|
Jump
To:
Try
the Spider Genius Search Engine
Search
Engine Information
|
Google has
been gaining popularity throughout 2000, and they got
a big boost when they started providing Yahoo with their
"web pages" results earlier in July.
According to their site, The Google directory integrates
Google's sophisticated search technology with Open Directory
pages to create the most useful tool for finding information
on the web.
Google has an
active spider that will crawl your web site and follow
hyperlinks so they suggest you only submit the top-level
page from your site. Google stores many web pages
in its cache to retrieve for users as a back-up in case
the page's server temporarily fails.
What does Google index?
- Text in the <title>
tag (first position preferred, it will index up to
1129 characters in the title tag)
- Text within keyword
links - <a href="file.html">Keyword</a>
- Text within the <noframes>
tag, even if the page doesn't use the framesrc tag
sets.
- Text that occurs before
the <html> tag
- Text that occurs before
the <body> tag, if not inside other tag sets
- Text inside the <option>
tag set
- Text inside the <img
alt="keyword"> tag
What doesn't Google index?
- Text within the <style>
sheet tag
- Text within the <meta>
description tag
- Text within the <meta
> keyword tag
- Text within the <meta
http-equiv> tag
- Text within the <!
-- Comments --> tag
- Text within the url
of a link <a href="keyword.html">text</a>
- Dublin core type meta
tags
Other important facts
about Google...
- Google is case sensitive
- Google doesn't use
the meta description tag for the page summary in the
search results. It displays the text around the keyword
from the document source and highlights the keyword.
- RealNames "Internet
Keywords" links are incorporated at Google, but
only for exact search matches
- Google's searches
are "exact" (boolean "and")...
otherwise, all of your search words have to be found
in the document to show up.
- Google caches your
page content on their server and makes it available
through the "Show Matches" link in the search
results.
- Google will list a
URL even if it hasn't spidered the page, they are
the ones that you see in search results that don't
have a regular title, summary or the "Show Matches"
link.
Recent
Developments
June 26th, 2000
- Google announced that they will be providing Yahoo
with their "Web Pages" results.
Links
and Resources
Add
URL page
Webmaster Questions
(Two Parts)
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/ques_webmaster.htm
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/ques_webmaster2.htm
FAQ
|
|
MSN Search went
live in October, 98 and has quickly become a major factor
in the Search Engine game. It does feature a directory
and it's search results are powered by Inktomi, the
same engine used by Hotbot, among others.
Submission
Notes
Because MSN is
a Inktomi powered service, relevancy and spamming rules
are similar to Hotbot and other Inktomi engines.
- You're
only to submit one page from your site via the Add
URL page. From there, MSN will crawl
and index your page.
- MSN will
only accept one URL per site per day. Others will
be rejected
- Pages
added via the Add URL page will generally appear in
a day or two, but other pages in your site will take
2 - 4 weeks to appear.
- Keyword
stuffing, submitting identical pages, irrelevant keywords
and hidden text are all considered spamming and will
be penalized
- Keywords
in titles, metatags and body text all add to a sites
relevancy. Remember, not all Inktomi sites will rank
your page the same, as they all have slightly different
relevancy rules.
- MSN does
have a directory component, like most engines, but
you can't suggest a site for it. It's compiled totally
at the discretion of it's editors.
Links
and Resources
MSN
Search
http://search.msn.com/
Add URL page
http://search.msn.com/addurl.asp
|
|
Infoseek/Go.com
has a human edited directory and a search index. Results
from the directory appear first in a separate section,
then the results from the search engine. Infoseek,
by default, clusters results from the same site, returning
only one result per site. You can then choose to ungroup
the result to see the individual pages. This prevents
several pages from the same URL dominating the top 10.
Submission
Notes
- For sites added
via the Add
URL page, it usually takes up to 6 weeks
for inclusion.
- Infoseek
will only accept 1 submission from the same URL in
a 24 hour period
- Infoseek
features a Check
URL page, which allows you to check on
the status of your submission.
