What is a bot?

• A bot also known as a spider, robot or crawler, is a program used by a search engine to crawl or go from link to link for the purpose of including sites in the database of the search engine.

How does a bot or spider work?

• The spider or search engine indexing tool follows links from one site to another and then also within a site to find relevant information to be indexed.

Does my site need links from other websites if I want it included in the index of a search engine?

• No it is not necessary. You can submit your site to a search engine and thus request that the site be crawled by the search engine’s spider. It is also called spidering. If your site has links from other websites, it will increase the possibility of it being found by the spiders without submission and will also increase your site’s ranking at the search engines.

What are Meta tags and why are they important?

• Meta tags can be described as special HTML coding inserted into the top section of a web page. It thus appears in the head section of the non-visible part of the web page. Search engines use the Meta tags to establish the purpose and relevancy of a site. It makes indexing easier for the Meta engines and normally includes a title, description and keywords. Many search engines don’t use Meta tags for indexing, but without them your site may stay invisible for a number of engines.

My site was visible on the search engines but for some reason is no longer. What can be the problem?

• Your site may have been unavailable when the spiders attempted to crawl it or you may have made changes affecting the visibility of the site. Factors such as too many keywords, over optimization, and unethical techniques used can lead to a site being blacklisted. Other reasons include being linked to a blacklisted site, or that your site doesn’t meet the search engine indexing requirements.

I can only find my site if I type its address in the address bar, why is that?

• Your site may not be visible on search engines because it has never been submitted and doesn’t have incoming links. You need to register your site with the search engines and directories. Also try to get links from other sites to your site.

I have submitted my site to several search engines, but cannot find it. Does it mean it is not indexed?

• It takes time for search engines to register your site as part of their databases. It can take up to 90 days for inclusion at some search engines. Paid inclusion normally increases your site’s chances of being registered immediately. Give it time. If you still cannot find your site after three months, you can resubmit. It may not have been included for several reasons, such as not complying with indexing policies, and spiders not being able to crawl the site because it is designed in frames.

Why are links so important?

• Incoming links from high ranked sites related to your site’s topic are valuable because they increase traffic to your site and help to push your site’s ranking up with search engines. The more incoming links, the higher the vote for your site.

What types of incoming links are valuable?

• Only links that are relevant to the topic of your site are considered as valuable by the search engines and links from high ranking sites. Sites with few outgoing links provide a better ranking for your website than those with many outgoing links.

What are link farms?

• Link farms are sites where you can submit your site for a link back. Links from these sites are not worth anything other than perhaps getting an occasional visit. They can harm your ranking at search engines and should thus not be included in your link building program.

My site doesn’t rank well in Google, what can be the reason?

• There may be several reasons such as the site being designed in Flash or with frames, or the site may have too many Java Scripts. Another reason can be that the site is over optimized and thus penalized by Google or it may contain duplicate content, being a mirror site, or not having enough words to be indexed. Other reasons include too few incoming links from high ranking websites relevant to your site, or black hat techniques used such as keyword stuffing etc.

Will reciprocal links not benefit my competitors?

• We don’t exchange links for your site with competing sites. Only related sites not in direct competition are approached for reciprocal links. If your business is for instance, in the UK, we approach sites in other countries for link exchanges.

Are keywords case sensitive?

• Keywords are case sensitive at several search engines, although not at Google.

You are welcome to post any questions related to search engines and optimization here. Remember to return to see if your question has been answered! Please take not that only questions regarding search engines and optimization will be posted and answered. Should you require information about products, movies, tax assistance, health etc. please make use of search engines and directories.

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