Be a Whiz at eBiz!
Whose afraid
of Inktomi?
Be a Whiz at eBiz!
No-Nonsense Tips and Resources to Grow Your Business Online
January 17, 2004
Priya Shah, Editor
http://EbizWhizPublishing.com
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I've added a new section to the website where
you'll be able to read reviews of eBooks
and products I have bought and personally endorse (I don't
even bother writing about the crappy ones).
You can see it here
So far there are only a couple of reviews, but
I'll be adding more soon.
If you depend a lot on search engine rankings
for your traffic (like I do), then you'll be interested to know
that Yahoo has just changed its choice of search partners from
Google to Inktomi.
Why is this important? Because it challenges Google's
domination of the search engine world.
Until a couple of days ago, Yahoo was displaying
Google's results to searchers. But now its displaying results
from Inktomi (the same search engine that MSN uses), that it purchased
a few months (I think) ago.
So now Inktomi has become a big player in the
search engine optimization game.
Even though this means I can no longer rely on
Google alone for my traffic, in some ways it's a good thing, because
it diminishes the monopoly of Google - a name that many webmasters
have learned to fear.
But since many webmasters have focused on keeping
grumpy ol' man Google happy all this time, their rankings in Yahoo
may (or may not) suffer.
It hasn't done any harm to my own rankings, but
that's no reason to get complacent.
Wondering how to deal with this new shakeup in
the world of search engine optimization?
Then do read today's very timely article by Jason
Dowdell that will shed some light on this very confusing issue.
Are you seriously interested in learning the basics
of search engine optimization - and using it to get completely
free, tar.geted traffic to your site? Isn't everyone? :-)
Well then, here's a resource I personally endorse
for its non-technical language and much more, as you'll see in
my review of
Sean Burn's Rankings Revealed.
_____________________________________________________
How to Optimize for Inktomi in 2004
Inktomi is becoming a rising star in the search
engine wars, and it is very likely that this heavy weight contender
with give Google some jabs at the title of the most relevant search
engine results. If you think Google is doing a good job at relevancy,
buckle your seatbelts, cause the people over at Inktomi are very
serious about giving Google a run
for it's money. While the majority of webmasters
these days would rather optimize for Google, and hope for the
best in Inktomi, this strategy will need to be shifted for the
year 2004. No longer should Google optimization be the only method
for which webmasters promote their sites. As seen in past Google
updates, we have discovered that reliance on one search engine
for unique visitors is a short sighted and bad strategy. If your
rankings tank, then so does your traffic and ultimately the profits.
In order to take the sting out of lost rankings you will either
have to work real hard to get the rankings back or redo your strategy
altogether. So be warned, if you are not in Google and not in
Inktomi in 2004, then you might as well remain invisible.
How to Win with Inktomi
The Inktomi engine has been a long time contender
in search, and the way it does business is about to get much better.
This is good news for SEO's and webmaster's
alike, now that the playing field will be more
open for possibilities of achieving organic free traffic from
Inktomi. While the topic of optimizing for Inktomi has been put
aside by most, in this article it will receive a thorough overview
on what you should do to prepare for ranking high in Inktomi.
So if you are ready to take the challenge, get ready for a fun
ride, there is a whole landscape of keywords ready to reward the
most dedicated optimizer out there with loads of free traffic.
Submitting Your Site to Inktomi
First and foremost, learning the best way to submit
to Inktomi is going to be the best bet to test the new optimization
you do. For this there are several options that webmasters can
undertake in order to submit their site to the Inktomi index and
par.tner sites.
1. Pay For Inclusion (PFI) -
This is by far the best way to ensure your pages get into Inktomi.
The benefit of pay for inclusion is that you can be ensured that
your pages will get refreshed every 48 hours instead of waiting
game that is played with other engines that have there own ideas
when pages should get updated. So any changes that you make will
instantly be reflected within 48 hours of then being uploaded.
Also, the more pages that you submit to Inktomi the better, so
if you can afford to submit more than your homepage, then do so.
Where should I submit my pages for inclusion? Inktomi has several
partners that exclusively handle the PFI feed.
Submit your website through one of the following
sites:
Positiontech.com & Ineedhits.com
2. Submit to Inktomi for Free
- The problem: Its unreliable, no guarantees, and does not update
within 48 hours. While this method is surely not as effective
as pay for inclusion, who can beat the price? If you are strapped
for cash then this might be a temporary option to get your pages
into Inktomi until you can pay for more reliable methods.
Submit your website here:
http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm
3. Submit to Inktomi through one of its
Web Search Partners - This is one of the Inktomi backdoors
many are not aware of and all it takes is a little searching to
find them. I have used these on multiple occasions in order to
test how effective they are and as well get pages into the Inktomi
index for free. One of things I discovered was that taking a look
at a list of Inktomi partners (http://www.inktomi.com/customers/index.html)
was not only good to get a feel of where their search engine results
would appear, but also where I could find submit fields for inclusion
into the Inktomi database. Note: These pages do not stay up for
long, so do not be surprised if you find they no longer exist.
