How do search engines work?

The single most cost effective way of online marketing is to be at the top of the search engines on the organic, natural searches.

The natural listings on Google work by using information on websites they have indexed and displaying the sites in priority of relevance. Basically, when someone searches for something, they want to show them exactly what they are looking for. Your website is indexed by firstly submitting it to the search engines, who will then send out programs called ‘spiders’ which crawl around the pages of your site and get to know what you are about – it indexes your site by key words and phrases found…and paints a picture of what you do.

The spider programs need links to carry them, gaining words and information along the way, then notice patterns of repeat words and phrases. Where you are positioned on the natural listings directly relates to the relevance of your website on the particular search term – if you want to be at or near the top when someone searches for ‘copywriter in Yorkshire’, your website needs to contain lots and lots of information relating to this term, strengthening its relevance. If your competitor has optimised their site better, then they will display above.

It can take anything from a few weeks to several months for your website to appear on the organic listings as you move up and up in the indexing.

The webmaster tools allow you to submit a sitemap to Google to effectively categorise your website (you website developer should do this).