What Constitutes Search Engine Relevancy?

Relevancy. It's something that drives the search engine industry in almost every aspect. From providing quality search results to contextual advertising, relevancy is crucial to any search engine's success. The question is how do you define relevancy? More importantly, how do search engines define relevancy?

WebProWorld These questions continue to give the debate life because what may be relevant to one person may not be relevant to another user and/or a search engine. So what determines relevancy? Because this subject has such a gray area, there are no clear-cut answers. Search engines have their own methods for determining relevancy and it's usually based on their respective algorithms. However, we've all dealt with queries containing results that leave you scratching your head in confusion. Of course, there are other searches that can yield exactly what you are looking for. But why the disparity? Obviously, all search results are predicated on the keyword(s) used in the query. If you are using general terms (car, Nike shoes, House of Flying Daggers DVD), odds are the results will be more relevant. When dealing with search engines and relevancy, I'm reminded of a quote featured in a RustyBrick.com had an idea concerning a test to determine what engine is the most relevant. In order to conduct this test, Barry developed Jayde.com concentrates on the B2B (business-to-business) world. If you were searching for something within these areas of interest, you would be better served using an engine that concentrates on that subject. However, just like Gary points out, very few of the average Joe Internet users are aware of such tools. That's why he stresses refining your search keywords. Hopefully, this practice will return results that are more relevant to your area of interest. Another factor that can impact the relevancy of results has to do with the multiple meanings of individual words. This is pointed out quite well by Black_Knight on the RustyBrick.com for results concerning the murdok. Visit murdok for the

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