FAQ’s – SEO – Search Engine Optimization
1.) How does Google work?
2.) Do All sites require optimization?
3.) How long does it take to optimize a website?
4.) What is the best way to tell when I have had my page crawled?
1.) How does Google work? | Back to Top
A good metaphor for the internet is that it is one big giant database of word and pictures. Let us concentrate on the words. Google created software tool that:
- 1.) Goes to every website in the world, takes a snapshot of all the info in that website and organizes it using proprietary algorithms.
- 2.) Creates a list of website ranked according to how many of the keywords and keywords phrases Google deems most relevant.
- 3.) Makes that list available through the Google search engine.
2.) Do all sites require optimization? | Back to Top
Some websites do not require optimization. They become by default the most relevant website in their category. This may be due to esoteric content supplied by a passionate contributor (e.g., underwater basket weaving) or they the website long before it was fashionable to have a website and have maintained it over the years. Google rewards sites that have been around for a long periods of time with automatic high rankings. Websites for business do not have the luxury of time and/or passionate content.
3.) How long does it take to optimize a website? | Back to Top
Usually about 6 months. That time may vary due whether or not it’s and existing site or a new site.
4.) What is the best way to tell when I have had my page crawled? | Back to Top
To crawl a website is simply a euphemism meaning “looking for or to find” new websites on the internet, count the pages and take other information that I can’t comment on, because nobody really knows what they do beside the engineers at Google. Google “crawls” for websites constantly. Since there were an estimated 47 million websites added in 2009 this is a gargantuan task. When you first place a website on line for the first time it doesn’t’t immediately appear in Google’s SERP’s; it must be crawled first then indexed. Indexing is a whole other subject.
The best way to tell if you site has been “crawled” is to have a Google webmaster Account. Google give you a key to place within your site so it shows up in you webmaster account.
Usually within 24 hours you will see evidence of being crawled in your webmaster account under the “Crawl Stats” section. This section shows the “Pages crawled per day, Kilobytes downloaded per day and the Time spent downloading a page(in milliseconds).
It might take two or three weeks to come up in the search engine ranking pages. When Google crawls your site daily they are essentially “checking you out”. They are looking to see among other things if you are adding sufficient content before they decide to give you site its ranking in their index.