background. By doing this you make the text invisible to the viewer by making it match the background color.
Some engines are wise to this, and will compare text color or background color. And a careful quality control examiner will notice the same color codes.
To fool the search engines, you can use "almost invisible" text. Always use hexadecimal color codes, rather than words such as <font color="white">. Even the most experienced quality control expert won't know more than a few hexadecimal color codes, and may not catch the fact that #FFFFFF and #E8E8E8 are very close to the same color.
Don't use a carriage return in the HTML code. This will run your list of repeating keywords off to the right of the screen in a single or double line. It looks less obvious to the probing eye than "stacked" spamming, which is completely visible within the main window of your HTML text.
If you choose to use this technique, then stay within the guidelines that we mention in the Keyword "spamdexing" section. Remember the guideline of SEVEN times. If your competitors are using more than seven, you must decide if a slightly higher placement is worth penalty or removal from the search engine completely.
Remember that NEARLY top placement is better than NO placement! Trying to keep up with a flagrant spammer who is way too obvious in his attempts to be #1 in the list can be dangerous. Chances are that sooner or later he won't be around anyway!
Keyword "spamming", "stuffing" or "spamdexing". These are all terms for the same thing. Visible or invisible text, usually placed at the top and/or bottom of an opening web page.
Usually these words are in very small text, either in the form of a headline or in the smallest font size.
An example of "spamdexing" could look like this:
bows, knives, lances, tomahawks, bows, knives, lances, tomahawks, bows, knives, lances, tomahawks, bows, knives, lances, tomahawks, bows, knives, lances, tomahawks, bows, knives, lances, tomahawks, bows, knives, lances, tomahawks, bows, knives, lances, tomahawks, bows, knives, lances, tomahawks
Pay close attention to which search engines allow spamdexing and which ones do not. This report can only point out the ones that allow spamming at the time of the most recent update, so remember - rules can change without notice and YOU will have to pay attention to what is working and what is not working.
It is relatively simple to determine which search engines are currently allowing this practice. Do a variety of searches in some of the more competitive fields. Position your cursor to the left of any "strangely blank" places, usually at the top or bottom of a page, press and hold the right mouse button, and drag downward. The invisible text will become visible as the text is highlighted.
Once you have determined which engines are allowing this practice, you can then decide if your competitors are "spamming". And what you must do to stay competitive in your field.
If you MUST use this trick, try to use it within reason, if your competitor in the #1 position has repeated the KEY PHRASE or WORD 5 times, you need only repeat yours 6 or 7 times in many cases. You have now bumped him out of the number one spot, but not been so flagrant as to be penalized. Hopefully.
When these repeating keywords are inserted at the bottom of a page they are referred to as "TAIL TAGGING". The basic premise behind this tactic is to increase your keyword density. These additional keywords fool the search engine into thinking your site has a higher keyword density, thus your page is pulled up before others with a lower density.
Only attempt this with a search engine that is obviously NOT penalizing or REMOVING sites using this trick. If you don't see several websites using it, stay away from it.
This is a fairly simple concept. Whenever possible, choose a title that starts with a letter toward the front of the alphabet. Of course the letter "A" is best.
There are actually characters which will pull up before the letter "A". You've probably seen them, ASCII characters like "!" or "#". You need to use some discretion here; some of these characters seem a little tacky to a person searching titles for the website they will choose for their information.
There are many ASCII characters and numbers that are much better than "A". The search engines can change at any time, however for now most search engines list ASCII characters and numbers before alphabetical letters.
Here's the normally accepted order:
! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ` a b c... etc.
Quotation marks are an effective way to improve your standing. For example a title like "A-1" Rentals might be a very effective title. Remember that search engines are catching on to many of these little tricks, and many site reviewers are becoming more aware of these types of alphabetical positioning tactics.
If you use a title that is alphabetically altered, then you had better make your web page reflect claim to such a title.
Yahoo! is an "alphabetical" or "catalog" type of search engine. All listings are also reviewed by the dreaded "Yahooligans". The only thing that really works with Yahoo! for better positioning is an alphabetically privileged name, such as "Al Wilder R.V." instead of just "Wilder R.V.". Or "Authentic Native American Bows" instead of "Native American Bows".
Keep in mind that there is no rule that forbids the search engines from reversing the ASCII order. Any search engine could decide to put ASCII characters and numbers LAST, if one day they decide the system is being abused. You need to keep your eyes open and pay attention to what is working and where. For now, it is best to name your company something that starts with an "A" or better, or at least something toward beginning of the alphabet.
Anything placed within a comment tag is invisible to your viewer. Comment tags look like this: <!--Your Comment Goes Here-->. The only reason you can see this is because I've used special html coding to make it visible. On a normal page, it would not show up.
Some search engines use the comment tag, if available, for summarizing a site. In any case, it can sometimes be used to add to keyword density.
A doorway is a page that uses keyword density to score high in a given search and has exactly one Link that points to your main page. It doesn't have to be a page with only one or two words on it, but the fewer words, the higher your keyword density will be.
