not "Genuine" Sponsored links at top or side of page Overture pay for placement is now owned by Yahoo!Yahoo Google AdWords only pay for click-throughs

Web Directories Built by Human Indexing Analyze site’s purpose Classify sites by broad subject area hierarchical classification schemes Yahoo! - has many people reviewing web site submissions site submissions doesn't have to accept submissions 6 week delay unless pay for priority service?

Meta Search Engines Don't have their own databases or indexing instead, combine results from other search engines Examples Dogpile, Clusty DogpileClusty Ixquick (top 10 listings from other engines) Ixquick

Specialized Search Engines Search Engines & Specialized Directories Search Engines & Specialized Directories List of search engines (Wikipedia) List of search engines Search Engines Directory Specialized Search Engines and Directories (many for educators) Specialized Search Engines and Directories Buzz Monitoring: 26 Free Social Media Tracking Tools Buzz Monitoring: 26 Free Social Media Tracking Tools Google: specialized "search engines"specialized "search engines"

Search Engines Ranked by % of 16.7 Billion US Searches Google 65.8% 10.3 billion Yahoo Microsoft Ask Network AOL LLC Source: comScore Releases July 2010 U.S. Search Engine RankingscomScore Releases July 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

Global Search Rankings Google 69.7% Yahoo 5.4 Bing 4.8 Baidu (China) 4.6 Yahoo (Japan) 4.4 Source: Microsoft and Baidu Gain Share on Google. Strategy Analytics, 2010, Q2Microsoft and Baidu Gain Share on Google

Search Engines Ranked by Pages Indexed (billions) Yahoo!19.2* (Aug. 2005)Aug Google**11.3 (Aug. 2005)Aug MSN 5.0 (Nov. 2004)Nov Ask Jeeves 2.5 " " * web pages (+1.6 B images, etc.) ** Google Now Knows About 1 Trillion Pages (July 2008)Google Now Knows About 1 Trillion Pages

Get Site Into Directories Directories (e.g., Yahoo!) require careful selection of search categories & keywordsYahoo! Search for your keywords on Yahoo! to find appropriate categories Yahoo! asks for a 25-word description of content make it really good to impress human indexers

Targeting Spiders pick "keywords" that people would use to find a page like yours make these keywords prominent in your web pages, especially in the entry page Top Search Engine Ranking Factors for Google Search Engine Ranking Factors | SEOmoz

Meta Tags keywords meta tag used to be important many search engines ignore them now because of widespread attempts to use them to manipulate rankingsignore them now

Meta Tags - Description even though not used much in rankings anymore, contents of following tag are shown in Google page listingGoogle page listing

Keywords for Spiders All keywords are not created equal; spiders give heavier weights to: keywords in the (more than once?) keywords in and other headers keywords in other text near top of page keywords in links (seen by user or in URLs) bold faced keywords? italics? How Search Engines Rank Web Pages

More Keywords for Spiders Use keywords frequently, but don't repeat same word more than once in a row OK: pizza pizza not good: pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza Use variations of keywords (plurals) Use keywords in alternate text for images SEO quizzes

Links for Spiders Number of pages linking to a site has become extremely importantlinking to a site Google pioneered this if high ranking pages link to a site on the same topic, it must be good Quality of links is also important Quality of links need to be relevant both to page they are on and to linked page

Trying to Fool Spiders Search Engine “Spamming” (16 flavors)Spamming spiders are being programmed to detect it Examples: repeat hidden keywords (bottom of page) like background color, or keywords not related to site content irrelevant links: "link farms" or "link stuffing" (ethical issues)"link farms" or "link stuffing"

"Black Hat" SEO Tactics Black Hat SEO (web page) Black Hat SEO Bad SEO example page Anti-link management forged s asking for removal of links to competitors "Black Hat" SEO (Google search)Black Hat" SEO

Fake Sites on Search Engines Security researcher Jim Stickley created a phony site for a real credit union redirected visitors to real site phony site got #2 ranking on Yahoo and #1 on Bing ahead of even the credit union's real site

Google Blacklist It's not nice to try to fool Google! GoCompare.com had an 87% decrease in web traffic after being blacklisted by Google87% decrease in web traffic search on "Google blacklist"

Register your Web Site with Search Engines Register individually with top sites Yahoo!, MSN, Open Directory Project (goes into Google, etc.) Yahoo!MSNOpen Directory Project Try site submission web sites? Submit Express 75,000 search engines, $29.95 Submit Express “Change content, resubmit every so often?

"I can guarantee a top 10 …" Junk mail and web sites Junk mailweb sites True, but… not for your 1 st choices of key words Use relatively unique combination of several words, and then them load into key parts of page (,, etc.) probably not many people will search for this combination of words e.g., telecommuting productivity

Guaranteed Top 10 Listing Use misspelled words including 2 words ran together (no space between) Use unique combination of words keep adding unrelated words to a search until you find combination not found on any other page Manually submit page and put links to it on another page(s) that's in Google

"Google bombing"Google bombing drives traffic to other pages by links and keywords Google search on failure Google's AdWords ("Why these…") pages linking to new biography URL pages linking to

Scam Website Clusters Scam promoters set up hundreds of search-optimized sites about the scam when you look for more information, most search results say good things about it example: try searching for keywords from Magic Words that Bring You Riches page and see how hard it is to find criticisms Magic Words that Bring You Riches

Search Engine Exercise Search for your keywords on any automated search engine For top 2-4 sites, look for keywords in:,,,,, etc. (use View, Source) words in page, esp. near top also use Google advanced search (click Date, etc. then put URL in Find pages that link to the page:)Google advanced search Report any patterns you see

Site Submit Exercise Identify a site to submit find sites in Google related to Cal Poly Go through the process of submitting to a search engine or other submittal site Take notes, report back on experiences: how long it took information required, etc.

Locate InformationLocate Information on Internet Search Engines, Directories, Meta Search Engines, On-Line Indexes Pages with information on specific topics White & Yellow pages Usenet News On-line newspapers, magazines, radio and TV channels

Evaluating Information QualityInformation Quality Source of site: Educational institution (e.g., MIT) Professional organization (e.g., IEEE) Government agency (e.g., NASA) Ratings by independent evaluators Corroborating evidence: multiple, reliable sources

Quality of “Did You Know?” YouTube video that “went viral” YouTube video exercise: identify statements that probably are not true count passive references e.g., "predictions are" 2010: Data doubling every 11 hours (do the math!) 2010: Data doubling every 11 hours

Citing Web Information Whenever you use someone else’s ideas, you have to cite them Format for a research paper American Psychological Association (APA)APA Beckleheimer, J. (1994) How do you cite URL's in a bibliography? Retrieved [month day, year], from [URL] Graphics: if owner gives permission, follow their directions for giving credit