designing for search engines

Designing for Search Engines

MIS 314Professor Sandvig

Overview

Why Design for Search Engines What users want from a search engine Google

Market shareHow Google WorksPageRank

Search Engine spamming Design features to Avoid

Why Design for Search Engines

E-commerceTraffic = Sales = $$$Free!!!

Effective DesignBest to be in top 10Few users look past first page of results

US Market Share

68%Google19%Bing10%Yahoo2% ASK1% AOL

2014SearchEngineWatch.com

What Users Want from a Search

1. Comprehensive index2. Relevant ranking of results

Millions of pages containing keywords Which get listed first?

How Google Works

1. Relevance Page contains some or all of keywords

Number of times keywords used More is better

Location of keywords in page Page title URL Headings Depth Font size etc.

Example: Bellingham Real Estate

How Google Works

How Google Works

2. Page AuthorityInbound links

Measure of a page’s “authority”Each incoming link adds authorityAmount added:

Authority of linking page(s)

Importance

Page Authority

Google used to publish “PageRank”Measure of authorityToo much focus by SEOStopped publishing in 2014

Page Authority

Several alternatives to PageRankMoz Domain AuthorityMajestic’s Citation FlowTrust Flow

All attempt to predict Google’s ranking

Moz Domain Authority

How worksMoz bar

How to Be Well Ranked

Keyword placement:Prominent locations

Page title – very important!HeadingsNear top

Use frequentlyKeywords in domain nameMeta tags?

How to Be Well Ranked

Selecting keywordsNeed to be relevant to siteTry to use specific and/or unusual

phrasesModel names, numbers, ISBN, etc.

Maximize AuthorityDevelop incoming linksAvoid leaking PageRank to other sites

How to be well ranked

New – April 21, 2015

Mobile friendly siteHigher search ranking Searches from mobile devices

How to Be Well Ranked

Human sacrifice

Search Engine Spamming Trying to “trick” search engine for higher page rank

Many techniques Gateway pages Copied content Auto-redirects Hidden links Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

Risk Search engines will ban site from index Difficult to get back in Google Punishes JC Penny for Gaming Search

Google Bombing

Tricking Google’s indexExamples (Sept. 2006):

miserable failureWeapons of Mass Destruction

How: couple dozen peopleLinks on web page

Distinctive phrase: “miserable failure”SRC: official Bush bio.

Additional Information

SearchEngineWatch.comSurveys, statistics, tips

WebmasterWorld.comSearch News

Google’s Webmaster Academy

Summary

Search engines want relevant contentGain customers

Effective designsUse key words effectivelyBuild Authority

Inbound links