For example, if you have only four words, say, "Dallas Texas Real Estate", and this page links to the main homepage, this would give each word a "density rating" of 25%, which is extremely high. You should make the title match the text exactly, thereby increasing the likelihood that this page will pull up high in a search for any or all of the four words used.
A doorway page contains ONE link that takes the viewer directly to the main homepage. However the viewer must manually click the link to go to the main page.
You can also use a refresh command, or javascript, to have the page change automatically after so many seconds.
Using this technique, you could build a different doorway page optimized for each of the major search engines. And if you are going to use multiple sites as a device for tracking your advertising response, you can kill two birds with one stone by making each site optimized for a specific search engine.
But don't register a doorway with Infoseek. They will penalize you.
Images and flashy artwork are great to look at! They spice up your page and add a touch of class. The thing you need to remember is that the search engines do NOT index them at all! Your logo may look great, but actually be detrimental to your positioning. You will need to decide which is more of a priority - logos or top positioning.
If your image loads higher on your page than your text, your page is automatically disadvantaged in a BIG way! Do NOT load images higher on your page than keyword text.
But there are ways to turn Images from liabilities into assets with the search engines. You can put images in your page and make them work FOR you, not against you. Here's how.
You simply need to include the "alt" tag in your img src tags.
Here an example:
<IMG SRC="logo.jpg" Alt="Real Estate, Clinton, Missouri, MO, Homes, Condos, Land, Lots, Rentals, real estate, clinton, missouri, mo, homes, condos, land, lots, rentals" height=235 width=335>
Many search engines index every word on your page. That usually includes the ALT=keywords. By using the IMG ALT tag to include some additional keywords, you are again helping your keyword density.
This is just another of the many ways you can get a little extra help in improving your positioning. It's simple and should be used on every image on your page.
Some people use the plural when searching for information, while others use the singular. In any case, you need to cover all your bases. Here is a legitimate technique that you can use to increase the effectiveness of some of your keywords.
Whenever appropriate, add an "s" to the end of the word. For example, if you are in the R.V. business, and one of your key phases is "recreational vehicle", then add an "s" to the end of "vehicle". By doing so, your page will be found for both "vehicle" and "vehicles."
In many cases it is wise to program your site to be found even when people are looking for something else. You need to use good judgment regarding the type of semi-relevant keywords you choose. Be sure they are in some way related to what you are offering, or something that a person looking for your service or information could use.
Again, lets suppose that you own an R.V. Dealership in Clinton, Missouri. Nearby is Truman Lake, Lake of the Ozarks - literally hundreds of camping resorts and sites, hiking, fishing, etc.
You should program your page to come up high on a search for the following keyword searches:
Truman Lake, Lake of the Ozarks, Camping, Resorts, hiking, fishing, etc.
People who are going to be traveling through these areas may be traveling by R.V. or be in the market for an R.V. and would like to stop by when they are in the area. If your Dealership happens to be the "gateway" to other services, then most people will not object if they find you while looking for information on another related subject.
Do NOT put unrelated, irrelevant keywords into your pages in an attempt to better your position. People will find it offensive if you are continually pulled up in totally unrelated searches.
The easiest and quickest way to design a successful website is to copy the top sites in each of your keyword searches. All you need to do is see what is working, and then go one step better!
Start with one search engine at a time. One by one, enter each of your keywords and keyword phrases into each search engines in order to see what is currently in the Top Ten "hit" list in each particular category.
Next go to the number one listed website and try to determine why that page landed in the top position. Look for keywords, invisible text, etc. Use the information that you have learned so far to analyze their page.
Check the HTML code behind their page. Click "View", then click "source" or "HTML". Here you will see if the page contains Meta descriptions, more keywords, hidden text, ALT tags, spamming, etc.
When you find a particularly well done page, save it to a file. You can use these pages as templates for your own pages. Simply delete their information and insert your own.
Be sure to keep track of your research as you go. Perhaps the best way to do this is to open the "source code" files that you save and keep your notes at the top of the HTML document. Keep careful notes on which search engine it appeared on, as well as what you think caused it to make the top of the list.
Repeat this process with each of your keywords and phrases. You will soon notice a certain type of page that pops up time after time. These are the ones you should use as a template. You've found the pages to beat and you've captured the code for the ones that are working!
Now move on to the next search engine and repeat the entire process again. It may seem like a lot of work now, but the rewards will be great! Soon you will become your own expert on what works and what does not work on each of the major search engines. You now know what you are looking AT, as well as what you are looking FOR!
Most successful websites have several "entryways" to get to their site. In other words, they have many web "addresses" for the same page or similar pages. On any given search engine you may have 3, 4 or more pages that all lead to your website.
