Working With Search Engines And Directories
Mary Westheimer is the President of Bookzone, which represents the largest online community of publishers. Mary is an original member of our Brain Trust, and one of our go-to-guys for what's going on online. One of her contributions is to help me and my audience understand how to get the most out of online resources like search engines and directories, both as a visitor and as a submitter.Obviously, it helps to know the difference. If you are seeking information, directories are good for narrow, well defined searches, while search engines are useful for a broader query.
Many of us want our websites to be listed in search engines and directories. Mary says a search engine acts like a spider (non-poisonous). Once it finds your URL (Uniform Resource Locator, the technical term for web address), it "crawls" through your pages and indexes them while looking for key words that Internet surfers might use to seek information. Alta Vista and Excite are examples of search engines.
Directories are different, Mary says, because they are a collection of web addresses to which you submit information. Mary cautions that directories are "picky" about the information they accept, and not all submissions are accepted. Yahoo is a directory. Many other directories are often industry and subject specific.
As a submitter of information to search engines and directories you should know they each have their own "spider" and acceptance parameters. As a non-expert, I like to think of these parameters as ice cream flavors, and each search engine and directory likes a different flavor. Yahoo likes Pistachio, Alta Vista likes Oregon Boysenberry, and Infoseek likes Mint Chocolate Chip. The challenge, if you want your information included in their sites, is that you, or someone you hire, has to know which flavor to deliver to each one. And just when you think you've got it figured out, one of them changes their mind and wants a different flavor (technically speaking, they change their algorithms. I don't know, go ask your mother).
Confused? You're not alone. It's a challenge even for professionals who work with these things for a living. Search engines and directories can drive customers to your site, but only if you've mastered the "ice cream" angle. One ingredient virtually all of the search engines and directories want in their "ice cream" is content. Content is answers to the questions that their visitors ask. It's the most important non-technical ingredient, and if you don't have it, they won't come.
Getting search engines and directories to post your site takes time (content development), technical expertise (algorithms), and money (webmasters, consultants). Since these are things most small business don't have to spare, you absolutely must know the search engine and directory "ice cream" facts and figures before you count on them in your online marketing plan.
Write this on a rock... Make sure you understanding how search engines and directories work. A little "ice cream" education will save you time, money, and disappointment.
