Black Belt Web Marketing.pdf - Costa del Sol

Technically, there are two kinds of "search engines"
Directories or Catalogs like Yahoo and Magellan.
Search Engines like Alta Vista, Excite, Infoseek, others.
The directories list sites by category after visiting each site to verify it relevancy to one or more
categories listed in the submission form. Finding relevant results often entails drilling down
through the categories and sub-categories. Directories are more suitable for broad category
searches.
Search engines, such as AltaVista, Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, and Webcrawler, are based on an
abstract of contents on millions Web pages. Preferably, use search engines that index entire pages
and not just the headers and page titles.
If you’re looking for an answer to a question or a web page you’ve seen before, it’s best to try a
comprehensive index like AltaVista, Infoseek, Lycos, or Excite. Directories like Yahoo return a
much smaller list of pages found but generally of a better quality. They are more suited for when
you want to find categories of sites. Yahoo will actually prompt you to switch to search AltaVista
if a search of their database was unsuccessful.
If you use Netscape’s Navigator or Communicator, or Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, you’ll find a
search button on the tool bar. For best search results, limit yourself to one of the search engine
listed there. These are the largest with the resources to incorporated advanced search technology.
You will probably find it’s faster to go directly to the search engine’s URL instead of approaching
it from Netscape’s or IE’s search page.
Getting Ready to Search
Give some thought to your search query before beginning the search. An ill-defined query is sure
to inundate you with tons of returns. Then be ready to add a sign or punctuation that will narrow
your search to more manageable results (see the next section).
Know your search engine. Take a few minutes to check out its FAQ or tips before the search. It
will save you considerable time over the long-run.
Note which search method is the search engine’s default. If you have options for different
methods, you want search result rankings by relevance, for example, than the date the page was
indexed or updated.
Also test several search engines for especially important searches. Don’t assume that the one
Appendix pg.38