This is easier to do that you might think. Even if you only have one actual page, you can create the "illusion" that you have several and get them all listed separately. Here's how:
Suppose your URL address is:
http://www.server.com/yourdomain-name/
That is one address. But here are some address variations that should get you to the same page: (This example assumes your homepage is named "index.html.")
http://server.com/yourdomain-name/ (without the www)
http://www.server.com/yourdomain-name/index.html
http://server.com/yourdomain-name/index.html (without the www)
You now have four addresses that all go to the same page. This will work with some search engines. However, you should register them on different weeks. The search engines that seem to respond best to these address variations are Webcrawler, Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, and Alta Vista.
Another way to get additional listings for the same page is to change the title slightly AFTER you have registered and been listed by any of the search engines. This can sometimes trick the computer into thinking you have a different page. It doesn't always work, but the few minutes it takes to try makes it worth the effort.
Here's a way to get as many URL's listings as you want:
You can design "sub pages" as entry ways to your main site. Simply make sure you give each page a different title. Remember this. Even if it is a slight variation on the title it needs to be done to avoid detection. You can even register all your sub pages right along with your main page!
Example:
http://server/yourdomain-name/page2.html
http://server/yourdomain-name/page3.html
http://server/yourdomain-name/page4.html
http://server/yourdomain-name/page5.html
You can have as many listings as you have URL's. And this way you can design unique pages to fit each individual search engine criteria. This can make you EXTREMELY successful on the Internet.
Here are two tips that will save you a lot of time and effort down the road. You'll find that after you have submitted several pages to seven different search engines, it's easy to become confused about which pages to look for on each particular engine. You must know how to effectively track your results, as well as monitor the positioning of each page on at least a monthly basis.
Remember, it can take from 2 weeks to
2 months for your site to appear on the different search engines. It's easy to forget what to look for.
Tip #1
Keep accurate notes on each of the URL address variations you make. Keep detailed notes on what type of page it is, for example: Redirect, doorway page, invisible text, etc.
Use your notepad, wordpad or similar programs to keep this information up to date. Each time you submit or update a page, you MUST keep notes! If you don't, you will become lost and eventually have to start over. Remember: NOTES ARE EVERYTHING!
Tip #2
A good way to keep "visual" track of each URL variation is to use SUB PAGE NAMES that have meanings.
If you use names like:
http://www.server/yourdomain-name/page1.html
your sub page has no meaning. I like to designate which search engine the particular page was designed for by using a type of code in the sub page name. You can easily come up with your own.
Here's an example:
http://www.server/yourdomain-name/lyco-re.html
This sub page name means it is on "Lycos" designated by the "lyco". I know it is a Redirect page from the "re" in "lyco-re".
You can even track the dates you submitted the page to each search engine by using a more complex code.
Here's another example:
http://www.server/yourdomain-name/YAd6-15.html
This sub page means it is on Yahoo! - "YA". It is a doorway page - "d". and it was submitted on June 15th - "6-15". Remember not to exceed 8 characters. ie: /yourdomain-name/12345678.html
Sure, it's a lot of work. But, it WILL PAY OFF! You'll see soon enough. Even if you only do two pages per search engine, that's 16 different pages you will need to track and update. Once you have your basic pages done, all you have to do is copy them and make the minor changes that fit with whichever search engine you are gearing an individual page toward.
Each page must have its own name, title, URL address and keywords to work.
The Big Seven
In this section we will take a detailed look at each of the Big Seven search engines. We will discuss which techniques and tricks work on each of them, and the best ways to register your websites with them.
Once again, it is estimated that the Big Seven search engines service approximately 90% of all searches done on the Internet today. We recommend that you only focus on these seven. But, if you want to put in the additional effort to analyze any or all of the others, you now have an arsenal of tools you can use to do just that.
When you wish to register your website and your doorway, redirect or other pages with any of the search engines you'll need to look for their "ADD URL" link, that is usually on their initial page. It might say "submit URL", or something similar. We'll guide you along as we go.
Infoseek
Infoseek Specifications:
Infoseek indexes over 1 million pages which makes them one of the largest search engines on the Internet.
Meta Tag Support:
You should note that Infoseek uses Meta Descriptions to describe your site in its summary. Be sure to list your Meta Description after the title.
If you use invisible text, be sure to vary the color code of the background slightly. IF YOU DON'T, YOUR PAGE WILL BE REJECTED!
We know of many sites using flagrant "Tail-tagging". Some of these sites have been around several years like this, so we doubt that some subtle "spamming" and "tail-tagging" would cause a problem. Remember, if your number 1 competitor has only repeated his keywords 5 times, you need only use 6 or 7 to beat him out of his top spot. No need to take chances if it's not necessary.
Simply keep an eye on your placement, and do what you have to do to remain "competitive". Sometimes you can get into a "placement war" with someone. In this case remember that at some point it could get you both kicked from the search engine!! So don't be too greedy. Number 2 is not quite as good as number 1, but it sure beats no placement at all.
Database Refresh:
Infoseek claims to "revisit and re-index" pages every 3 weeks, but our research shows that they do not. We recommend that when your pages change, you re-register them and have them scheduled for re-visiting by their computer robot if you desire to improve or even maintain your position.