Submit your website here:
http://goo502.goo.ne.jp/cgi-bin/feedback/addurl.cgi
http://search2.msn.fr/suggestions/ch/
4. Getting crawled by Inktomi
- This is one of the next best ways to get found by Inktomi. The
most effective way in order to pull this off, is obtain links
from sites that are contained in Inktomi Best of the Web or BOW
index, which is a selective index with about 110 million documents
from the top sites on the web according to Inktomi. Interestingly,
if you have ever noticed that some sites get spidered by Inktomi
and others do not, this might explain that those sites that got
spidered completely for free by Inktomi were perhaps linked from
a Best of the Web site.
Optimize Your Pages for Inktomi
The best way to optimize for Inktomi is relatively
simple and follows many of the basic SEO principles. Being able
to formulate effective relevant meta-tags and on page elements
is important to pulling a ranking in Inktomi off well. Always
keep in mind the following as you optimize for Inktomi:
Make each page unique and its meta data different
for each page. Make your pages meaningful for the visitor and
that they contain good relevant content. Create search engine
listings that communicate to the searcher what the page is about.
Title
The title is vital to identifying the document
and should be created to describe the document in a meaningful
way. Think about what a searcher might input in, in order to search
for a document.
The title should be a maximum of 10 words total
or a maximum of 50-70 characters. Make your titles clear and specific
to what the page is about. Do not stuff keywords in your title
just to put something there. Ask you self a question on each page,
'What is this page communicating to the searcher?'. Format the
title to answer that question.
There are several ways to craft a good title,
but follow some of the examples below. You will notice the title
contains what the pages are about, where the page is from, and
possibly a location as well. Note: You may either include or exclude
the use of your company name in the title. Inktomi however recommends
its use and is advised if you can include your company name then
do so.
Grass Lawnmowers in Texas from John Deer Ranch
Equipment
OR
First American Bank - Job Openings
Meta Description Tag
The description tag is the best place to formulate
a more detailed explanation of the page that is being optimized.
Keep in mind the following when crafting your description.
The description tag should be a in between 15-20
words and should emphasize the keywords used in the title tag.
Keep the description concise and specific to the
contents of the page.
DO NOT use the same description for every page,
make each one unique.
Not all descriptions are going to be the same
length, some will require more words and others less.
Use keywords or topics found in the body text
of the website to enhance the description.
Gas powered grass lawn mowers in Sometown, Texas.
Check out the lawn movers and lawn tractors from such manufacturers
as John Deer, Murray, Black & Decker, MTD, and Yard Man.
Keywords Tag
Use of the keyword tag in Inktomi should be utilized.
This tag serves as the location for your key terms and phrases
on topics that are covered in the document. The best advice for
use when utilizing the keywords meta tag is to highlight QUALITY
keywords in your list. Keep in mind the following when creating
the keywords tag.
Use quality keywords that are specific to the
page Avoid board keyword uses such as, 'internet', 'news' or 'mp3'.
Formulate the keywords tag as if someone would
be searching for information contained within. Do not randomly
stick in keywords for the sake of filling up the keywords tag.
Include misspellings and other ways keywords could
be used in the keywords tag.
DO NOT use the same keywords tag for every page
of your website.
Begin you keywords tag with the primary keywords
you are wishing to target. For example if your page is targeting
'lawn mowers', being your keywords tag with 'lawn mowers, lawn
tractors, etc.....'
DO NOT use punctuation in the keywords tag such
as 'Harry Potter's Wand' instead think of how a search would be
performed... 'Harry Potter Wand'. USE COMMAS in the keywords tag,
while these are not necessary for other search engines, Inktomi
recommends their use in separating keywords or keyphrases.
Robots Tag
While not the most important tag inside the head
of the document, its fair to mention its role in guiding the Slurp
robot to the correct pages that you wish to be spidered and those
that you do not. If you are not using Robots.txt on your website
then I would consider inserting the Robots Tag in the page you
optimize for Inktomi. The following robots tag will tell the Slurp
robot to INDEX the page into the database and FOLLOW all links
contained within.
URL and Page Names
Big points can be scored when the url or domain
name has the primary target keyword contained within. Inktomi
places good reward for webmasters that correctly structure there
website to have a meaningful and effective navigation. One of
the best ways I found to explain how to do this correctly is think
of your website as a tree with many branches.
The trunk of your tree is your URL, such as: www.lawnmowerwebsite.com.
Then imagine each page and subdirectory as a unique branch that
has its own unique set of leaves. Since each branch is unique,
each branch needs to be identified so that other people can bask
in its glory and know what its about. So follow some of the example
below when creating new pages or subdirectories.
www.lawnmowerwebsite.com/tractors/new/john-deer.html
OR
On Page Elements
On page elements that are contained within the
document are also of paramount importance to ranking well in Inktomi.
