An Introduction To Search Engines

Search Engines are what make the web usable. They are the first tool people use for finding information on the Internet, and it is impossible to image how the web would work without them.

However search engines and the Internet are still new. The domain name google.com was registered on September 15, 1997 and the company, Google Inc, formally incorporated on September 7, 1998. (less than 10years ago)

Since then it has grown at an amazing pace, and in 2005 Google overtook Time Warner with a stock market valuation of over $80 billion. Today (June 2008) it has a stock market valuation of over $168 billion.

Although the financial numbers are incredible so are the search numbers. In March 2007 more than 7 billion searches were performed at search engines in the USA alone.

But how does this affect small businesses? What are people actually searching for? If your business is local in nature then why would they search for you?

The Internet Goes Local

People search the Internet for information. They maybe looking for the latest football results or a guide on how to pitch an tent, or a business phone number and address.

In the early days of the Internet searches were more general. but over the last few years more and more Internet users are using the Internet to find information on their local area.

A recent study showed that over 60% of Internet users perform at least one local search each month.

A ComScore study also found that performing a local search drives consumers to take action.

During the second quarter of 2006, 47 percent of local searchers visited a local merchant as a result of an Internet search and 41 percent made contact offline. Also more than one-third made contact online as a result of conducting a local area search.

So the reality is that whether your business is local or global, more and more people are using the Internet (search engines) to locate services, products and information.

But what do the searchers find as a result of a search? –A website. So the first step in getting customers to your business via the Internet is to have a website.

The truth is that many small businesses have already grasped this fact but many of them have been disappointed by the results.

You see it is not just sufficient to have a website. You need a website that gets found!

The first step in getting found is to get your site into the search engines. However before we look at that we are going to be looking at Internet directories and how they differ from search engines.

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PS If you don’t already have a website then you should take a look at my other site on website making (www.build-your-website.co.uk). It also has information for those business owners who want a site but don’t necessarily want to build it themselves.

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