Registration: http://www.Infoseek.com/
Go to the main Infoseek page. At the bottom left corner, click "add site". When you get to the "add site" page, read their information on registration.
Infoseek's has strong ties to Netscape guaranteeing that many people will use the service. This alone makes it a very significant search engine and one that you absolutely need to be registered with and well positioned in.
Title Tags
At this time, it seems that everything goes on Infoseek! You may choose to use long titles packed with keywords. Last time we checked it was working like a charm.
In fact, new information just in suggests that Keyword packed titles are working better, and showing up more in the top ten results than even those with large amounts of tail-tagging.
General Infoseek Information:
Infoseek has recently been added to the MetaCRAWLER composite search engine.
What this means is that anyone searching on MetaCRAWLER will have the Infoseek results merged with the other five MetaCRAWLER search engines, which are: Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Webcrawler, Excite, and Lycos.
By now you should see that keyword density, Keyword title and keyword "tail tagging" at the bottom of relatively short pages of text is the game to play with Infoseek.
Use keyword phrases with Infoseek and all the other search engines. This is the only way a searcher will get meaningful results with their search, so program your pages to work with Key phases that include the most commonly applicable keywords.
Infoseek DOES claim to penalize pages with repeating key words. We have found little evidence that this is true. Infoseek also appears to give a preference to newly registered pages, so in order to stay on the top of their list, it would again be wise to regularly register new pages with slightly different titles as well as to slightly change your pages that are not working and re-register them.
Lycos
Lycos Specifications:
Lycos is very similar to Infoseek in it's search guidelines. You can even use the same page for both search engines if you wish. Lycos has over 60 million indexed pages.
A good plan of attack for initially placing your websites is to start with Infoseek because of their quick submission process. You can then fine tune your site to get it to the positioning you want and see the results immediately.
Then, place the same page with Lycos in order to get a jump on the sometimes time consuming submission process. We'll give you some additional tips and tricks for Lycos that you may want to include in your website submission. In either case, if it works well on Infoseek, it should work with Lycos.
Meta Tag Support:
Yes, Lycos does support Meta Tags if, and only if they are placed after the title tags!!!
Database Refresh:
2 weeks.
Average Submission time:
Usually takes from 3 to 5 weeks.
To register with Lycos, go to http://www.lycos.com/addasite.html
Lycos has a very user friendly submit page. You will also find that Lycos has a convenient way to find out if your URL is in their catalog. It's on the same page as the "submit URL" page and easy to use.
Title Tags:
Lycos DOES accept multiple titles. Long keyword- stuffed titles also seem to be working well. It is suggested that you not use a carriage return in the title tag if possible. This produces a long single line of text that is not as obvious to a human inspector.
General Information:
Lycos relies somewhat on a factor called "page popularity". This means that the more popular a page is the higher the ranking. The number of links on other pages pointing toward your page can also play a role in this rating. However, the "Page Popularity" factor seems to be a minor one.
Tail tagging does not work as well on Lycos as it does on Infoseek. Try to place your keywords at or near the TOP of your page.
Almost all of the successful web designers are using long Titles with multiple keywords and phrases. In addition, they are also using the Meta Keywords to improve their site's position on a search.
Many top ranked sites are "re-direct" pages, but that is not why they are working. The reason is because of the Title and Meta keyword descriptions. You should focus on long Titles with all of your keywords/phrases and Metas. In addition, be sure to use the Alt Tag in your pictures to describe the content of your site.
Also remember that Meta "descriptions" ARE used for the "summary" of your page, provided that the Meta is sandwiched between the title and the Body tags.
The !comment technique is also being used successfully by some pages and certainly does not appear to hurt the page positioning.
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Specifications:
Yahoo! is the oldest major web site directory. It's actually considered a "catalog" of websites rather than a search engine. It's sites are listed alphabetically by category, and all submissions are overseen by human inspectors - the dreaded "Yahooligans!"
Because of the "human overseen" cataloging process, Yahoo! can be one of the trickiest search engines to work with as far as positioning. By the same token, the very reasons that make it tricky, can make it one of the simplest engines to gain favorable placement with.
Up until the end of 1996, Yahoo! used to list everything alphabetically However, starting 1/1/97 they began sorting more by relevance. This means that you must pay close attention to which categories come up first in your keyword searches and pick the relevant categories that show up at the top of the list.
The categories run in strings of sub-categories leading hopefully to the one(s) that you've requested your site to be placed in.
For example, if you look up the search words "real estate", you are given the following list of sub-category "strings" to help narrow your search.
1. "Business and Economy: Companies: Real Estate"
2. "Business and Economy: Companies: Financial Services: Real Estate"
3. "Business and Economy: Real Estate"
This list continues with "auctions", "reports", "products and services", as well as several "states and cities".
If we choose the first listing, which sounds closest to what we are looking for, we are taken next to another list of sub-categories. From here we can choose "regional" to try and narrow the search.
