Websites and Search Results
Quick Overview
The World Wide Web has evolved significantly since its first debut by Berner Lee in 1993, with the help of a NeXT computer and what Lee called the NeXT operating system in his NeXT computer. NeXSTEP was the gateway to completing his quest to create a site where information can be submitted and read. It is thanks to Lee that, as a society, we know more than we’ve ever known in our past lives as beings of this universe. Since then, the web has grown, and the number of websites has gone from just one to 1.13 BILLION websites.
With so many websites, web networks can only hold or do so much to ensure each website has its fair share of screen time. Let’s look at a few things that might explain what “screen-on-time” means for websites.
Simply a New Website
Like anything new, little is known about it and who/what it relates to. The same goes with new Websites. Think of it like a new car. If it were not for ads about a new car, you would only know if brand loyalty had you in a chokehold, so you surf through the brand's site. This is the life of a brand-new website that has just hit the World Wide Web (WWW). Though it might be a good reason to consider, it is the least of a worry because you can give your site time to gain some attention. Keeping things up to date is like constantly telling your loved ones how things are going and ensuring they don’t forget that you still exist.
If you don’t want your site to be at the very bottom of the void, it’s important to keep things up to date because it signals to search engines, such as Google, that your site is still somewhat relevant, and your site is committed to bringing a value to the web. This also helps you capture the attention of a wider audience. — SEO.ai,
Back-linking
Onto Back-linking. Back-linking, in its simplest form, is the links people can find on your site. Things like referencing articles, papers, and other sources of information are often introduced in sites to avoid plagiarism. These links create a reference point and can lead viewers to other related sites. If sites can back-link through your site, the more referrals your site gets, the more relevant, reliable, and essential your site and its information become. This is how you rank high.
Think of back-linking as the hashtags you might use on an Instagram reel. When posting a real, you add as many relevant tags referring to other accounts so your reel can appear as often as possible to a search result relative to those tags. Instagram reels only allow you to post your objective if you include at least one tag. Some even go as far as introducing non-related tags to steal the attention of users who aren’t on the same feed. Back-linking is almost similar, except Google will allow you to publish your site without any links, but unlike Instagram, which won’t let you post, Google won't be able to index your site, so it’s there, but it won't show up.
Indexing
Indexing is one of the most important things besides updating your site's information. Google has a system for displaying relevant pages in search results. Indexing helps Google review websites and determine whether they meet search query key terms, which are words you type into the search bar.
Google’s system releases bots, otherwise known as crawlers or spiders, which link search terms and queries to their respective sites so that when somebody tries to complete a search on something like “What is the fastest animal on Earth?”(The Peregrine Falcon), but they don’t get facts about something off-topic, like bugs.
That is how it works in short, but the reality is, as Matt says, when you search on Google, you aren’t searching the web. When you try to search for something, Google prepares a whole index of websites for you, almost like a list of sites that have made it onto Google's ranking system. Crawlers do this, as they mentioned previously, and they are software programs that do a deep search on all websites that Google has indexed in terms of related keywords. These crawlers check if a website has your keywords in the title, how many times the keyword is mentioned, determine if the page is essential regarding how many times another site refers to it, and follow links in those sites to other links, which these crawlers then collect to bring back search results, all within a half a second. The problem with this is that you need SEO to even hope of ranking on Google, let alone rank among top pages, and this is another reason your site might be blocked from indexing by search engines.
No ranking = no traffic.
SEO Penalties
Penalties are like buying subscribers and bots that follow your Instagram account or YouTube channel so that you make more profit. However, that is just one reference to a penalty. The penalty reference is the same; replace subscribers and bots with Link-type penalties, and you’ve got it. Google is doing anything to ensure that websites that appear on your entered search query are what you are looking for and can rely on.
Back-linking can sometimes be devious because if a site is not legitimate enough, it can deceitfully become legitimate through bought links that make it look trustworthy and popular among the index of sites. So, Google has implemented algorithms to differentiate sites that buy links and utilize black SEO and sites with appropriate links to ensure fraud stays at bay. Another thing to note is that duplicate sites also receive a penalty.
SEO
SEO is what gets websites up and on top of search results. It has much to do with the content on your sites and websites. Search Engine Optimization encapsulates all that we have talked about, and a good way to show it off is Maslow’s chart right here:
Good optimization is when your site can load quickly and works as expected by users on the other side. You can do this by using light image files and graphics and shortened URLs, which makes your site much more attractive to users, which means more traffic and users. SEO also works via snippet generation.
Sometimes, when you search for something on the web, next to the site URL are also a few sentences of an article that are summed up through effective SEO so that the viewer has a better time getting an answer without actually clicking on the site URL, which means that your site may get less traffic. This is a good thing because snippets are designed to create a summary. Constantly updating your site and its information and adding controversial topics related to the origin of your site will help make these snippets more engaging and, therefore, cause web surfers to go from viewers to users.
Are you looking to get your website optimized? Connect with a Seattle SEO agency.