- Keyword
stuffing, submitting too many pages from the same
URL, submitting identical pages, meta refresh tags
or any other form or redirection, irrelevant keywords
and hidden text are all considered spamming and will
be penalized
- Keywords
in titles, metatags and body text all add to a sites
relevancy. Site popularity seems to be a major factor
with Infoseek.
- Infoseek
has their own directory and inclusion of your site
in this directory seems to give a major relevancy
boost to your site in the search engine results.
Recent
Developments
InfoSeek is actively
spidering existing sites in the index. Minor movement
on the 13th of June. No recent major changes in scoring.
Links
and Resources
Add
URL page
Check
URL page
Submitting
Tips
What
is Spamming?
|
|
Like
most other search engines, Excite includes a directory.
There is a rumor that Excite will only index 25 pages
on your site. This is a rumor! Confusion may arise from
the fact that Excite will only accept 25 URL's per week
from the same site. Excite also provides results for
Netscape's and AOL Netfind's search pages. These results
used to be identical to Excite's, but recently, AOL's
results have been slightly different. Excite's spider
crawls the web every 3 weeks. Don't be surprised if
all your pages suddenly disappear from Excite. This
happens to almost everyone. They should reappear in
3 weeks when the spider visits your site again.
Submission
Notes
- Excite
can recognize synonyms, so try to supplement main
keywords with similar words
- Excite
should come and spider your site 3 to 4 weeks after
you submit your page
- Excite
cannot navigate through image maps, so make sure there
are text links into your site if you want the entire
site indexed.
- Excite
performs regional searches, filtering out any sites
that don't end in a regional suffix (i.e. .ca for
Canada, .uk for the United Kingdom). It then provides
.com and other generic suffixes as a supplementary
list.
- Keyword
stuffing, excess repetition and irrelevant are all
considered spamming and will be penalized
- Keywords
in titles and body text all add to a sites relevancy.
Site popularity also adds to a site's relevance. In
general, Excite seems to favour shorter pages where
the keywords are prominent.
Recent
Developments
Excite
launches "Precision Search" and adds Looksmart
to it's Add URL page. Last known update June 16th,
2000.
Links
and Resources
Looksmart
Directory
Add
URL page
Getting
Listed Tips
|
In
April, Lycos announced they were going to move towards
being an Internet Directory (similar to Yahoo) using
the Open Directory and most of it's search returns now
come from this directory. The existing index will still
provide secondary results. Lycos says they will continue
to spider the web, but results will be downplayed on
the search results page.
Submission
Notes
- It's
very important to be listed in the Open Directory.
We suggest submitting through Lycos rather than through
the Open Directories Home Page.
- Find
the category you would like to be listed under, then
go to the bottom of the page and click the "Add
Website" link. A form similar to Yahoo's will
come up, in which you'll add your information. Remember
to use keywords in your description, as metatags and
body text make no difference to the Directory
- Unlike
Yahoo, you can submit to multiple categories in Open
Directory, but don't over do it.
- Submitting
to the Directory does not automatically submit your
site for a visit from Lyco's spider. You still do
this from the Add
Your Site link on the Lycos Home Page.
Recent
Developments
June
14th, 2000 - Lycos officially announced the integration
of Fast's engine (www.alltheweb.com) into their main
search results. Fast claims to have a 340 million page
index, which with Google's recent announcement,
makes them the second largest index in the world. Fast
and Lycos reportedly are also shooting for the billion
page mark in the future.
Links
and Resources
FAST
(www.alltheweb.com)
FAST
Add URL page
Planet
Ocean's Keyword
Density Analyzer
Add
Your Site page
About
Lyco's Open Directory
|
|
AltaVista
actually returns results from 4 different sources. The
first is from their index, which is what most users
would consider the main results. Additionally, AltaVista
can also return results from Ask Jeeves, RealNames and
the LookSmart Directory.
"Ask
AltaVista" responds to queries in Natural Language,
using the Ask Jeeves results.
Submission
Notes
- AltaVista
suggests only submitting one page from your site via
the Add
URL page. From there, AltaVista will
crawl and index your page. Remember, this is a suggestion,
not a rule. Using the Add URL page is a way to ensure
individual pages are included in the index.
