Website Indexing
Indexing was previously referenced as a crucial factor in successful Search Engine Optimization, and is designed to optimise the chances of producing relevant results in response to a search query. It can take on many forms, for example, using links from other sites and internal linking within a website in order to ensure prominent listings on search engines. In addition to this, SEO uses XML sitemaps that allow information about URL's to be recorded by webmasters, including when the URL was last updated, the frequency with which it changes, and the importance of individual URL's on the site as a whole.
Google, MSN and Yahoo use the same protocol, which means that having a sitemap allows prominent search engines gain access to information about updated web pages. Crawlers are also used by these search engines, which ‘read’ text, hyper-links and the content of keyword rich meta tags. After obtaining this information, the search engine is able to index the information and include it in its page ranking process and relevant databases.
