Unit II

2.1 What Are Web Directories?

Web Directories are also known as link directories which are very much concerned with the website’s listings in their index.

In olden days, I mean in the past decade, web directories had a great value in the sense of search engines. Because whenever people type queries in search engines, these search engines often consult with the web directories for updated information.

All Directories sites follow a layered approach while listing the website i.e, the first one is the main category then followed by the subcategory and then another subcategory until there came a suitable one.

Various Features of Web Directories Listing

There are various features while listing the websites which depends on the price and duration.

These features include:

Free submission – these are free and nothing is charged for review and listing of the submitted links while it takes at least 3 to 6 months while getting listed

Reciprocal link – these need a link back to them from your website in order to get listed. These usually take 1 week for approval by the site admins.

Paid submission – they are paid for one time for a specific period or for a lifetime for getting listed at once.

Featured listing – link submitted in featured listings have premium value and are listed in one or more categories or on the homepage.

Bid for a position – these are listed on the base of the top bid

Affiliate links – these directories earn commission from referred listed websites

Types of Web Directories

Web directories serve various purposes across the World Wide Web. While some feature e-commerce websites and have paid-for inclusion, others may focus only or mostly upon information. Below are some of the types and purposes of web directories available:

Free Submission: No charge for website review and link listing.

Reciprocal link: A web directory link is required on the submitted website to be included in the directory.

Featured Listing: Sponsored listing link is provided with a premium category position or multiple categories and directory sections.

Paid submission: Either an initial or recurring fee is charged for website review and link listing.

Bid for Position: Websites are categorized based upon paid bids.

2.2 What search engines are and how they work

Search engines are usually "crawler-based," meaning that they that crawl the internet searching for web pages by scanning for keywords. They scan the content and information and follow links that lead to other pages. Search engines operate using algorithms, which find information on websites, and store them in a large index, or catalogue. As sites are updated or changed, the index is updated as well.

As users search the web for keywords, they will provide answers and find results from what the engine has crawled and stored on the index, by calculating the relevancy. The engines sort through pages and bring up the matches that are closest to the keywords searched. The pages are ranked according to the greatest relevance of content, and the order of ranking greatly contributes to the site's popularity and success.

History of Search Engines

Search engines have become such an integral framework for how we learn, cross-check facts, and process information, that is difficult to remember a time when they were not an available resource. Instead of logging hours poring over books in a library, we can access seemingly limitless databases at our fingertips in a matter of seconds. Today the world of search engines is not only a vast source of information, but has become one of the most influential platforms for marketing and growing businesses--this is where SEO comes into play.

Guidelines For Effective Searching:

1. Keep it short: The fewer words you use, the more accurate your search will be. Every time you add a new word to the mix, you limit your results.

2. Use quotes: Double-quotes around a set of words tells Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change.

3. Search a web site: Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website.

4. Search a domain extension: Use the “site” operator above to search a whole class of sites.

5. Tell it what you don’t want: Use a minus sign (-) to signify words you do not want to appear in your results.  The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space (so it’s not confused with a hyphen).

6. Be picky about what you don’t want: You can exclude as many words as you want by using the minus sign in front of each one. You can also exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the “site” operator to exclude a specific site from your search results.

7. Search for this or that: Use OR between words (in all CAPS) or the pipe symbol (|) to allow either one of several words.

8. Use the wildcard: The asterisk (*) tells Google to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches.

9. Avoid synonyms: Force Google to skip its synonym suggestions by using a plus sign (+). This works just like using double quotes around your search terms. Try a search using both methods and compare the results.

2.3 features of google, bing, yahoo search engines:

Some of the major features of Google Search Console are:

1) Search Analytics:

One of the most popular features of Google Search Console is Search Analytics. It tells you a lot about how to get organic traffic from Google. It also offers critical search metrics from the website that includes clicks, impressions, rankings and click through rates. It is easy to filter data in multiple ways like pages, queries, devices, and more. SEO professionals never fail to check the Queries section as it helps in the identification of organic keywords that people commonly use to search for the products or services offered by a website. You can also find out a number of visitors using Image search for visiting your website. The average CTR of mobile and desktop can be easily compared. The average position or ranking of specific pages can be checked.

2) HTML Improvements

The section pertaining to HTML Improvements helps in improving the display of the SERP. In case, there are any issues related to SEO, these features help in their identification. Issues like Missing Metadata, Duplicate content, over or under-optimized Metadata and more can be readily identified. If identical content is available on the Internet as multiple pieces, the search engines find it difficult to make a decision regarding which content is more relevant to a specific query. Similarly, if metadata like Meta Descriptions or Title tags is missing, it can be easily found out.

3) Crawl Errors

Checking the crawl error report on a periodic basis helps you to solve various problems related to the crawl section. All the errors related to Googlebot encounters are shown clearly while crawling website pages. All the information about those site URLs that could not be crawled successfully by Google is shown as an HTTP error code. An individual chart can be easily displayed and information like DNS errors, Robots.txt failure and server errors can be revealed.

4) Fetch as Google

One of the essential tools, Fetch as Google helps in ensuring that the web pages are search engine friendly. Google crawls every page on the site for publishing or indexing on the Search Engine Result Page. The URL is analyzed with the help of this tool for verification. This includes changes in the content, title tag, etc. This tool helps in communicating with the search engine bots and find out if the page can be indexed or not. This tool also helps in indicating when due to certain errors, the site is not being crawled or may get blocked by coding errors or robots.txt.

5) Sitemaps & Robots.txt Tester

XML sitemap is used to help search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc) to understand the website better while crawling by robots. There is a section named sitemap where you can test your sitemap to be crawled. No web pages are indexed by Google without the sitemap. Robots.txt is a text file which instructs search engine bots what to crawl and what not to crawl. This file is used to check which URL is blocked or disallowed by robots.txt

Creating an account can help in exploring Google Search Console and understanding its features in a better manner!

Features for Bing Search

Validating answers using many websites

Before the recent update, Bing would answer questions based on what it found on a single website. Now, it scours several sites and aggregates results before replying to your query. For questions that have two different perspectives, answers from both sides will be compiled and displayed at the top of the search page. A compilation of answers will also be given for questions with numerous answers.

Analogies

Have you ever gotten an answer you couldn’t comprehend? Search engines have a relatively easy time finding answers, but they don’t always display the simplest ones. For example, knowing that Syria is 71,498 square miles isn’t the same as learning that Syria is approximately as big as Florida, but depending on where you live one is much better than the other.

With Bing now providing relevant analogies and comparisons, information has become easier to understand. Answers are based on things search engine users are familiar with, making the search experience far more user-friendly and empathetic.

Clarifying questions

Bing is now able to provide a more specific answer when being asked broad or conversational questions. To accomplish this, the search engine will ask the user follow-up questions to refine search results.

Microsoft has also an advanced image search, which allows users to search based on specific objects within images. For example, if you wish to purchase a shirt you saw in a picture, Bing’s advanced image search allows you to select it and locate a store that sells it.

Partnering with Reddit

Bing has also partnered with Reddit to display information from its threads to Bing’s search page. What this means for users is that certain topics in Reddit or subreddits can be searched through Bing search. Answers found in the site will also be displayed on the search page.

With these four new features in Bing, searching for your answers has never been easier. To find out more about other web and cloud services, give us a call today.

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