If we were to enter: "real estate florida", Yahoo! returns a string of sub categories to choose from, but if you notice, it's a completely different string of categories, leading to a completely different listing of sites. You end up with:
1. "Regional: U.S. States: Florida: Real state:"
2. "Regional: U.S. States: Florida: Cities: Naples: Real estate:"
3. "Regional: U.S. States: Florida: Cities: Orlando: Real estate:"
The list continues on and on, naming the other Florida cities that have categories on Yahoo!.
If we click on "Orlando" for example, we go next to the page that lists all the Real Estate companies in Orlando, that have registered in that category with Yahoo!.
NOTICE THAT ALL THE LISTINGS ARE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER! We will discuss this a little later.
In our first example, "real estate", we turned up far FEWER companies, than we did in our second example, "real estate florida". Usually the BEST choice of categories to place your web site is the one with the MOST other relevant companies.
If the first search only turns up one or two possibilities, your potential viewers will correctly assume they need to modify their search parameters. This will lead them to the category with the most listings to choose from.
"Hmmmm... How do I find the right categories to list my site in?"
Good question. Now is where your research skills come into play. Yahoo! is persnickety to the point of obnoxiousness, and it is my fond hope - and the hope of many others - that eventually it will bite them where it hurts.
In the meantime, you must think like your potential client, viewer or consumer. For instance, if your real estate company was in Florida, would your potential customers enter as a search phrase, "real estate", which would return the list like our first example? Or would they more likely enter something like "florida real estate" initially?
These are the types of questions that will help you to position your site into the correct categories. Think of some of your competitors and find out where they are listed. Try ALL of your different search words and phrases. It will soon become apparent which categories are the best. Sometimes it's quite simple, other times it takes a week of research, but eventually you should have a good idea of where to best position your website.
Many times two completely different search phrases eventually lead to the same exact category. It just takes time and research to find the best and most common route your potential viewers will take to find your site.
Since Yahoo! allows you to place your web site into TWO and only TWO categories, It is imperative that you choose wisely. Also try not to pick two categories that both lead to the same final sub-directory. In either case your viewers would have ended up in the same spot. Try to choose the two best unrelated categories.
With Yahoo!, two elements are very important:
#1 - Keywords in your title
#2 - Alphabetical Listing
Yahoo!'s new "sort by relevancy" default option returns pages with the selected search keywords in the title first, and then, all other things being equal, by alphabetical listing.
Submissions:
Yahoo! will NOT accept your site registration if you initiate the submission from the wrong page on their site. (Or for 9 million other reasons that strike any one of their people at the moment.) You MUST first go to the category page that you wish to be listed in BEFORE you click the "Add URL" found in the icons at the top of each "registerable" category.
If you are a business or commercial enterprise, be sure to pick the best two categories first, register them & wait for them to be "cataloged" before you submit any additional pages.
REMEMBER: Your submission MUST be submitted from the correct category page or it will not be registered at all. The "Add URL" icon must be present at the top of the category page you want to register from. If not, you are attempting to register from the wrong page.
Also, the "Category" field must already be filled in. DO NOT CHANGE IT!
If the "category" box is empty or has a category that you do not want to be registered in, you are attempting to register from the wrong location on the Yahoo! site. Pay careful attention here or else your submissions will be ignored.
Title is everything with Yahoo! because they list pages in each category based upon the keywords in your title, and then alphabetically if all other things are equal. If you have titled your page properly the alphabetical listing is all you really need to worry about.
Your page content MUST be consistent with your title. The Yahooligans are no dummies. If you try to use something like "AAA-1 Automotive" You had better make that name consistently appear throughout your site, and even then there is no guarantee that they'll even list your site. If they think you're trying to trick them you will be ignored.
Yahoo! frequently ignores even perfectly legitimate registrations. They are anti-commercial and in my opinion, a little power-mad. In any case, no one could say they are not arbitrary in their whims. It pays to keep a detailed record of all your submissions and, if your page fails to appear after 6 weeks, contact Yahoo! It is very unlikely that they will bother to reply. If they don't, re-register the pages. Only you can say when dealing with megalomania becomes more trouble than it's worth.
With Yahoo!, you need to design normal "informational" pages with carefully selected keywords in your title. You must also register them into the proper categories. Your title should be
"alphabetically" advantageous whenever possible.
"Trick" pages are a waste of time with Yahoo! This means that "text spamdexing, keywords, Meta's, redirects, doorway pages, etc" are useless when submitting to Yahoo!. They will probably get you banned.
In summary you should, first, check to see who your competition is and then design your title to "keyword" and "alphabetically" beat them. If you use a little imagination and follow these guidelines, you MAY get registered with Yahoo! - that is, if you use a color scheme they like, or it isn't Tuesday . . .
Excite
Excite Specifications:
Since Excite is now the exclusive search engine for America Online, they're directly connected to AOL's 7 million subscribers. This is a huge consumer base to draw from, so you should pay careful attention to this MAJOR source of viewers and potential business.
