Search Engine Positioning

Search engines have quite a job trying to keep up with the vast and ever growing quantity of information on the WWW. But the real challenge comes when they attempt to sort this data and present the most relevant pages in order of importance for given keyword searches.

Search engines use some clever techniques to assess the data, with varying degrees of success. They go to great lengths to try and deliver the most relevant pages first, so although a search may turn up hundreds of thousands of matches, the first page or so of results should satisfy most users needs.

If only we knew the rules, we might be able to apply these so that our web pages scored higher in the search engine ranking schemes. This is the principle of search engine 'optimisation' or 'positioning' - but sadly not that easy, as it is a dynamic and constantly changing battlefield.

Search engines are under pressure to deliver the most relevant results first, while web site owners are equally pushed to manipulate their pages to get higher rankings - according to the percieved rules at the time.

The methods the search engines use to assess relevance therefore tend to keep changing. They are not published, and they are generally only found out by inference from watching rankings rise and fall, and through industry gossip. An excellent information source on this subject is the Search Engine Watch site - see the Other Links page.

Optimisation of a site is a fine art which has become increasingly competitive. Excessively aggressive techniques may be penalised by the engines and can result in a site being delisted altogether. Some of the bona fide methods for optimisation are described on the Tips and Tricks page.

Whatever happens do not spam the engines - it is ultimately counterproductive and unprofessional.