Keywords and stop words

The search engine spider views a web page as code, keywords and stop words.

<p><FONT SIZE = 2> Widgets in your household are fun</FONT></p>

Code - <p><FONT SIZE = 2></FONT></p> - The more of this there is, the worse it is for you.

Key words - Widgets, Household, Fun - They are potential key words for the search engine, even if they aren't for you. Should the page be listed under "Widgets"? Under "Household?" or under "Fun"?

Stop words - "or" "in" "your" are common words are usually stop words that are ignored.

"Keywords" can refer to 1) a word or phrase that is used by visitors to find your site in a search engine such as Google or 2) The specific words and phrases that are used in the keywords part of the Web page header code, in the keyword Meta tag. For example "Widgets" is a keyword and "Security Widgets" is a "keyword." The "keyword" in a search query can be a specific phrase in quotes, or it can be the same collection of words without quotes. In this document, square brackets in examples indicate a "keyword that is a group of words. [Security and Widgets], "Security and Widgets" and [Widgets and Security] may produce very different results. "Widget" and "Widgets" may return different listings, but it is not clear if, and to what extent, search engines can deal with plurals, conjugated word forms etc.

Common words and symbols such as "a", and "or" are usually ignored by search engines and are called "stop words." Some punctuation marks like "-" are ignored even if the keyword is in quotes and are treated as spaces. "Anti-Semitism" is the same as "Anti Semitism" in most search engines. It is not the same as antisemitism.

All materials are copyright 2008 by Ami Isseroff. All rights reserved. These pages may not be reproduced in any form in electronic or printed media without express written permission from the author.