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that term are brought to the forefront. The search engine sifts through its database for

sites containing terms like “

grape

growers,” “stock market

bubble

,” and “

gum

dis-

ease.” It uses a secret formula—a.k.a. search ranking

algorithm

—to sort the results,

and in a fraction of a second, a list of relevant sites, many containing the exact phrase

“grape bubble gum,” will be returned in the results page.

There are lots of things that factor into the way robot search engines determine

the rank for their main search results. But, just for a start, in order to be in the running

for ranks, you need to provide HTML text to feed the search engines and HTML links

as clear paths to the food. Keeping those robots well-fed and happy is going to be one

of the biggest priorities in Part III, “Your SEO Plan.”

A Search Engine by Any Other Name

We like to talk about search engines at parties—hey,it’s how we get our clients—and when we

use the term

search engines

with our pals, we really mean search

sites

like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

But folks in the search industry can get pretty picky on terminology.Technically, a search

engine

is

the software that is used to retrieve information from an indexing database, while a search

site

is a

website that combines and displays all of that information, often from multiple sources. But, frankly,

we don’t give a hoot about the technical accuracy of the term. Everyone and his mother calls Yahoo!

a

search engine

, and—with apologies to the purists out there—we do too.

Search Results Are Blended

If you’ve spent much time searching, you have probably noticed that the search

engines are not displaying one set of homogeneous results. Most search engines take

the “chef’s salad” approach, displaying a mix of robot results, directory listings, and

pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Your site is probably already represented by most of the types

of results we’re about to discuss. Knowing what each type looks like and where they

come from is the first step in being able to influence your own listings in a positive

way. You learned about robot results earlier; here are the other types of results that

are available to searchers.

Directories

Unlike those robot search engines, directory listings are often compiled by humans.

Whether these humans are editors who work for the search engines or the site owners

themselves who write and submit their own listings, it is often easy to tell the difference

between a directory and a robot search result. Take a look at this robot-generated listing

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