A Guide To Search Engine OptimizationHow To Boost The Rankings Of Your Websites |
5. Ranking RulesRanking Rules The simple rule of thumb is that content counts, and that content near the top of a page counts for more than content at the end. In particular, the HTML title and the first couple lines of text are the most important part of your pages. If the words and phrases that match a query happen to appear in the HTML title or first couple lines of text of one of your pages, chances are very good that that page will appear high in the list of search results. AltaVista bases its ranking on both static factors (a computation of the value of page independent of any particular query) and query-dependent factors. It values: ? Long pages, which are rich in meaningful text (not randomly generated letters and words). ? Pages that serve as good hubs, with lots of links to pages that that have related content (topic similarity, rather than random meaningless links, such as those generated by link exchange programs or intended to generate a false impression of "popularity"). ? The connectivity of pages, including not just how many links there are to a page but where the links come from: the number of distinct domains and the "quality" ranking of those particular sites. This is calculated for the site and also for individual pages. A site or a page is "good" if many pages at many different sites point to it, and especially if many "good" sites point to it. ? The level of the directory in which the page is found. Higher is considered more important. If a page is buried too deep, and the crawler simply won't go that far and will never find it. These static factors are recomputed about once a week, and new good pages slowly percolate upward in the rankings. Note that there are advantages to having a simple address and sticking to it, so others can build links to it, and so you know that it's in the index Query-dependent factors include: ? The HTML title. ? The first lines of text. ? Query words and phrases appearing early in a page rather than late. ? Meta tags, which are treated as ordinary words in the text, but like words that appear early in the text (unless the meta tags are patently unrelated to the content on the page itself, in which case the page will be penalized) ? Words mentioned in the "anchor" text associated with hyperlinks to your pages. (E.g., if lots of good sites link to your site with anchor text "breast cancer" and the query is "breast cancer," chances are good that you will appear high in the list of matches.) AltaVista's policy on doorway pages and cloaking AltaVista is opposed to doorway pages and cloaking. It considers doorway and cloaked pages to be spam and encourages people to use other avenues to increase the relevancy of their pages. A description of doorway pages and cloaking is given later on in this guide. Meta tags Though it indexes Meta tags, considering them to be regular text, AltaVista claims it doesn't give them priority over HTML titles and other text. Though you should use meta tags in all your pages, some webmasters claim their doorway pages for AltaVista rank better when they don't use them. If you do use Meta tags, make your description tag no more than 150 characters and your keywords tag no more than 1,024 characters long. Keywords in the URL and file names It's generally believed that AltaVista gives some weight to keywords in filenames and URL names. If you're creating a file, try to name it with keywords. Keywords in the ALT tags AltaVista indexes ALT tags, so if you use images on your site, make sure to add them. ALT tags should contain more than the image's description. They should include keywords, especially if the image is at the top of the page. ALT tags are explained later. Page Length There's been some debate about how long doorway pages for AltaVista should be. Some webmasters say short pages rank higher, while others argue that long pages are the way to go. According to AltaVista's help section, it prefers long and informative pages. We've found that pages with 600-900 words are most likely to rank well. Frame support AltaVista has the ability to index frames, but it sometimes indexes and links to pages intended only as navigation. To keep this from happening to you, submit a frame-free site map containing the pages that you want indexed. You may also want to include a "robots.txt" file to prohibit AltaVista from indexing certain pages. AltaVista’s Search Features AltaVista offers a wide range of search features. Most of these options are available in its "Advanced Search" section. ? Boolean search - Full Boolean Search support. AND (+), OR, AND NOT (-) (instead of NOT) Search terms can be nested. ? Phrase - Available. Put quotes around the phrase, such as "New York Times" ? Proximity - Available. NEAR operator means within ten words of one another. Can be nested with other tags. ? Word Stemming - Available. You can use the wild card (*) at the end or in the middle of a word. ? Capitalization - If you search in upper case, AltaVista searches in upper case only. Lower case words and phrases search for upper and lower case, and will therefore yield more results. ? Field Search - The following options are available: o Applet: searches for the name of an applet o Domain: specifies the domain extension, such as .com o Host: searches for pages within a particular site o Image: searches for an image name o Link: searches for pages that link to the specified site o Object: search engines - searches for the name of an object o Text: excludes Meta tags information o Title: search in the HTML title only o URL: searches for sites that have a specified word in the URL ? Date Searching - Available under Advanced Search section. ? Search within results - Available. This option is offered after each search. ? Media Type searching - Available for Images, Music/MP3, and Video. ? Language Searching - AltaVista has