Skip to page content Home Hosting Development Tools & Services Help Desk    
 

Tools: Search

CBIS hosts a BSD-specific search engine which you can use to create a search form that searches only your site. There are no guaranteed ways of improving your site ranking in search results for services like Google or Yahoo!, but there are some simple steps that you should take that will likely help.

Searching the University, searching the BSD, and searching your site

The University provides a Google-based engine that searches all University sites (sites in the *.uchicago.edu domain). CBIS does not have any control over this engine. Since the underlying engine is Google, be sure to read the section on Improving your ranking below.

CBIS hosts a BSD search engine that searches only BSD websites (sites that have an address in the *.bsd.uchicago.edu domain). You can use this engine to create a search form that searches only your site. Studies of how website visitors actually find information show that people love to search, so we strongly encourage you to add a site search box on all but the smallest sites. Please see the instructions for how to set up search for your site.

Improving your ranking in search results

You can't ensure any particular ranking. Where your site ranks depends on many things, including the search terms entered by the user, the search engine's algorithms, and many things outside your control. To have your site ranked as highly as possible you should follow these simple principles:
  • make your site useful and well designed
  • have other popular, relevant sites link to your site (Google can tell you who is linked to your site)
  • use Meta tags, as well as relevant page titles and headers
  • know your audience and understand how visitors are using your site so you can organize it accordingly (to learn more about how your site is used you should learn about the BSD's web usage reporting tool)
  • be patient: in order to combat some of the ways that people have learned to trick Google, the company has begun prioritizing how long your site has existed
  • an increasingly popular option is to advertise using one of the popular search engines, which can guarantee you a prominent link (this is not a recommendation, just an observation)
  • some experts suggest you should submit your site regularly to search engines, but there is no consensus this is useful and is likely not helpful for Google

Search FAQ

When will my web site appear on the search engines? Why do I not show up in the University's search results at all?
Every engine and directory is different. Your site may appear right away, or, more likely, in several weeks or months. For Google (the University's search engine) in particular, it will usually take 2-4 weeks minimum from the time your site is linked from another site that Google indexes already. Google's indexing program will re-visit sites it knows about periodically and when it does and sees the new link to your site, it will usually follow that link and add you to its database.
What are Meta Tags?
Meta tags are hidden elements that can be added to web pages to provide information about your site. Many, but not all, search engines use this Meta information when indexing and linking to your site. There are two types of Meta tags, one for keywords and one for description. Think of keywords as your attempt to guess what search terms users will enter into a search engine to find you. Think of description as a way to provide a brief summary of who you are and/or what information is provided by your site and/or why someone should visit your site. You should add Meta tags to your site. Note that in choosing keywords and writing a description: simpler is usually better.
Where can I find more information?
Despite some of the rhetoric, most of the information about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) boils down to exactly what is summarized on this page. You can read Google's recommendations for improving your ranking or Yahoo!'s search ranking info. Some interesting reading to fill out the details: Search Engine Watch has various interesting articles and Evolt's article on Google's new algorithms is worthwhile. There are lots of companies willing to take your money to advise you. Be wary. To find them, you can of course search...