Answers^651grammed criteria, the site may be listed and categorized in the search engine’s
database. There is no human involvement in this process. Google (http://www.
google.com) is an example of a search engine. In contrast, when an individual
submits a form to a search directory or index, a human (known as an editor at
Open Directory) personally visits the site and decides whether to include the site
in the directory and what category it should be placed in. The Open Directory
(http://www.dmoz.org) is an example of a search directory.- Three components of a search engine are the robot, database, and search form.
The robot is a special program that “walks” the Web and follows links to sites.
The robot updates the search engine’s database with the information it finds. The
search form is the graphical user interface that is used to request a search by a
visitor to the search engine site. - Yes, it may be beneficial for a business to pay for preferential listing. If your busi-
ness is listed in the first page of search results, visitors are more likely to find
your site than if you are in the hundredth page of search results. Paid programs
such as preferential listings, Yahoo!’s Sponsored Search, and Google’s AdWords
should be carefully considered and may be a good match for the marketing goals
of an organization.
Checkpoint 13.2
- Answers will vary. In most cases the top three sites returned for a particular
search phrase will not be the same. Consider optimizing your site so that the
currently most popular search engine displays your site as high as possible in its
results list. - A brute force method is to experiment by visiting a search engine, typing in
keywords, and checking for your site in the search results. If your Web site host
provides you with Web log reports, you can easily tell by examining the reports.
You’ll see the names of the robot/spider programs in the reports—Googlebot is
the name of Google’s spider (see http://www.robotstxt.org for more information
on search engine robots). The Web log reports will also itemize the search engines
used by visitors and which keywords are used to locate your site. - Answers will vary. Web site promotion methods that do not use search engines
include the following: affiliate programs, banner ads, banner exchanges, recipro-
cal link agreements, newsletters, sticky site features such as polls, forums, surveys,
personal recommendations, newsgroup/listserv postings, social media marketing
techniques, blog posting, RSS feeds, traditional media ads, and existing paper
marketing materials. Any of these are valid as a first choice—depending on the
needs of the organization. The newsletter technique is an interesting promotion
method to consider. Place a form on a Web page to allow visitors to opt-in to
your newsletter. Send them a periodic e-mail with information of value related to
your site (possibly even special offers). This encourages visitors to return to your
site. They may even forward your e-mail to a friend.
Note:Be sure to provide a way for visitors to opt-out of the newsletter. For
example, newsletters sent by TechLearning News include the following message:
“UNSUBSCRIBE
To unsubscribe from this type of e-mail please reply to this message.
[email protected]”