Spiders and Keywords
I hear the term ‘search engine friendly’ thrown around somewhat loosely, as though search engines are relatively easy to be friendly with. News Flash: they aren’t. In fact, being friendly with search engines is about as tough as being friendly with an IRS agent. It’s the kind of friend that wants you to do everything exactly as they tell you to. In truth, search engines know only what they’ve been programmed to know (kind of like an IRS agent). Understand exactly what they’re looking for, and get the best compliance. Resist, and pay the price.
So what does ‘search engine friendly’ mean? Search engine friendly means that the code of your web site is written in a way that is congruent with the major search engines and the algorithms they employ to find relevant search results for the parties conducting said searches. Sound like Greek? What good would a search engine be if you typed your search into the search field, hit Enter, and got a bunch of irrelevant results? You would be reluctant to use that search engine again. As such, major search engines developed by Google, Yahoo, Bing and others employ algorithms that essentially compete for the best, most relevant results in hopes of providing you with the resources you’re looking for, and subsequently earning your repeat business.
Search engine spiders scour the web for web site files stored on web hosting servers. In other words, search engines (i.e. Google) send out little programs that scan very specific parts of the code that make up your web site. The results that they find are essentially tied to your site’s files and are then indexed on the search engine’s servers. What is a server? Just a fancy name for another computer similar to yours, except that its primary function is to host files to be made accessible (or not) to other people surfing the web. In some cases, if you use Google.com to search for something, Google will actually check their servers first for any indexed files of your site. Those files may even be served up to whoever requested them, rather than going to your actual site’s files, which are located on the server run by your web hosting company.
That last paragraph was a bit confusing, so a simplified explanation is as follows: Google sends out programs to scour the web for web site files. It finds your web site files and keeps a copy of them on their own Google servers. If someone types your domain into their web browser, the web browser will go to your web host’s server to retrieve your web site files. However, if someone searches for your site through Google.com instead, Google may look within their own servers first to see if it has any existing (cached) copies of your site’s files. If it does, it may display those instead of the real ones existing on your web host’s server. One possible consequence of this is that you may have recently launched a new site that Google hasn’t yet indexed. Thus, if someone searches for your web site through Google.com, they may end up seeing an old version of your web site.
There are pieces of your code known as ‘meta tags’ that are used to communicate with these search engine spiders. Meta tags relay much of the information that you want search engine spiders to know about your web site. Many people that have some familiarity with search engine optimization have heard the term ‘keywords’ or ‘keyword phrases’. Keywords are just that – ‘key’ words. They are the words that best describe the content of your web site and the relevancy that it may have to someone’s search. Keywords are delivered to search engine spiders by way of these meta tags. The key to determining the best keywords (no pun intended) is to think about what word or phrase someone would type into a search engine when looking for a web site that has to offer what your web site offers.
Let’s assume for a moment that you own a handmade wedding invitation business in Atlanta, GA. Your target markets include brides-to-be, mothers of brides-to-be, friends of brides-to-be, wedding planners and others. You might want to target wedding photographers, florists, caterers and any type of business that serves the local wedding industry, as they could become a good source of future referrals. Back to thinking about keywords, if a member from one of these target groups were to go online to their preferred search engine to look for a wedding stationer in Atlanta, GA, what would they type? The answers to this question is the answer to your keywords.
You might quickly jump to the conclusion that the best possible answer is ‘wedding invitation companies in Atlanta, GA’. Or maybe it’s ‘handmade stationery for Atlanta weddings’. Perhaps its ‘custom wedding invitations 30305′. In truth, it’s impossible to know what someone is going to type, but it is possible to find out what people have typed when looking for similar services in the past. Expensive programs are available that allow web developers and SEO specialists to access the search phrases that people typically use in relation to the services or products that you offer. These words and phrases may change slightly based on a variety of demographic data. You might also jump to the conclusion that if the most popular phrase is ‘xyz’, then this must be the word or phrase that you should base your web site’s optimization on. Not necessarily. If it’s the most common search phrase, there is probably a large group of web sites already competing for that phrase. In these cases, unless you have a budget that will allow you to compete for that phrase, your best bet is to optimize your site based on a less common search phrase. Sure, there aren’t as many people searching with that specific phrase, but there probably aren’t as many sites competing for it either, which means your chances of getting to the top are better, faster and less costly.
There are many components to search engine algorithms, search engine spiders, keywords and the research that revolves around them. This article was written to give a general overview of how the spiders work, what keywords are for, and how to go about priming your site for success with search engine optimization. If you have any questions, give us a call or shoot over an email, and we’d be happy to discuss it with you in more detail.
Benjamin Gray
Principal, Gray Spectrum