"This arrangement strengthens Excite's position as the leading Internet navigation network by way of a significant traffic increase and a key long-term distribution agreement with AOL," said George Bell, President and CEO of Excite. "This new partnership expands on our strategy to lead consolidation and build traffic, revenue, and new products."
Excite Specifications:
With over 12 million indexed pages, Excite is a major player in the search engine market.
Excite has recently changed their "look", so if you haven't been there in a while, you'll notice that they've changed their colors and layout. The URL's however have remained the same.
Meta Tag Support:
At this time, Excite does NOT support Meta Tags. You will notice a lot of "nonsense" summaries as you search through their listings. This is because they seem to use randomly selected text from the top of the page. As a suggestion, you might want to try to "help" Excite to use your prepared summary by placing your description repeatedly within !comment tags at the top of your Body text.
Database Refresh:
They claim to refresh their database weekly, but we've found a more realistic time period is normally at least two weeks.
Average Submission Time:
It is usually about 6 weeks.
Registration:
To register, go to: http://www.Excite.com/. At the very bottom left corner, click "add site".
Add each URL that you wish to register, one at a time. You'll need to register your first page, then use the "back" button on your browser to get back to the registration page. You can then copy and paste (from your text editor) the next URL, and so on until you have completed registering all the URL's in your website.
Multiple Titles:
Although Excite has accepted multiple titles in the past, NONE have been observed recently in the top ten searches we have done. Keywords in the title are relatively important, however we did not find much keyword "stuffing" or repeating keywords in the top ten listings.
General Information:
Currently one of the best techniques we have found is to incorporate a lot of "Keyword links" in your page. This means you might want to consider changing the names of the links on your home page.
For example: If the links on your home page were, "NEW," "USED," "PARTS," and "SERVICE," you would choose words that related to your keyword theme for that particular page. If your keywords for that page were R.V.'s, you would choose to name your links: "NEW R.V.'s," "USED R.V.'s," "R.V. PARTS," and "R.V. SERVICE."
Actually, this is a good idea for ANY of your pages. Anytime you can add more relevant keywords to your page, without looking tacky or redundant, you should do it. Especially on Excite.
Keyword "stuffed" pages have NOT been showing up very prominently in the top ten list searches we've done recently. This indicates a change in the way Excite is evaluating its returns. Very little "tail-tagging" is now showing up in the top listing.
TIP: Excite seems to be giving preference to newly submitted and refreshed pages, so try to keep your pages here as fresh as possible.
Use the title to contain your best keywords, even if it is very lengthy. Again, repeated keywords have NOT been helping with Excite
Regardless of the kind of Keyword or Key phrase search we did, many of the pages that were found in competitive searches relied on keyword density to rise to the top of the list, and many of these pages were very short on text.
Excite's relevancy ratings are important. This means that you normally won't find all of the top 20 or 30 pages with the same relevancy rating, like on some of the other engines. This is actually good, because you can examine the top pages to find out why it is rating high, and go one step better with your page.
At this time "redirect pages" HAVE been working with Excite. You remember that a redirect page relies on just a few words - sometimes only one word - to produce a very high relevancy rating. A one word "redirect" page can have a 100% relevancy, which is very rare with Excite.
All of the Excite pages which are returning in the top "keyword" and "key phrase" lists are relatively short pages or VERY short pages that rely on keyword "density" to make it to the top of the list. Some of them are single word "redirect" pages while the bulk of the others are less than 75 to 100 words of viewable text with good use of keywords and key phrases.
ALTA VISTA
Alta Vista Specifications:
Until recently, Alta Vista was giving heavy preference to pages submitted before 1997. This is no longer the case. The newly registered pages seem to be scoring as high or higher than the older listings.
The problem we see now with Alta Vista, is that many of the listings returned on any given search are not nearly as relevant as those returned on most of the other search engines. They may be trying to confuse or frustrate the efforts of those individuals and businesses trying to better their search placement.
Unfortunately, the users of Alta Vista are suffering as a result of this. So many of these search engines are so busy playing power games with commercial sites that they seem to forget their primary purpose. Since the search results are less relevant, it takes more search time for their viewers to find the information they are looking for. It won't be long before they begin getting their information from a quicker more reliable source.
Alta Vista Specifications:
Alta Vista contains over 30 million indexed pages! So, even though we're frustrated by their irrelevancy in our searches, with this large of a consumer base, we feel Alta Vista must be included in any marketing strategy.
Meta Tag Support:
Alta Vista DOES at this time support Meta Tag keywords and descriptions.
Meta keywords are NOT being used however, by many of the top scoring pages we have found recently. This indicates that Alta Vista may be penalizing for Meta keywords, or at least for repeated keywords.
If you choose to use Meta keywords in an effort to help your relevancy rating, DO NOT REPEAT THEM MORE THAN ONCE!! Not even for purposes of UPPER/lower case sensitivity.
In the case of Meta Description tags, you SHOULD use these to describe your page. Your chances of having a meaningful summary will be greatly increased by doing this. Alta Vista will NOT penalize you for this.
Database Refresh:
Monthly.
