Re: UKNM: research for a feature... :)

[Ruth Brecher]

a little belated, but hopefully of interest...


On 8/9/99 I read:


>...I'm writing a feature about search engines for 'Internet' .  It will

>focus on which search engines are best for finding particular types of

>information and try to identify the most *effective* search engines.


We often have clients coming to us and asking whether we can 

guarantee a good ranking of their web pages after the registration 

process of their pages  has been completed. The only thing that I can 

ever tell them without lying through my teeth, is that I can, after 

analysing their pages help them to make changes which ensure that 

their pages are at least search- engine-friendly.


This is no guarantee of ranking but will give their pages a good 

chance of actually being indexed and if the right measures are taken, 

the page also stands a good chance of not being 750th on the results 

list.


People always find this rather surprising because the common belief 

is that as long as you submit a URL, the page will be indexed by the 

search engine and will be found by searchers providing that the right 

search terms are used in the meta tags.This is not the case. There 

are many factors which influence submission and indexing, all of 

which must be taken into account. To illustrate this point there 

follow a few examples of some of the factors pertaining specifically 

to meta tags.


It is important to remember however, that meta tags are not a magic 

solution either. Some search engines do not even read metatags!:


Title length: Some search engines will cut a title off after a 

certain number of characters. This itself may not affect indexing but 

will not make the listing look good.


It is important to have some keywords in the page title. However, too 

many keywords will look like spam to some search engines.


Repeating keywords over and over again can also be regarded as 

spamming and so the word becomes less effective when search engines 

rank the site.


You can also be penalized if the keywords that you use are not used 

as part of the text of your web pages. Some search engines will 

automatically skip pages that try to use this tactic.


When using keyword phrases, it is worth remembering that anything 

over 3 words long is usually too specific.


The description: It is important to use keywords in the description 

to increase search engine ranking.


Another thing to watch out for is the length of the description. Some 

descriptions may be too long for some search engines and will get cut 

off mid-stream in the same way as very long titles.


Many search engines evaluate keywords in the headline words of web 

pages as well.


Also,  if the keywords that you use for your pages are within the top 

150 used keywords on the web, it will be difficult to achieve a top 

ranking for that keyword.


Another thing to bear in mind is it is important to remember that 

search engine ranking is not the be-all and end-all of creating an 

on-line presence. Even if you do achieve a high ranking during one 

month or three, chances are that this will change in time as new 

pages are added to the search engine index so keeping a page at or 

near the top of a search list would be a full-time job in itself. You 

may also find with some search engines that your previously indexed 

pages can disappear from the index altogether.


Some search engines however, have a system by which pages are 

revisited depending on how often content is changed. This means that 

the pages are retained and that information is being constantly 

updated which is good for the searcher too.


Another set of factors that must be considered when looking at search 

engine listings are off-the-page factors.


One example is whether the pages have been reviewed in a search 

engine's associate directory or not. If it has, this can give the 

ranking of those pages a boost.


Another example is 'link popularity'. This is something that a web 

master can have little control over and no control over whatsoever 

when the popularity of his pages are measured against the relative 

link popularity of other pages.


There is also a system which is used whereby what surfers select from 

search results is measured and these results are used by a search 

engine to measure a page's popularity and hence boost it's ranking in 

an index.


Although there are in reality a whole host of other criteria which 

must be taken into account when a page is being indexed (or not) by a 

search engine, these few examples should illustrate the relative 

complexity of the process. The best course of action is to ensure 

that the factors that a web master has control over should be as 

finely-tuned as possible and this in turn may have some impact on 

some off-the -page factors ensuring a fair chance of appropriate 

search engine indexing.


Ruth Brecher


Services Director - Underwired Ltd - 0171 737 5332 - 

http://www.underwired.com Online focus groups and surveys, web site 

launches, communications consultancy 

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