Why Search Engines Fail?

Imagine asking a stranger for directions to a clothing store. Chances are, the stranger will tell you one of two responses. Direct you to the nearest clothing store we know, or are going to send every last one that just passed. But you are looking for the shirt of the boy last Spongebob Squarepants. You did not tell the strange, right? Probably not. Therefore, you have the instructions to the Disney store, which of course would not be selling clothes from any competitor.

How did this happen? Simple.

Like most of us, when we write something into a search engine, simply assume that the search engine know what we mean. A computer can only do what they tell us to do, so why can not obtain the desired results we seek. Back when the ‘net was young (1990), could get away with such simple phrases because there was not much content online as it is now. So when you are looking for, be sure to be as specific as possible. The whole existence of the search engine is to provide relevant and specific results for any user. Let the engine more relevant phrases, and be rewarded accordingly.

Even when looking for a singular or plural version of something, you get different results. Some words are even more complex. For example, typing “wheelchair”, Google will tell you that there are about 1.4 million results. Add a space, and now has “wheelchair” and Google will tell you that there are about 4.6 million hits! Now, to complicate matters further, if you write “Wheelchair” there are only 760,000 results. Remove the space and “wheelchair”, now receives about 1.2 million results.

How does that happen?

Remember that search engines are programmed to try to provide the best document for each keyword or phrase. Through a complex algorithm, which mathmatically determine which page is the most relevant content. They do this for every possible keyword and phrase you are aware. That’s why you see such disparity in search results.

How I can rank high in all of my keywords like?

Glad you asked. One of the many factors used to determine the relevance of keywords is proximity. By using variations of the spelling in a logical manner – as the example I presented above, which describes the different ways it can be written – the search engines to use this to determine that since your page talks about these variations in wheelchairs, this page must be relevant. Of course there are many other factors involved, but for the sake of this discussion, that’s all we need.

Author: Kerry Tiwana


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