There are a couple of things that search engines have in common with web directories. For one they are both websites and secondly they are both resources for end users to find the web sites they are looking for. This is however where the similarities end. Whereas search engines rely almost exclusively on software (spiders and robots) to collect information on the web for their indicies, directories are mostly compiled by human editors and require webmasters and/or owners to submit their web site to be listed. This puts search engines at an advantage as their spiders can collect almost infinitely more web pages to index compared to a human edited directory. (Click here to learn more about directories.)

It is currently estimated that most first time visitors arrive at their destination by using a major search engine. Such estimates typically vary between 75 and 85 %. Whatever figure one subscribes to, it is clear that search engines cannot be ignored in any web promotion campaign.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is rapidly becoming the main method for web marketeers to attract new visitors to their web sites as it allows for the most targeted approach. Unfortunately there are a lot of misconceptions about search engines, their indexes and how to get good visibility with them. (Click here to read about just a handful.) To achieve prominence with a well chosen keyword or keyphrase used in a search requires deep understanding of the way that search engines work in particular their criteria in determining what is relevant and what is not.

Although there are probably hundreds if not thousands of web sites calling themselves search engines it is generally accepted that most of the traffic that matters goes through less than 10. Most of those are provided with data from just a handful of top players and show what can only described as regurgitated results from other bigger search engines.

sytemaker.com is currently focusing its SEO efforts on the top 4 major global search engines that are still using their own spiders and algorithms to create their indices and search results and are presently reputed to be responsible for over 90 % of global search traffic:

	Google The undisputed ruler of the day. Google is said to hold over 8 billion web pages in its index.
	Yahoo! Still one of the top internet brands reaching a regular large audience globally (approx. 300 million per month).
	MSN Search Recently redeveloped and highly used search service due to the default search setting in the Internet Explorer browser.
	AskJeeves Best known for its helpful butler and its ability to answer natural language questions. Generates its index and results from Teoma, a lesser known search engine owned by Ask Jeeves.

For web sites that require a more regional approach we can also provide a country specific list to work with.

Up to recently the world of search engines often changed and evolved at an astonishing rate with mergers and failures making space for emerging competition. Today we see what appears to be a far more settled picture in what was known to be a very volatile industry. However, the web surprised us more than once before and the above list may still change from time to time as we strive to keep abreast of all current developments.

We take great pride in our SEO service which has operated since 1999 and indeed has been a resounding success. Try us out by requesting a free search engine diagnosis report for your website.