Search Engines

Search engines determine a site's ranking based on how closely a site matches the words a user entered. In order to do this, search engines must know:

• The words used on a website
• How important is a word compared to another

To get this information, search engines use programs that look through websites, store the text on each page, and give a weight to each word.

For example, a web page's title (the words that appear at the top of the web page) and headings (like the words "Search Engines" on this page) are more important that the basic text. Also, text used at the beginning of a page (when the subject of the page is being described) is more important than text near the bottom (which may be extraneous or related information). In order for search engines to functions, they assume that the page has a proper HTML structure.

Since accessible sites follow this structure, making a site more accessible usually results in a higher search engine ranking when someone is looking for a site like yours. A poorly coded site means your site is not being ranked as high as it should.