SEO Material Part - 2

Hybrid search engines: The new generation

Hybrid search engines combine a directory with a search engine to give their visitors the most relevant and complete results. Today the top ten search sites are hybrids. For example, Yahoo! started out as a directory, but now it supplements its manually compiled listings with search results from Google, a search engine. On the other hand, Google uses Open Directory Project's directory to enrich its automatically generated listings.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it

As someone trying to achieve higher search engine rankings, your goal should be to learn more about influencing factors and how each engine uses them. After completing your research you will have a better understanding of search engines and directories. You will also have an idea of what it takes to achieve a top-20 ranking on major search engines.

This section offers detailed explanations of placement factors used by search engines and directories, as well as tips for their implementation.

An Overview

Search engines and directories

• Search engines use robots
• Directories use people
• Top search engines have both robots and people
• Different factors are used for search engines than for directories

Search engine Placement

Why is search engine placement important?

The Primary Starting Point

The vast majority of Internet users find new web sites by using a search engine.

A position within the top 30 listings of a major search engine tremendously increases traffic to a web site.

Portal Power

In recent years many search sites have capitalized on the portal trend, positioning them as starting points for all of a user's online explorations. The main page at Netscape.com, for example, features customizable options such as stock quotes, horoscopes, news, shopping and more. This trend has leveled off a bit with the emergence of portals and specific destination sites. However, major portals will remain a popular gateway for many web surfers.

Because the top 8 most-visited search sites combine portal features with a search engine or directory, a good listing on one of these sites provides terrific exposure.