How well is your company positioned on the web? Understanding search engines, how they are built and what they do is confusing to some and nebulous to most. There are essentially two types of search engines out on the market with small variations within each category.

Text Based Search Engines:
These types of search engines make attempts to read every word of text on certain pages within each site and compile this information in a searchable database. Normally, they only scan a few pages of a web site, not the whole. There are particularly good places to place your key text and that is within the PAGE TITLE, the PAGE HEADLINE and within THE FIRST 100 WORDS of the page. The name of the particular file also helps the placement.

Data Based Search Engines:
These types of search engines also scan a web pages, but scan at different places. These types consider words within META TAGS to be extremely important. So, you would want to include targeted meta tag KEYWORDS at the beginning of the DESCRIPTION tag and KEYWORD tags. If you want to improve your listing, include these keywords within the PAGE TITLE, the PAGE HEADLINE and the DESCRIPTION and KEYWORD META TAGS.

Key Factors
Page Relevance:
The occurrence of key words and phrases within the text of the page. Depending upon which type of search engine scans it, the particular placement repetitiveness will result in higher or lower standings with search results.

Page Length:
Text based search engines tend to prefer longer pages. For example, 500-600 words per page is better. Data Based search engines like a little less, but not less than a 100 words. Very short pages are sometimes considered spam and will not be accepted.

Link Popularity:
Link popularity is an important factor, especially with data based search engines. The more web sites that contain links to your pages and site, the better the "web-crawler" has of reaching your site. Hence better standings in their search results.

Directories:
Often mistakenly referred to as search engines, sites like Yahoo!, Inktomi, LookSmart, About.com and SNAP.com are pay per submissions sites. They are not true search engines. They require a charge to submit your site for review before you are listed. Costs range from $50 - $299 per submission. However, these directories are some of the best and when considering advertising, they can be a good investment due to their audience levels.

Contact Empire for more information about positioning your web site for greater search engine results.