Part III of SEO
The third part in our four part series on SEO optimization.
Search Engines & Site Ranking:
Googles Standards:
Google: “Basically, Google’s position is that we prefer no hidden links, no hidden text, no automatic tools used for positioning, and no cloaking. We prefer that Googlebot get the exact same page that users see. In general, you can assume that we’re as conservative as possible. We don’t like hidden links/text in divs/layers/iframes/css, or links that are inconspicuous or punctuation, for example. Similarly, we don’t like cloaking or sneaky redirects in any form, whether it be user agent/ip-based, or redirects through javascript, meta refreshes, 301/302′s, or 100% frames.” More details are available at: Guidelines and SEO Issues. Report spam: spamreport@google.com
Google supports the Robots Tag and uses your title while indexing your website. It does not appear that Google makes use of the Keywords or Descriptions Tags at this time.
Google Tools
Because Google also bases their ranking on how many sites link to you, you can gain a competitive edge by following a few posting tips.
- Message boards are not only for posting your thoughts, but they count as links to your site. Be sure to submit these sites back to google for spiders to pick up on your links. While this is considered ” Gorilla tactics ” it is excepted as long as you always disclose who you are when posting.
- News groups are also very useful for posting information along with a link back to your website.
Yahoo Standards:
Yahoo does not rely on spiders or any automated tools, but rather uses people to compile it’s database of websites. Yahoo is one of the smaller databases, but being compiled by people has made it one of the most popular websites on the Internet since its inception.
Because Yahoo does not rely on META Tags, ALT Tags, Sitemaps or comments, your description needs to be thorough so as to get the attention of the editor that surveys your site.
Factors which affect how Yahoo returns results:
Title, Domain Name, Description. Keywords which are found in your title will be ranked higher than keywords found only in your description and similarly keywords within your domain name will be ranked higher.
Selecting the best Title:
It’s best to try and integrate keywords into your company name such as ‘Jared Lyvers – lowdownandirty – Interactive Developer’. The real company name was ‘lowdownandirty’ and we stuck in the keyword “Interactive”. Keep in mind Yahoo will shorten your title as much as possible.
Descriptions:
Yahoo claims to have a limit of 25 words on descriptions, but in practice, this is much less. Try to avoid commas, and try to write the description into a single sentence.
Altavista Standards:
Altavista supports most META Tags with more emphasis on Keywords and Description META Tags. Spidering is also used and can be controlled via META Tags. Much like Google, Altvista looks down on ” spamming ” ie: (multiple start pages for your website and or repeating keywords in your META Tags). These will not only demote your listing, but in some cases get your site removed altogether. While Altvista will index your entire page including ALT Tags, Image Maps and frames not to mention upper and lower case are recognized as different. However, HTML comments are not indexed at all. Another area that is like Google is that if lots of websites link to your site, then your site will be ranked higher.
Altavista ranks sites based on the following criteria (in order):
- Ranks any Real Names Keywords first
- Returns popular sites (Powered by Direct Hit)
- Returns Altavista’s own results
Because of this, META Tags and site content are not enough to keep you in the top listings. Use the following to help keep you listed in Altavista’s SE.
Steps to Carry Out the Tip:
- AltaVista no longer spiders full sites using links between pages. You must submit the specific page you want indexed or it will not be located and indexed.
- AltaVista does NOT support frames – so the only text it will index on a framed site is the text between the <noframes> tags. If you must use frames, make sure to include the<noframes> tag, and put some relevant content in it. Don’t use a worthless, insulting statement such as: “This page uses frames, but your browser doesn’t support them.” If you’re going to be this rude you may as well say: “Go away stupid! I don’t want your business!”
- AltaVista likes keywords in the title of your page. So, be sure your title contains your most important keywords. On AltaVista, the <TITLE> tag is everything. If you don’t use the <TITLE> tag with your keywords, you don’t have a chance on this SE. AltaVista only indexes the first 100 characters of your title. You should not repeat your keywords.
- If you want to control the description of your site in the AltaVista search results, be sure to use the description META tag. AltaVista will use it as the summary they display in search results. So, make sure you use the description META tag, and make your description interesting to your target market. AltaVista also uses the keywords in your description and keyword META tags to index your site. AltaVista only indexes the first 150 characters of your description META tag.
- AltaVista doesn’t seem to favor keywords in Meta tags, but they should not hurt you, so use them anyway.
- AltaVista is case sensitive now, so you will want to include the capitalized versions of your keywords.
- AltaVista mixes their search results. When you are looking at the search results for a particular query, you may notice that the highest ranking pages change positions. That doesn’t mean that the site has been reindexed. If your site drops out of sight don’t worry too much. It should show up again in later searches. They only way I can think of to increase the chance of your pages always ranking high is to submit several pages with differing keyword densities.
- In an attempt to prevent submissions that manipulate search results, Alta Vista may exclude these types of practices:
- Pages with text that is not easily read, either because it is too small or is obscured by the background of the page
- Pages with off-topic or excessive keywords
- Duplication of content, either by excessive submission of the same page, submitting the same pages from multiple domains, or submitting the same content from multiple hosts
- Machine-generated pages with minimal or no content, whose sole purpose is to get a user to click to another page
- Pages that contain only links to other pages
- Pages whose primary intent is to redirect users to another page.
Alta Vista frowns on URL submissions from customers who spam the index and will exclude all such pages from the index. Please Note: Alta Vista may even exclude your website if it is HOSTED by a
See the following URLs for more information and to register your pages:
AltaVista Add URL page
AltaVista Add/Remove a URL help page
AltaVista Tools
AOL Netfinder Standards:
AOL Netfind is powered by the Open Directory Project and by Inktomi, the same database that powers Hotbot. Because of AOL’s traffic volume it is a good idea to make sure you are listed in both of the above databases.
Ranking for AOL Netfinder is solely dependent on the engines that power it. Because it is only a rebranded engine there are no requirements from AOL. Please refer to :
http://dmoz.org/
http://www.inktomi.com/
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