The Various Search Engines: Their Whims and Wishes - Search Engine Similarities and Differences
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All search engines use complex algorithms to calculate the position of web pages in their search results. The basic functions of the search engines are the same. They send out computerized robots, known as spiders, to crawl the Internet searching for web pages for their indexes. Upon receiving a search request, the search engines examine all of the pages within their respective indexes, and return what their algorithm computes to be the most relevant results.
The various algorithms are unique to each search engine. In a broad sense, they use similar indicators of web page importance. All search engines currently consider incoming links, page content, and off page factors in their calculations. Because of those similarities, the designer of a new website has some guidelines to follow in regards to what is required to achieve high rankings.
There is some speculation that the new MSN Search will use on page word consideration in place of link and off page factors. The thought is that MSN will use word context as the primary search technique. That system places emphasis on strong copywriting skills. How the words are used, in the on page copy, would determine the relevance of a web page.
Increasing the relevance of contextual keywords in a search algorithm would not only work in MSN Search, but would also benefit a site in the other major search engines. The addition of well written content, to any website, will help its placements in the search results. By providing a solid reason for better written content, the addition of context based search could enhance the results in all of the search engines, regardless of algorithm. Content is a major part of all search engine results. In fact, that is what search engines attempt to provide.
A decline in such search engine terms of service violations, such as hidden text and doorway pages might be a positive result. Since those spam techniques can not provide any context relation to the on page content, they would be less of a threat to honest webmasters.
Such a search method would lessen the importance of keywords and incoming links. It is highly unlikely, however, that their value would be removed entirely. At this time, the presented scenario is only a possibility; MSN at this time continues to use calculations similar to that of other search engines.
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