[thelist] "algorithms" for search engines

Calum I Mac Leod calum at ciml.co.uk
Wed Apr 18 12:45:17 CDT 2001


From: "aardvark" <roselli at earthlink.net>
> From: JenniferE at mif.com
> >
> > Someone I know was recently approached by a guy to redo his site and
> > says his specialty is search engine placement via algorithms.

I'll assume (hope) that he means he's researched the algorithms (methods of
ranking Web sites) used by major search engines.  If so, fine.  Surely just
about all people who make Web sites want their work to be found?

> > I don't
> > even know what that means (I shut down during math classes).  Is this
> > a fancy word for knowing different engine criteria?

Probably, that's normally what SEOs (Search Engine Optimisers) mean by
algo's.  If he can't explain what he does in plain English then it's likely
that he doesn't do much.  ;-)

> > Is it even a
> > viable way of doing it?  Is he about to waste his money?
>
> anyone who guarantees a placement on the biggies (yahoo,
> google, etc.) is suspect... so if someone guarantees you'll get first
> page on certain keywords, i'd toss 'em out...

I've come across people who have a scale of charges depending on how
successful the site is, index-wise.  Some people even use Goto's search
history and WordTracker to help write quotes.

> and i'd ask to see his examples up-front...

Yup.  I love it when people reply "it's all top secret work, I can't give
you the URLs..."

> now, building a site amenable to being indexed is another thing
> altogether...

Quite.  It's also worth keeping in mind the difference between short term
and long term strategies.  A year or two ago, Altavista was riddled with
"dictionary attack" style pages, where (usually "adult") sites would put up
a dictionary fragment, wait for it to be indexed and then replace the
content with their credit card entry page.  While the first of these sites
no doubt received many, many visitors, they weren't likely to stay long, and
it didn't take long for the sites to get banned...permanently.

No matter how often people are told, the mystical world of "positioning
software" and "meta tags" allures people away from the hard grind of writing
interesting/useful, content rich, accessible Web sites.

Calum
--
    <meta name="keywords" content="spam goes here">
                - Adrian MacNair in alt.html





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