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Overview
Why Design for Search Engines What users want from a search engine Google
Market shareHow Google WorksPageRank
Search Engine spamming Design features to Avoid
Why Design for Search Engines
E-commerceTraffic = Sales = $$$Very effective marketing methodFree!!!
Effective DesignBest to be in top 10Few users look past first page of results
Market Share
65%Google16%Yahoo11%MSN/Bing3% AOL2% ASK3% all others
Aug. 2009SearchEngineWatch.com
What Users Want from a Search
1. Comprehensive index2. Relevant ranking of results
Millions of pages containing keywords Which get listed first?
How Google Ranks Results
1. Relevance Page contains keywords
“Bellingham hotels” Location & frequency of keywords in
page
2. Importance PageRank - measure of page
importance Based upon number of inbound links Importance of linking sites
How Google Works
1. Relevance Page contains some or all of keywords
Number of times keywords used More is better
Location of keywords in page Page title URL Headings Depth Font size etc.
Example: Bellingham Real Estate
How Google Works
How Google Works
2. Page Importance PageRank
Measure of a page’s “importance”Popularity index
Each incoming link adds PageRankAmount added:
PageRank of linking page divided byNumber of links on page
Page Rank
Chrome Page Rank Extension
Page Rank
How to Be Well Ranked
Keyword placement:Prominent locations
Page title – very important!HeadingsNear top
Use frequentlyKeywords in domain nameMeta tags?
How to Be Well Ranked
Selecting keywordsNeed to be relevant to siteTry to use specific and/or unusual
phrases“Chris Sandvig” vs. “Faculty & staff”Model names, numbers, ISBN, etc.
Maximize PageRankDevelop incoming linksAvoid leaking PageRank to other sites
How to Be Well Ranked
Human sacrifice
Example
“Bellingham Real Estate” Keywords:
Page titleDomain nameHeadingsTextmetaTags
PageRankPR 3Links: link:http://realestate.bellingham.net/
Search Engine Spamming Trying to “trick” search engine for higher page rank
Many techniques Repeat words many times Use popular but irrelevant words
sex, Brittany Spears, … Text same color as background Gateway pages Auto-redirects Hidden links
Risk Search engines will ban site from index Difficult to get back in Google Punishes JC Penny for Gaming Search
Google Bombing
Tricking Google’s indexExamples (Sept. 2006):
miserable failureWeapons of Mass Destruction
How: couple dozen peopleLinks on web page
Distinctive phrase: “miserable failure”SRC: official Bush bio.
Design features to Avoid
Can cause problems:Forms
Google’s spiders attempt to submit formsDon’t count on it
FramesFlashImages without alt tagsJavaScript redirectsNear identical pages
Additional Information
SearchEngineWatch.comSurveys, statistics, tips
WebmasterWorld.comGoogle World forum
ObservationDo some searchesLook at design features of top ranking
sites
Summary
Search engines want relevant contentGain customers
Effective designsUse key words effectivelyBuild PageRank
Avoidbeing banned for spammingFrames, Flash and other problem-prone
design features
