Google Hacks, 2nd Edition

A Webmaster’s Introduction to Google

Steps to take for optimal Google indexing of your site.

The cornerstone of any good search engine is highly relevant results. Google’s unprecedented success has been due to its uncanny ability to match quality information with a user’s search terms. The core of Google’s search results are based on a patented algorithm called PageRank.

There is an entire industry focused on getting sites listed near the top of search engines. Google has proven to be the toughest search engine for a site to do well on. Even so, it isn’t all that difficult for a new web site to get listed and begin receiving some traffic from Google.

Learning the ins and outs of getting your site listed by a search engine can be a daunting task. There is a vast array of information about search engines on the Web, and not all of it is useful or proper. This discussion of getting your site into the Google database focuses on long-term techniques for successfully promoting your site through Google, helping to avoid some of the common misconceptions and problems that a new site owner might face.

Search Engine Basics

When you type a term into a search site, the engine looks up potential matches in its database and presents the best web page matches first. How those web pages get into the database, and consequently, how you can get yours in there too, is a three-step process:

1. A search engine visits a site with an automated program called a spider (sometimes called a robot). A spider is ...