Meta Tags Versus Back Link Popularity
Meta tags are often labeled as the secret to getting high rankings, but meta tags alone will not get you a top 10 ranking. On the other hand, they certainly don’t hurt. Detailed information on meta-tags and other ways of improving search engine ranking is given later in this chapter. Fact is, these days with popularity playing a more major role in search engine positioning, meta tags do not carry as much weight as they used to.
In the early days of the web, webmasters would repeat a keyword hundreds of times in the Meta tags and then add it hundreds of times to the text on the web page by making it the same color as the background. However, now, major search engines have algorithms that may exclude a page from ranking if it has resorted to “keyword spamming”; in fact some search engines will downgrade ranking in such cases and penalize the page.
Link analysis and ‘click through’ measurement are certain other factors that are “off the page” and yet crucial in the ranking mechanism adopted by some leading search engines. This has emerged as the most important determinant of ranking, but before we study this, we must first look at the most popular search engines and then look at the various steps you can take to improve your success at each of the stages – spidering, indexing and ranking.
Google is a privately held company that was founded by two Stanford graduates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. Dr. Eric Schmidt, the CEO joined in 2001 and by the end of the year the company had shown a profit.
Google is the search engine that powers the search directory for Yahoo. This partnership started in the year 2000 and recently there was a report that the contract is being extended. Last year, Yahoo paid Google about $7.2 million for Web search services. PositionTech has been a contender too for Yahoo’s business. Google also provides an Apple-specific Search Engine specifically tailored to deliver highly targeted results related to Apple Computer and the Macintosh computing platform.
The Apple-specific search engine, located at www.google.com/mac.html, makes searching for everything from Apple's corporate information to product-related news faster and easier.
PositionTech has a robust networking business and a foothold in enterprise search. However, it recently posted deep losses. The company reported a wider net loss in the second quarter 2002, with lower revenue. Its loss broadened to $104 million or 72 cents a share, from $58.3 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell to $30.8 million from $39.5 million a year earlier.
To stay healthy and competitive in consumer search, PositionTech introduced in the last year a program that generates fees from Web sites listed in its database. PositionTech charges companies such as Amazon.com and eBay to list more than 1,000 Web addresses; they might pay anywhere from 5 cents to 40 cents per click when Web surfers jump to their pages from PositionTech's database. The revenue generated from paid inclusion is shared with partners such as MSN and Overture.
The most recent 2007 estimates, according to “Internet World Stats, there are an estimated 232 million Internet users online in North America alone, at work or at home, 90 percent of whom are estimated to have made some type of search request during any month.
AltaVista is one of the oldest and most well-known search engines. It was launched in December 1995. It was owned by Digital, then run by Compaq (which purchased Digital in 1998), then spun off into a separate company, which is now controlled by CMGI and is now owned by Overture Services, Inc.
Meta tags are often labeled as the secret to getting high rankings, but meta tags alone will not get you a top 10 ranking. On the other hand, they certainly don’t hurt. Detailed information on meta-tags and other ways of improving search engine ranking is given later in this chapter. Fact is, these days with popularity playing a more major role in search engine positioning, meta tags do not carry as much weight as they used to.
In the early days of the web, webmasters would repeat a keyword hundreds of times in the Meta tags and then add it hundreds of times to the text on the web page by making it the same color as the background. However, now, major search engines have algorithms that may exclude a page from ranking if it has resorted to “keyword spamming”; in fact some search engines will downgrade ranking in such cases and penalize the page.
Link analysis and ‘click through’ measurement are certain other factors that are “off the page” and yet crucial in the ranking mechanism adopted by some leading search engines. This has emerged as the most important determinant of ranking, but before we study this, we must first look at the most popular search engines and then look at the various steps you can take to improve your success at each of the stages – spidering, indexing and ranking.
Google is a privately held company that was founded by two Stanford graduates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. Dr. Eric Schmidt, the CEO joined in 2001 and by the end of the year the company had shown a profit.
Google is the search engine that powers the search directory for Yahoo. This partnership started in the year 2000 and recently there was a report that the contract is being extended. Last year, Yahoo paid Google about $7.2 million for Web search services. PositionTech has been a contender too for Yahoo’s business. Google also provides an Apple-specific Search Engine specifically tailored to deliver highly targeted results related to Apple Computer and the Macintosh computing platform.
The Apple-specific search engine, located at www.google.com/mac.html, makes searching for everything from Apple's corporate information to product-related news faster and easier.