Average submission time:
Alta usually runs about 6 to 8 weeks on submission time.
To submit your site, go to:
http://www.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=tmpl&v=addurl.html
Titles:
Alta Vista does accept multiple Titles, but they have rarely shown to be among the top scoring pages, and we don't recommend them. You should use keywords only ONCE in the title. Long titles that include many different keywords are being used effectively.
The main thing to remember with Alta Vista is to use your best keywords in the title of your page, within your title tags! This is an absolute MUST if you hope to score high with this search engine.
General Information:
With Alta Vista, title is EVERYTHING! If the keyword that people use to search for you is not in your title Your page will score LOW or not at all.
The problem with long titles containing all of your keywords is that it tends to dilute your keyword relevancy rating.
Therefore, your best option is to make several duplicate pages with different URL's and different titles in order to significantly increase your chances of being found on the best keyword and key phrase searches available for your particular service or product.
Most of the highest scoring pages in our test searches on Alta Vista contained relatively few keywords in the body of text on the page. In many cases the keywords were used only ONE or TWO times in the entire page.
Put keywords within Headline Tags. Alta Vista looks for keywords close to the top of the page and the nearer to the top of the page, the higher the score.
One trick that seems to be working with some pages is to use the !comment line to insert keywords for more favorable positioning.
One particular page we viewed repeats their keywords over 30 times within the !comment tags. For them it seems to be working well since they are the number one scoring page in their category.
With Alta Vista remember the following:
Use keywords ONCE in Your title. Use keywords, Keyword phrases, and even spamdexing within your !comment tags. Use Meta Tags to force Alta Vista to accurately "describe" your page
Keep the page as brief as realistically possible in order to increase keyword density. Use your "Alta Vista" designed page(s) as side doors into the rest of your web site. However, OBVIOUS "redirect" or "doorway" pages are not scoring high. Create multiple doors to your site using the guidelines we've outlined and you should score well on Alta Vista.
WEBCRAWLER
Webcrawler Specifications:
Webcrawler was recently purchased by Excite. Therefore, Webcrawler should continue to be one of the top search engines.
Granted they do have one of the smallest indexed databases of all of the Big Seven, but they also have one of the largest USER bases of all the search engines. This means less websites to compete with, and more potential viewers. They may also soon have access to Excite's database of over 11 million documents.
Meta Tag Support:
At this time Webcrawler states that they DO NOT support Meta Tags. Our own research has shown that including Meta Tags in your pages submitted to Webcrawler will NOT hurt your positioning either. We have elected in many cases to go ahead and include Meta tag descriptions and keywords in the case that the do begin to support them, that they will already be in place.
Database Refresh:
Webcrawler claims to index and update pages every month, although we have seen many times that they have not.
Average Submission Time:
You may as well plan on at least 5 to 6 weeks after you register your page with Webcrawler, until the time that you can pull it up. We have seen them take as long as 8 weeks, so be patient.
Registration: http://www.webcrawler.com/WebCrawler/SubmitURLS.html
To register with Webcrawler, list the URL(s) that you want to register in their "form" and their robot will automatically visit your site. It is OK to list several URLs at once, however, you should take their advise and limit your registrations to no more than 10 at one time.
Webcrawler claims not to accept "redirect pages" but they do. If you do several keyword searches on Webcrawler, you'll find that many of the top pages are using "re-direct", "invisible text", "spamdexing" and pages with excellent keyword density.
To check the status of a previously submitted page:
http://www.webcrawler.com/WebCrawler/Status.html
Titles:
Title is very important with Webcrawler. In your test searches you'll notice many long titles. This should be a number one concern when initially designing a page for this search engine. The first 8 to 10 words should make sense to a viewer, but since the title is cut off at approximately that point, go ahead and insert your most relevant keywords.
General Webcrawler Information:
Webcrawler states that pages loaded with "spamdexing" will be removed from their index. However if you stay within the guidelines we have set forth previously, you shouldn't have any problems.
Many top pages on Webcrawler are using no tricks at all. They are simply using very high keyword density combined with a relatively short opening or "redirect" page.
An example would be:
Recreational Vehicles
Wilder R.V.
Hundreds of Recreational Vehicles
Your R.V. Headquarters
Show me the R.V.'s
This page would pull up extremely high if not in the top ten, since most search engines index "R.V." the same as "Recreational Vehicle". Keep in mind that this type of page will only work if the search words are "Recreational Vehicles" or "R.V.".
To give this page some additional "search power" you might add some invisible text at the top and/or bottom of the page. Remember the rule of SEVEN.
What we would do is try it with invisible text at the bottom, repeating the keywords "recreational vehicles, R.V. Recreational Vehicles, r.v.". Notice how we alternate between capitalized and non capitalized letters.
Some people even include keywords in ALL capital letters, "RECREATIONAL VEHICLES", but we feel that very few people who are even remotely familiar with the Internet would use all caps. In fact most people become used to typing mostly in lower case letters, even in places they would normally capitalize.
