Have you ever wondered how a search engine works? It must be fascinating working out how these search tools could direct you to numerous websites that are relevant to your keywords. Or, have you experienced instances where the link that supposedly contains your keywords is not exactly what you have in mind? You would probably think that there must be something wrong with the search engine that it returned irrelevant results.
How does a search engine work?
There are two things that figure greatly in making search engines work effectively and efficiently: the electronic search spider and the sitemap.
What is a sitemap?
A sitemap is fundamentally a page or pages that functions as a directory by listing all the links to all documents and files found in a website. It is not simply a random listing of links, but organised in such a way that it affords the web user an idea of how all the information that can be found in the site fits into an outline or framework. It is like seeing the table of contents of a book, or viewing the “concept map” of the site’s content.
What is a spider?
In SEO language, a spider is not an animal found in your closet. These electronic search spiders are actually bots which gather data and copies content to be stored in the search engine’s database which can be recalled when keywords are fed into the search dialogue box. The spider reads the content of the site and sends another bot to follow the links and copy the content held in them.
What function does a sitemap serve?
A sitemap like any other map gives directions to a navigator. It principally targets search engine spiders so that they are properly guided to your site and to the links where keywords inserted in the search dialogue appears. Intrinsically, it is in reality a useful tool in search engine optimization. A well organized site map would guide the spider to find the data it needs when keywords are entered during a search operation.
As an additional beneficial consequence, sitemaps have proven to be of value even to web users. Because a sitemap displays all the links to information found in a website, it aids the user to search for a specific topic in mind. Several users likewise use the sitemap to navigate between pages in a site.
Part 2 of this series will deal with the benefit os having a sitemap and the final part will deal with some tips on how to design a site map.
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