How Search Engines Index Your Websites

You’ve probably heard about SEO, search engine optimization - the techniques you can use to get better placement and presentation in search results. Join Search.gov as they walk you through the fundamentals of how search engines monitor your content and pull relevant data from your pages.

This session is relevant to Search.gov customers and other web managers as well. If you are a Search.gov customer and new to the service, we highly recommend you attend our introductory session prior to attending this Technical session.

In this online event, we’ll look in detail at the essential building blocks of a search index:

• How search engines discover content on websites, and how that information gets into the index for later searching.
• XML sitemaps - what they are, why you should have one, and special considerations for government agencies.
• Robots.txt files - what they are, why you should have one, best practices, and technical pitfalls to watch out for.

You’ll Learn:

• How search engines work (at a high level)
• The Sitemaps Protocol and the Robots Exclusion Protocol guidance
• What to do if you have content in multiple platforms, such as your content management system, your old content management system, and a legacy file server
• The relationship between sitemaps and search configurations in the Search.gov system

Who Should Attend

Web managers, content managers, and technical teams wanting to learn more about how their sites get indexed by search engines. Some portions of this event will be specific to Search.gov system, but most of the information is generally applicable to all websites.

Search.gov is working with agencies to index their web content directly in the Search.gov system. If you are new to Search.gov we highly recommend you attend our Basics session prior to attending this Technical session.

About the Instructor

Dawn Pointer McCleskey is a professional librarian on a mission to help people find what they are looking for. She is the Program Manager for Search.gov, where she works to improve customers’ experience with the service and the public’s experience when searching on government websites.