Search Engine Relevancy

Have you ever done a search on a particular item and came back with sites that have nothing to do with your search parameters? Yes? How annoyed do you get? Very! Depending on the keywords that you enter in the search engine it will yield different results. Use different variations of keywords if the search engine does not return relevant information.

Search engines such as Google, yahoo and MSN with Google being the biggest offender of wanting people to constantly change the content of their website. Why? Because they find it relevant, nothing more. So even if a site is offering nothing new or hasn't changed it pricing they need to add, change and delete items from their site in order to continued to be indexed. If you don't follow the rules your page rank goes down and you will not be found in search results.

Ever come across a description of a site in a search page only you can't find the information you just read on the page? Google, Yahoo, MSN or any search engine for that matter, doesn’t actually search the Web when you enter a search request. It searches its own database or “index” of the Web. It’s like a partial snapshot that could be days, weeks or even months old.

Search engines use programs called “spiders” or “robots” to follow links from one Web site to another, grabbing the content along the way and bringing it back to be added to the search engine’s index.

When using search engines and looking at your search results most companies are trying desperately to be on page one. Don't always take what is on page one to be relevant to your search request. Nor if looking to purchase a product or service do not always look at just the results on page one and purchase from that company. Do research go down 2, 3,4 or 5 pages. You may find companies offering the same product or service for less. Companies on the first page most likely employ SEO's to manage their sites. This comes at a premium that is passed on to the consumer, you. Sites farther back on the search pages usually don't have SEO's working on their site because for the most part they are not gouging the customer with over inflated pricing and therefore can not afford to hire someone exclusively for website promotion.

Google, Yahoo and MSN are businesses first and foremost. Those who can afford to pay them the most get first priority in a search, at least that is my finding. Those that pay them little to none at all are usually left behind somewhere. They like to tout that a website increases standing by relevant links, nothing more. However what is a relevant link? That is the question of the day and no one is really sure. Apparently Google only likes to count some links or certain links, why? Whatever the case or reasoning it seems to change on a whim and since they claim "proprietary" anytime the subject comes up one can only assume that it is directly related to income, their income.