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Lesson 1

Additional Topics on Search Engines

In an earlier module, you were asked to list or reflect upon your own needs for finding information on the Internet. If those needs have not been met by the techniques and searching services you have encountered in the preceding modules, you may still not be satisfied.
This module presents some additional resources and searching services that can fill in the gaps in your search strategy. These resources and services give you access to more information, in more parts of the Internet, and in more places worldwide.
Also included in this module are some techniques that will help you personalize the searching resources and sites most valuable to you in your day-to-day information needs. After completing this module, you will be able to:

Modern Search Engines

An unlimited numbers of users access the Internet on a daily basis to obtain the information they need. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing have become the most common way among users to access the required information on the Internet. Search Engines play an essential role and provide great assistance in submitting the required information in an easier way. The highly ranked websites compete for first place among the (SERP) search engine results page. However, many websites are not listed on the first page of the SERPs, because they have neglected the fundamentals of SEO. As a result, they are not visited by a large number of users who use the search engines to obtain answers. Hence, obtaining higher rankings in the SERPs has become the top priority for web developers and search marketers. Therefore, (SEO) search engine optimization is taken seriously to improve the rankings of websites in order to put their content on the first page of the search engine results page.
This module examines how the effect of different SEO techniques on ranking algorithms differs among search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. It focuses on how to improve the rankings of a website in those search engines, and provides a foundation on how on-page and off-page SEO techniques have different effects on ranking algorithms of search engines.

Google Story

Ranking Algorithms

There are many factors of ranking algorithms of the above mentioned search engines. In order to discover SEO techniques that positively affect the website ranking in SERP of the targeted search engines, a marketer must perform A/B testing using Analytics. This module presents an assessment model of the SEO techniques identifying the effective SEO techniques for Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines. The proposed assessment model is validated through developing a SEO analysis tool and performing experiments on 5 different websites. This tool is useful in identifying the implemented and missing SEO factors of websites by comparing them against the assessment model. The experiment proved the correctness of the assessment model. The main contribution of this research is: 1) to help web developers to optimize their websites in order to gain the top five positions in SERP of Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines. 2) To help web developers prioritize the importance of SEO factors.

  1. Locate information about searching and Search Engines on the Web
  2. Use your browser's features to help you search
  3. Build a list of key sites and learn how they are part of an overall search strategy
  4. Search international Web sites in their native languages
  5. Utilize Usenet discussions as information sources
  6. Discover search services dedicated to specific topics or types of Web sites