Editing Findability (section)

==External findability==
External findability is the domain of [[Internet marketing]] and [[search engine optimization]] tactics.  External findability can be very influential for businesses. Smaller companies may have trouble influencing external findability, due to being less aware to consumers. Other means are taken to make sure that they are found in search results.<ref name="findability-solution" />

Several factors affect external findability:<ref>{{cite web|title=Findability Factors Found|url=http://www.econtentstrategies.com/Article_FindabilityFactorsFoundFinal_EContent_200701.pdf}}</ref>
# ''[[Search engine indexing]]'': As the very first step, webpages need to be found by indexing crawler in order to be shown in the search results. It would be helpful to avoid factors that may lead to webpages being ignored by indexing crawlers. Those factors may include elements that require user interaction, such as entering log-in credentials. Algorithms for indexing vary by the search engine which means the number of webpages of a website successfully being indexed may be very different between Google and Yahoo!'s search engines. Also, in countries like [[China]], [[Great Firewall|government policies]] could significantly influence the indexing algorithms. In this case, local knowledge about laws and policies could be valuable.
# ''Page descriptions in search results'': Once the webpages are successfully indexed by web crawlers and show in the search results with decent ranking, the next step is to attract customers to click the link to the web pages. However, the customers can't see the whole web pages at this point; they can only see an excerpt of the webpage's content and metadata. Therefore, displaying meaningful information in a limited space, usually a couple of sentences, in search results is important for increasing click traffic of the webpages, and thus the findability of the web content on your webpages.
# ''Keyword matching'': At a semantic level, terminology used by the searcher and the content producer be different. Bridging the gap between the terms used by customers and developers is helpful for making web content more findable to more potential content consumers.