- AltaVista
will only accept 1 - 2 submissions per site per day.
Others will be rejected. You can add them the next
day.
- AltaVista
has several International versions. These are mirror
sites, so submitting to the main site includes you
in all. Be aware, however, that the Canadian site
is actually maintained by a different spider which
is supposed to automatically detect if the site is
Canadian. You can't submit a site exclusively to this
engine, but it it doesn't appear, you can e-mail AltaVista
Canada to notify them.
- Pages
added via the Add URL page will generally appear in
8 - 12 days, but other pages in your site will take
a month or more to appear.
- Keyword
stuffing, submitting too many pages from the same
URL, submitting identical pages, meta refresh tags,
irrelevant keywords and hidden text are all considered
spamming and will be penalized
- Keywords
in titles, metatags and body text all add to a sites
relevancy. AltaVista generally likes longer pages
and gives preference to root level pages.
Recent
Developments
AltaVista's
new Raging
Search offers "the best pure search experience
on the Internet. That means the most relevant results,
the fastest search, and the easiest site to use."
Link
Popularity is playing more of a role in Alta Vista's
ranking scheme.
Links
and Resources
Add
URL page
Webmaster
Questions (Two Parts)
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/ques_webmaster.htm
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/ques_webmaster2.htm
Help
Page
http://altavista.advalvas.be
(offers relevancy
scores)
AltaVista Search Network
|
|
Webcrawler used to be
considered a major search engine, but has been allow
to languish since it's purchase by Excite. Both services
use the same spider but maintain seperate indexes, with
Webcrawler's being much smaller than Excite's.
Submission
Notes
- You can
submit up to 25 pages to Webcrawler, but it's unlikely
that it will index more than the home page.
- Keywords
in titles, metatags and body text all add to a site's
relevancy
- Keyword
stuffing, irrelevant keywords and identical pages
are all considered spamming and will be penalized.
Links
and Resources
Add
URL page
Webcrawler's
Help Page
|
|
Hotbot
was bought by Lycos in Fall of 1998. Originally it was
powered by Inktomi, but recently, it's top 10 results
have been provided by Direct Hit. It's directory comes
from the Open Directory project.
Submission
Notes
- Pages
submitted to Hotbot are supposed to appear within
2 weeks, but actual performance varies greatly
- Inktomi
will spider your site, but needs text links to crawl
inside the site as it can't read image maps
- Hotbot
will accept up to 50 URL's per day
- Hotbot
clusters sites the same as Infoseek, but on Hotbot,
this feature can't be turned off
- Keyword
stuffing, hidden text, irrelevant keywords and submitting
identical pages are considered spamming and will be
penalized
- Keywords
in titles, metatags and body text all add to a sites
relevancy. Site popularity also adds to a site's relevance
as Direct Hit actively monitors site popularity and
these are the top 10 results in Hotbot. In general,
Hotbot seems to favour shorter pages where the keywords
are prominent.
Links
and Resources
Add
URL page
Hotbot's
Help Page
|
|
Yahoo
is the Grand Daddy of directories and search services
on the Net, and it's still the most popular. For online
marketing, it's the most important, and the most difficult
place to have your site included in.
Submission
Notes
Yahoo
is a human edited directory, and there's some things
to remember when submitting:
- Yahoo
won't review incomplete or under construction sites
- Yahoo
only includes a link to one page of your site, usually
your home page
- The
way your site ranks depends on the information you
fill out in Yahoo's online "Suggest a Site"
form
- Because
your site isn't indexed, frames, metatags and other
things that are important in other search engines
play no part with Yahoo
- Because
of lack of editorial resources, only 10% of the sites
submitted to Yahoo are reviewed and included in the
directory
- You
MUST find the right category to submit your site under.
Even then, the reviewer may change your listing
- Once
your site is included (the Good News) it's very difficult
to have it reviewed again (the Bad News)
- Most
"optimized for the search engines" web pages
will NOT catalog well on Yahoo. In fact, Yahoo is
likely to unceremoniously reject them -- and without
notice. Our sources tell us that Yahoo rejects approximately
50% of all of the pages that are submitted.