very extensive language support. It supports around 30 languages. Teoma adds a new dimension and level of authority to search results through its approach, known as Subject-Specific PopularitySM. Instead of ranking results based upon the sites with the most links leading to them, Teoma analyzes the Web as it is organically organized—in naturally-occurring communities that are about or related to the same subject—to determine which sites are most relevant. Teoma’s search technology can locate communities on the Web within their specific subject areas, as they actually exist. To determine the authority—and thus the overall quality and relevance—of a site's content, Teoma uses Subject-Specific PopularitySM. Subject-Specific Popularity ranks a site based on the number of same-subject pages that reference it, not just general popularity. In a recent test performed by Search Engine Watch, Teoma's relevance grade was raised to an "A" following the integration of Teoma 2.0. Teoma 2.0: Evolution and Growth In early 2003, Teoma 2.0 was launched. The enhanced version represents a major evolution in terms of improvements to relevance and an expansion of the overall advanced search functionalities. Below are detailed explanations for the improvements made in this version: More Communities Like social networks in the real world, the Web is clustered into local communities. Communities are groups of Web pages that are about or are closely related to the same subject. Teoma is the only search technology that can view these communities as they naturally occur on the Web (displayed under the heading "Refine" on Teoma.com). This method allows Teoma to generate more finely tuned search results. In other words, Teoma's community-based approach reveals a 3-D image of the Web, providing it with more information about a particular Web page than other search engines, which have only a one-dimensional view of the Web. Web-Based Spell Check Teoma's proprietary Spell Check technology identifies query misspellings and offers corrections that help improve the relevance and precision of search results. The Spell Check technology, developed by Teoma's team of scientists, leverages the real-time content of the Web to determine the correct spelling of a word. Dynamic DescriptionsSM Dynamic Descriptions enhance search results by showing the context of search terms as they actually appear on referring Web pages. This feature provides searchers with information that helps them to determine the relevance of a given Web page in association with their query. Advanced Search Tools Teoma's Advanced Search tools allow searchers to search using specific criteria, such as exact phrase, page location, geographic region, domain and site, date, and other word filters. Users can also search using 10 Western languages, including Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. A link to Teoma's Advanced Search tools can be found next to the search box on Teoma.com. The Teoma Algorithm In addition to utilizing existing search techniques, Teoma applies what they call authority, a new measure of relevance, to deliver search results. For this purpose, Teoma employs three proprietary techniques: Refine, Results and Resources. Refine First, Teoma organizes sites into naturally occurring communities that are about the subject of each search query. These communities are presented under the heading "Refine" on the Teoma.com results page. This tool allows a user to further focus his or her specific search. For example, a search for "Soprano" would present a user with a set of refinement suggestions such as "Marie-Adele McArther" (a renowned soprano), "Three Sopranos" (the operatic trio), "The Sopranos" (the wildly-popular HBO television show) as well as several other choices. No other technology can dynamically cluster search results into the actual communities as they exist on the Web. Results Next, after identifying these communities, Teoma employs a technique called Subject-Specific PopularitySM. Subject-Specific Popularity analyzes the relationship of sites within a community, ranking a site based on the number of same-subject pages that reference it, among hundreds of other criteria. In other words, Teoma determines the best answer for a search by asking experts within a specific subject community about who they believe is the best resource for that subject. By assessing the opinions of a site's peers, Teoma establishes authority for the search result. Relevant search results ranked by Subject-Specific Popularity are presented under the heading "Results" on the Teoma.com results page. In some instances companies pay to have their Web sites included within Teoma's dataset, otherwise known as the Teoma Index. Like all Web sites, these sites are processed through Teoma's search algorithms and are not guaranteed placement in the results. This ensures that relevancy is the primary driver of results. Resources Finally, by dividing the Web into local subject communities, Teoma is able to find and identify expert resources about a particular subject. These sites feature lists of other authoritative sites and links relating to the search topic. For example, a professor of Middle Eastern history may have created a page devoted to his collection of sites that explain the geography and topography of the Persian Gulf. This site would appear under the heading "Resources" in response to a Persian Gulf-related query. No previous search technology has been able to find and rank these sites.
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Browse Site2. the Different Between Se & Directory 3. Algorithms, Crawling & More 4. Submitting Your Url to Google 7. How Does Inktomi Rank Web Pages 9. How to Boost the Rankings of Your Pages 10. Must Have Features Your Web Site 11. Bonus Tips to Get Repeat Web Traffic 12. Web Hosting Services and Domain Names |
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