By correctly formatting the page to be as specific and accurate
as possible in combination with optimized meta-tags will create
an awesome formula for ranking high in Inktomi. Keep the following
in mind when optimizing your document for Inktomi.
Keep you target KEYWORDS at the TOP of the page
BOLD keywords that are important and unique to the page. Inktomi
places more importance on words that are bolded. Inktomi prefers
LONGER KEYPHRASES then short generic terms. If you really want
to rank well, then focus on finding the best keyphrases with the
most amount of traffic.
HEADINGS are important as well, and should be
used on each page to identify sections of content. Be sure to
create heading in a meaningful manner, such as beginning with
and H1 tag, and following with H2 and H3 tags that start smaller
sections of content. LINK TEXT is also very important, and perhaps
on of the most important on page elements of a good Inktomi optimization.
Again be sure to include keywords in meaningful links to other
pages on the site. DO NOT use the keywords in more than 50% of
the links however, because this could be identified as spamming.
Selecting Keywords
This is also another important step to successfully
ranking well in Inktomi. Keep in mind the goal is not necessarily
about ranking high for certain keywords, its about selecting keywords
that allow you to rank well but also have the valued prized to
begin with: unique visitors. Because as most have said before,
rankings are nothing without the visitors to back them up. Selecting
appropriate keywords for your pages can depend on several things:
1. What the page is about to begin with.
2. Your ability to find keywords that work well
for your pages.
If you decide to describe your page with generic
keywords but do not do research to find the best key terms or
phrases that do well in Inktomi then you have not done the best
job you can do. If your ability to find keywords is limited to
using the Overture Suggestion Tool, then rethink that strategy,
there are many other ways to find good keywords. The most important
part to finding keywords in Inktomi is to combine the several
suggestion tools and to use Inktomi results to find those keyword
combinations that have the LEAST amount of sponsor ads or directory
listings but also good amounts of traffic. This may be more difficult
than what most are accustomed to, but what really is the benefit
of doing whatever else is doing to find keywords. None, because
you will all be competing for the same keyword phrases. Here are
ways to find VERY GOOD keywords and ways to use them.
Locate keywords that have the least amount of
sponsored listings or directory listings. Use longer keyphrases
that a user would use to narrow a search to a specific document,
such as "john deer lawn mower parts texas". Find keyword
phrases or chucks of words that are contained in a product, service,
or page description. Users not only search for the products themselves,
but the attributes and qualities a product or service has to begin
with. Link to other internal pages using these longer keyphrases.
Sometimes the only thing needed to rank well for these phrases
is keywords placed in the document as well as linked to from other
internal pages. Locate keywords that get the highest bids in Overture,
these are sometimes the best converting keywords.
Advanced Inktomi SEO
While optimizing for Inktomi is pretty straight
forward for most, there are several little strategies that can
be implemented for the most daring of search engine optimizers
and webmasters. Most these days look at Inktomi as a singular
database of documents that are feed to its many partners around
the web. The common philosophy follows that if I can create a
well optimized document it shall rank well in all of Inktomi's
partner websites. Incorrect!
This is shortsighted, and the reason this is short
sighted is that many of Inktomi Web Search Partners use proprietary
algorithms to further enhance the ability for users to find a
particular result based on which web search partner they are using.
So that means this makes it even harder to rank across the board
for a targeted search phrase. So if you are daring, setup a goal
to rank in the top 10 for whatever search phrase you are targeting,
but make it a priority to rank high in each of Inktomi partners
sites. While this may be work int
What to Avoid
There are several things that can affect your
ranking without you really even knowing about them. They are sometimes
design related and have to do with issues that are caused when
the Inktomi robot, Slurp can not get the information it needs
from the page. Locate and find these problem areas in your pages.
DO not use image or javascript navigation to link
together pages of the site. The robot may not be about to follow
these links or gather information that is contained within text
links. Cascading Style Sheets can present a problem for Inktomi.
While this is generally neither good or bad news, you should consider
how you use CSS and what the robot will read once it spiders your
site.
Affiliate links can also present a problem for
robots, in that they might not be able to follow them and penalize
the page for such use. Dynamic URL's are also a problem of Inktomi,
the robots do not favor these and adding session id's, affiliate
id's, and the link can be cause for a penalty.
_____________________________________________________
Best Regards,
Jason Dowdell
(321)459-5591
jason@globalpromoter.com
www.globalpromoter.com
"Guaranteed first page plac.ement in the major search eng.ines"
_____________________________________________________
That's it for this issue.
Have a great weekend.
Warm regards,
Priya Shah
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com
P.S. Don't forget to pickup your copy of the newest
eBook added to the subscriber library.
Fastlane Profits by Jason Gazaway
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