- Yahoo
does NOT index the contents of your page and they
don't give a hoot about "keywords". They
only index the name of your
company
and the brief description you give them at the
time you submit. If you add "hype" into
your description they reject your submission!
- They
practically demand the TITLE of your page to be your
company name... again, without hype! If your page
looks like you are trying to "commercialize"
their index they will reject your submission. If your
company name does not match the title of your page,
they will substitute your company name for the title...
that is, if they accept your submission at all.
-
If
your page has any "tricks" they will reject
it. No spamdexing, keyword stuffing, redirects, phantom
pixels, food scripts, multiple submissions, alphabetical
tricks, nothing!!! Your page must look like it is
very straight-forward and the name of your company
is presented up front... and, it matches your TITLE
tag. It also helps considerably if the page (site)
has what Yahoo calls "valuable content".
The Yahooligans are getting very snobbish about what
goes into their "wonderful" catalog.
Recent
Developments
Yahoo
has introduced an Express Submission service that guarantees
an editor will visit your site and give you an answer
in 7 business days.
Resource
Links
Yahoo
Business Express Home Page
Information about the service and links to Business
Express enabled categories
Business
Express Categories
Categories that have been Business Express-enabled.
Yahoo
Business Express Help
Yahoo
How-To: Suggesting Sites to Yahoo
A seven page tutorial on submitting properly to the
directory.
My
Site in Yahoo
Valuable information about submission questions and
support links.
|
|
AOL
Netfind is simply a branded version of Excite. Until
very recently, the results of a search on either engine
would be identical. Lately, although the index is the
same, results have been varying. This may mean AOL has
added different relevancy rankings to the results. Variations
are slight, however. You can add
your URL directly or on Excite's
page.
|
|
Ask
Jeeves is a human edited service where they suggest
sites that answer questions posed in every day language.
For instance, "Tell me about Bill Clinton"
will bring back a list of sites talking about the president.
The service is featured prominently on AltaVista. The
site doesn't have a Site Suggestion form, but you can
email them at url@askjeeves.com
(there is also an altavistaurl@askjeeves.com
address at AltaVista. Either one is fine, but only use
one.) Before you suggest a site, read over the
editorial guidelines offered by Altavista.
|
|
Again,
Snap is a directory, similar to Yahoo. Submission is
similar and the same guidelines should apply. The directory
results are supplemented by Inktomi results. For more
information on submitting your site to Snap, see their
submission guidelines.
|
|
RealNames
intent is to make searching easier on the Net by allowing
people to search by logical names rather than domains.
For instance, a search for Coke's website could be initiated
just by typing Coke into your browser. Additional software
has to be downloaded by users in order to enable this
functionality at the browser level. RealNames is also
featured on AltaVista's site. Here, if a search matches
a RealNames subscriber, that result is returned first.
Alternative suggestions are suggested at the bottom
of the search page. For information on RealNames, go
to their FAQ
page.
|
|
LookSmart
is a directory, similar to Yahoo's or the Open Directory.
Submitting is similar as well. Like the Open Directory,
but unlike Yahoo, you can be listed in multiple categories
(Yahoo usually limits you to two). LookSmart is one
of the information sources on AltaVista's home page.
They were featured on Hotbot as well, until Hotbot's
move to Open Directory. For more on LookSmart, check
out their Site
Submission FAQ's. You can update previous
listings at their
site update page.
|
|
GoTo
offers paid placements in it's results. After the paid
placements comes free listings provided by Inktomi.
Advertisers bid on a per click through basis for visitors.
For instance, if the keywords were "cellular phones",
one advertiser might bid 5 cents per visitor, one 4
cents per visitor and one 3 cents per visitor. Results
would be ranked in that order. Budgets are pre arranged
with GoTo and once the top bid's budget was exhausted,
the second bid's results would move to the top. This
is a simplistic overview. For more information, see
GoTo's
FAQ Page or see their Advertising
Policies.
|
|
