Web indexing

Web indexing (or Internet indexing) refers to various methods for indexing the contents of a website or of the Internet as a whole. Individual websites or intranets may use a back-of-the-book index, while search engines usually use keywords and metadata to provide a more useful vocabulary for Internet or onsite searching. With the increase in the number of periodicals that have articles online, web indexing is also becoming important for periodical websites.^[1]

Back-of-the-book-style web indexes may be called "web site A-Z indexes".^[2] The implication with "A-Z" is that there is an alphabetical browse view or interface. This interface differs from that of a browse through layers of hierarchical categories (also known as a taxonomy) which are not necessarily alphabetical, but are also found on some web sites. Although an A-Z index could be used to index multiple sites, rather than the multiple pages of a single site, this is unusual.

Metadata web indexing involves assigning keywords or phrases to web pages or web sites within a metadata tag (or "meta-tag") field, so that the web page or web site can be retrieved with a search engine that is customized to search the keywords field.^[3] This may or may not involve using keywords restricted to a controlled vocabulary list. This method is commonly used by search engine indexing.

See also

• Information architecture
• Search engine indexing
• Search engine optimization
• Site map
• Web navigation
• Web search engine

Further reading

• Beyond Book Indexing: How to Get Started in Web Indexing, Embedded Indexing, and Other Computer-Based Media, edited by Marilyn Rowland and Diane Brenner, American Society of Indexers, Info Today, Inc, NJ, 2000, ISBN 1-57387-081-1
• An example of a Web Indexer
• An example of an Internet Index A-Z

References