PositionTech has a robust networking business and a foothold in enterprise search. However, it recently posted deep losses. The company reported a wider net loss in the second quarter 2002, with lower revenue. Its loss broadened to $104 million or 72 cents a share, from $58.3 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell to $30.8 million from $39.5 million a year earlier.
To stay healthy and competitive in consumer search, PositionTech introduced in the last year a program that generates fees from Web sites listed in its database. PositionTech charges companies such as Amazon.com and eBay to list more than 1,000 Web addresses; they might pay anywhere from 5 cents to 40 cents per click when Web surfers jump to their pages from PositionTech's database. The revenue generated from paid inclusion is shared with partners such as MSN and Overture.
The most recent 2007 estimates, according to “Internet World Stats, there are an estimated 232 million Internet users online in North America alone, at work or at home, 90 percent of whom are estimated to have made some type of search request during any month.
AltaVista is one of the oldest and most well-known search engines. It was launched in December 1995. It was owned by Digital, then run by Compaq (which purchased Digital in 1998), then spun off into a separate company, which is now controlled by CMGI and is now owned by Overture Services, Inc.
Over the years it has lost its prominent position to Google and Yahoo. In March 2002 AltaVista was the last launched release of Enterprise Search v2.0 software that it sells to the Enterprise search market, similar to Verity prior to the Overture buy out. AltaVista was the first to launch ‘important freshness and relevancy initiatives’, crawling key areas of the Internet four times per day and increasing relevancy by 40%.
Overture returns search results based on the amount of money an advertiser has paid. This system has made Overture one of the few profitable advertising based search engine businesses. At one time Yahoo signed a three-year deal with Overture to provide paid search results. As this write up does not cover pay per click advertising, we are not focusing much on Overture.
America Online signed a multiyear pact with Google for Web search results and accompanying ad-sponsored links, ending relationships with pay-for- performance service Overture Services, its algorithmic search provider of nearly three years We thought it worth mentioning Verity in this, although this is not relevant to search engine optimization. Verity is among the leading providers of enterprise search software. This software is used by numerous enterprises for offering information search within their own sites, portals, intranets/extranets and e- commerce sites.
Several software OEMs providing portal or enterprise software also bundle such software in their offerings. If you wish to provide search facilities to visitors within your site, Verity may be an option, particularly if you have a large site with lots of information. However, GOOGLE has made it extremely to use their search tool for individual sites and it’s free.
Overture returns search results based on the amount of money an advertiser has paid. This system has made Overture one of the few profitable advertising based search engine businesses. At one time Yahoo signed a three-year deal with Overture to provide paid search results. As this write up does not cover pay per click advertising, we are not focusing much on Overture.
America Online signed a multiyear pact with Google for Web search results and accompanying ad-sponsored links, ending relationships with pay-for- performance service Overture Services, its algorithmic search provider of nearly three years We thought it worth mentioning Verity in this, although this is not relevant to search engine optimization. Verity is among the leading providers of enterprise search software. This software is used by numerous enterprises for offering information search within their own sites, portals, intranets/extranets and e- commerce sites.
Several software OEMs providing portal or enterprise software also bundle such software in their offerings. If you wish to provide search facilities to visitors within your site, Verity may be an option, particularly if you have a large site with lots of information. However, GOOGLE has made it extremely to use their search tool for individual sites and it’s free.
Overture returns search results based on the amount of money an advertiser has paid. This system has made Overture one of the few profitable Net businesses. Yahoo has already signed a three-year deal with Overture to provide paid search results. As this write up does not cover pay per click advertising, we are not focusing much on Overture.
America Online signed a multiyear pact with Google for Web search results and accompanying ad-sponsored links, ending relationships with pay-for- performance service Overture Services and PositionTech, its algorithmic search provider of nearly three years We thought it worth mentioning Verity in this, although this is not relevant to search engine optimization. Verity is amongst the leading providers of enterprise search software (PositionTech is another well known player in this). This software is used by numerous enterprises for offering information search within their own sites, portals, intranets/extranets and e-commerce sites.
Several software OEMs providing portal or enterprise software also bundle such software in their offerings. Verity (VRTY) went public in 1995 and has achieved sales worth $ 145 million in fiscal 2001. It is a profitable company.
If you wish to provide search facilities to visitors within your site, this may be an option, particularly if you have a large site with lots of information.
Several software OEMs providing portal or enterprise software also bundle such software in their offerings. Verity (VRTY) went public in 1995 and has achieved sales worth $ 145 million in fiscal 2001. It is a profitable company.
If you wish to provide search facilities to visitors within your site, this may be an option, particularly if you have a large site with lots of information.