Webcrawler seems to give preference to newly registered pages, so in order to stay on the top of their list, it would be wise to regularly register new pages with slightly different titleS as well as to slightly change your page(s) and re-register them.
In summary, the key to Webcrawler is keyword density. In addition, "doorway pages" and "redirects", done correctly, can be effective. "Invisible text" has also proven successful if used within reason.
Hot Bot
Hot Bot Specifications:
Hot Bot indexes more than 54 million pages, so it is considered one of the big seven search engines. However, their relevancy ratings are far less meaningful than some of the other search engines. In other words, there are frequently many pages that are "tied" in relevancy rating.
For example, in any given search for a particular keyword, Hot Bot may return 1000, 2000 or more sites, all with a relevancy rating of 99%.
What this means is that scoring high on a SINGLE keyword search is simply luck of the draw, regardless of what you do to your page design.
What we need to concentrate on with Hot Bot is KEY "PHRASES". Hot Bot is forcing their users to narrow down their searches and thereby forcing the web page designer to rely more on "key phrases" than key words.
Here's an example: If you search Hot Bot for the exact word "Indian", it chooses the most relevant sites from over 398,000 possibilities in an apparently random fashion. Your chances of being pulled up in the top 100 are very slim.
But, if we narrow the search to "Indian bows and arrows" guess what? only 14 listings returned! Even if you pull up at the bottom of the list you're still in the ball game. In any case it's a lot better than the previous example.
The point is, Hot Bot forces their users to be very specific in order to turn up meaningful search results. Because of this, you need to pay close attention to adding very specific keyword phrases when you design your pages for Hot Bot.
Meta Tag Support:
Meta keywords DO affect your positioning on Hot Bot, however there is no evidence that repeating them will improve your page's position. Make sure that you include all of your pertinent keywords in your Meta keywords description at least once.
Meta "descriptions" are used for the summary. If you don't force Hot Bot to use your Meta "description" as the summary, it will grab the first words on your page and use them as the summary. Unlike some of the other search engines that only use Meta descriptions found after the title tag, Hot Bot uses them regardless of their positioning.
Database Refresh:
Monthly, but sometimes as long as 6 weeks.
Average Submission Time:
About 6 weeks.
Titles:
Hot Bot DOES accept multiple titles, but we've not seen any evidence that it helps in positioning.
Unlike most other search engines, title is NOT the most important aspect of your page in a Hot Bot search. Many top pages did not even contain the search word or phrase in the title at all!
Remember: Meta Tags are one of the few ways to force Hot Bot to return your site high on the list. Be sure to use the "description" as well as the "keyword" Meta's tags.
Keyword density is also important to Hot Bot. Many top pages are short on words and loaded with image links. By making your images the links to other pages in your site, you are helping to increase keyword density of your web page.
"Tail tagging", "doorway pages" and "re-directs" were not found high on any Hot Bot search, nor was body text "spamdexing".
Most of the pages found high on the Hot Bot searches were very straight forward, relatively short, (usually not more than one to one-and-a-half screens), and keyword dense -- with images as links.
Conclusion
You will find that the information presented in this article has given you a tremendous tactical advantage over many of your competition. You are now one of the few publishers who actually have a good understanding of why some pages make it to the top, and stay there, while other pages are forever doomed to obscurity.
Finally, you should also be aware that "secrets of top search engine placement" is only half the battle. In order to "win" the overall battle you must also design a page that works properly, is consistent with your intended purpose for being on the Internet, and serves your audience.
One word of caution about changes you make to your web pages! REMEMBER TO SEND YOUR NEW PAGE(S) TO YOUR SERVER!! Many times people make changes to a page, resubmitted them to the search engine or engines, only to find out later that the new page was never FTP'd to the server, and the old page was indexed instead of the new one! Save yourself some aggravation and remember to get into a habit of immediately sending any changed pages to your server.
Also, keep DETAILED records of all of your submissions. In doing so you you will save yourself a lot of headaches down the line. To continue to stay successful, you must be continually checking and rechecking your sites of the various search engines to maintain your advantage over your competition. Without good records you will quickly become lost as to which page was sent where and you'll have to literally start all over.
You should record the exact dates sites were submitted, the search engines they were submitted to, URL's registered, descriptions of your site, etc. By keeping data regarding your registration efforts you will gain additional knowledge about what is working and how long to expect between submission time and the time that you appear in the various search engines.
From our Legal Department:
Disclaimer: The authors and publisher of this report have made every attempt to provide the latest and most effective information possible. However, since the Internet changes frequently, what works today may or may not work tomorrow. In addition, it must be recognized that we have no control over your ability to follow directions, nor do we have any control whatsoever over the actions and performance of the various search engines. Therefore, we cannot and do not accept any liability in regards to the results that you might experience, advantageous, adverse or otherwise. Although we believe that the techniques in this article will work, due to the fact that they have worked in the past, we must make it clear that use of some of this information DOES ENTAIL RISK, and if you choose to follow the examples set forth in this article, you do so at your own risk.
