SEO 101- What are Search Engine Spiders?

Posted on 31. Jan, 2009 by Willie Plasencia in MLM Training

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Search engine spiders?

Believe me, You want these guys

crawling your way.

As promised, I told you that I would continue to write more about SEO and hopefully guide you to a better understanding of how important SEO is to your business website.

Though the topic of SEO can be quite boring, to say the least , it really isn’t that hard to understand. Think of it as a new business language and embrace it because the more you understand the fundamentals of SEO the more attractive your website will become.

The purpose of Search Engine Optimization is to make your website is  as search friendly as possible. In other words, if your site has a consistent theme to it and the content is relevant and offers value, the more likely your website will get indexed by search engine spiders.

What is a search engine spider you

ask?

Well, in its simplest form , a search engine spider crawls all over the Internet and  collects data from your website and copies all of the  content of each of your website pages.

The  information collected is then stored in a search engine database. Spiders, also known as ‘bots’, are designed to follow links from one document to the next and may also perform other duties of web maintenance  like checking links and verifying HTML codes.

This goes on 24/7 so that the data is constantly being updated.  Can you imagine how much data is being stored in the search engine databases every day?

So how does the spiders read the

content?

Well, interesting enough, spiders read content pretty much the same  way we read a newspaper or a magazine. The spider or bot is programmed to read from the top left hand corner of the page, line by line from left to right.

If columns are used the spider reads the left hand column first then reads the right hand column.

If the spider encounters a link, it will record the data and send another bot to follow that particular link, again recording all the data along the way. This is why outbound and inbound links are so important.

As spiders are going from one website to the other and it so happens that the link that the spider is on keeps going back to your site, search engines will value your website more. Improving your ranking.

Now to help facilitate the spider to get around your page it is recommended that your website  provides a  clear path for the spider to follow from point A to point z of your website.

One good SEO tip is to have a Sitemap on your website that will be more directed to the search spider than to help lost site visitors. Creating and submitting a Sitemap helps make sure that search engines knows all about the pages on your site, including URL’s that may not be discoverable by search engine spiders.

So to conclude this post I would like to give you some good SEO tips that will definitely help improve your chances of having search engine spiders visit your page over and over again.

SEO 101 Tips.

1) Insert keywords

Keywords should be inserted in the title of your blog, post, article etc. This will allow the spider or bot know exactly what your page is about.

Bolding your keyword at the top of your article and in the sub headings will help attract spiders.

Don’t overload your article with too many keywords. Search engines count the number of keywords in your article and if it is excessive you will get penalized.

2) Anchor texts

Have anchor text link to the page from different pages on your site. Using quality anchor text that includes your target keywords or key phrases also improves your rankings on the major search engines (especially for the exact keywords and key phrases you use in the anchor text).

3) Have good content

Good content along with focusing on your keywords in your article makes search engines spiders very happy.

4) Add new content to your website

Static websites don’t work. Make sure you update your website because content freshness adds relevancy to your site. Ideally a blog should be the website of choice for your online business. Post at a minimum of twice a week.

5) Make your site easy to use

The longer you keep the reader on your site the more relevant your site becomes. Your reward…higher ranking.

In short, this post is just the tip of the iceberg of what there is to know about SEO.

See you again.

Willie Plasencia

Tags: Bots, Business Language, Business Website, Columns, Consistent Theme, Database Storage, Engine Search, Html Codes, Inbound Links, Left Hand Column, Left Hand Corner, New Business, Search Engine Database, Search Engine Databases, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Spider, Search Engine Spiders, Search Optimization, Search Spider, SEO, Simplest Form, Storage Facility, Web Maintenance