What exactly are search engines, and what are directories? Learn the differences in distance learning courses through the Academy of Web Specialists.
Search Engines
Search engines use spiders (software programs) to crawl the Web and index sites, which is how they build the index of web pages that you utilize when searching. So, after you submit your pages to these engines, they send their spiders to your pages to index them.
With search engines, each page stands on its own, meaning that you can generally submit each important page of your site, and it will be ranked individually, instead of submitting just your main or index page. In other words, if it's important for your page to be found, submit it. You'll also create tags specifically designed for each individual page.
Examples of search engines are AltaVista, GO/InfoSeek, Excite, HotBot, Lycos, Google, and Northern Light.
Directories
Directories rely on submissions from website owners to build their indexes. They don't utilize spiders to index websites. So, after you submit your website to a directory, a human editor will visit and make a determination about whether your site gets in their index. Directories look at your website as a whole, rather than individual pages. Therefore, you'll generally submit only your main page to the directories, rather than each separate web page.
With the directories, you don't have to worry about tags or web positioning strategies. Instead, you submit your site on their online submission form, and an editor will visit.
Examples of directories are Yahoo!, the Directory Project, and NBCi.
Very Important!! The search engines like simplicity!
In most cases, the search engines prefer simple web pages. In distance learning search engine positioning courses at the Academy of Web Specialists, we'll study our competing websites to see if we can learn any strategies that will help us boost our pages in the rankings. The vast majority of the time, the top web pages are very simple pages without a lot of fancy tags and HTML.
You'll find #1 sites that don't utilize the tags that are outlined in the lessons. Most of them don't utilize techniques such as frames, tables, or java. They're simple web pages, and much of the time, they aren't very pretty.
But, they're #1.
So, keep this in mind. The search engines like simplicity. A favorite saying among writers/journalists is:
Keep it simple stupid!
This certainly applies to web positioning as well.
Search engines are crucial to the success of your online business!
Once you've read this article and more familiar with the differences between search engines and directories, you're ready to enroll in an online search engine positioning training course through the Academy of Web Specialists. We'll help you learn how to work toward achieving top rankings for your site in the search engines.
This article was written by Robin Nobles, Director of Training at the Academy of Web SpecialistsTM. Over the past few years, she has trained over 1000 people in her online and onsite courses in search engine positioning strategies. Visit this website to learn more: http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/.
