What is a search engine?

A search engine is a free internet service that creates an index of the World Wide Web through automated means, allowing users to search the index for matches to words or phrases. Search engines send out virtual 'robots' (also known as 'spiders') that crawl the internet non-stop, following links from page to page, site to site.

Although conjuring up images of little creatures scampering down phone lines and crawling around computers, the reality of 'robots' and 'spiders' is far simpler. They are just automated website visitors. If you can imagine someone sitting at a computer and visiting thousands of websites, one after the other, following links from one site to the next and remembering where they've been, you're not too far off the mark regarding the way the robots work.

Once at a site they will copy and store (in their own huge databases) one or more pages. This is then used for finding matches to submitted search criteria. So when you search on a word or term via a search engine, it is looking for that word or term in it's own records; not the internet as it stands at that moment.

Once a site is listed with a major search engine, its robots will usually return every few weeks (usually split up into numerous fleeting visits that capture a few pages at a time so as not to overload a server), so the only thing you need to do to be listed on a search engine is to have a link to your site from a site that is already listed by that search engine. Also remember that changes to your site will not instantly be reflected on the search engines. Sometimes you might be 'spidered' the same day; other times they might take a month or more to catch up with your changes.