Search Engine Guides, Reviews, Resources

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The Web is an almost infinite source of infrmation... all you have to do is find it. Knowing how and where to search is the key.

With the galaxy of Web sites online, it can be easier to go to your local library and ask for a book unless you know how to search the Internet effectively. You don't have to learn how to use Boolean operators and make yourself crazy. Today's search engines have made finding good information online a matter of typing in the most likely "keywords" you need and waiting for the results.

But wait, the results that turn up are not the best sites or miss the topic completely... what do you need to do to get the results you need when you do a search?

What if you own a website and want people to find you when they look for your keywords? Are there really any easy ways to let your website shine in search results so traffic gets directed to you? There are people who specialize in Web site optimization just to make sure you are doing everything you need to do to get picked as a site to display on search engine results pages. The search engines are constantly refining their rules to try to return the best results for any serch terms. To get to the top of the list, the design of your site has to meet these requirements... that are constantly in flux.

The basics to getting your site found are having plenty of good, unique and original content; clean and transparent code; fixing bad or broken links and other errors as they develop; not using 'black hat' techniques to spam the search engines. Links are important, but without the rest of the search engine optimization package in place, back links won't help. No search engine wants to produce results that won't make the people who are searching for information happy. If you don't run a good site that offers what visitors want to find, no amount of optimization will keep you high in the search engine rankings.

For updated tips on how to make your search easier — with guides on how to steer your favorite search engine to get faster results, along with reviews and news to help site owners and others at the business end of Web search, check out these helpful resources...

Search Engine Showdown - News, reviews, feature articles, and guides to better searching with search engine features, comparisons, statistics, strategies, with related books and resources.

Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial - The complete how-to from the University of California with search engine comparisons, boolean and meta search, directories, and lots more related info and resources.

Search Engine Colossus - Aptly named site with links to search engines and directories from 195 countries searchable by country or category.

Beaucoup - Links to thousands of general, meta, and specialized search engines, searchable or browseable by categories and offering brief reviews.

Search Engine Watch - Find out who acquired whom (er, this week), the latest on what's hot and what's not, along with guides to getting better results from your searches, industry reports, submission tips and more.

SearchTools.com - Information, news and advice about Web site searching technology.

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