Hissingsid - 5:29 pm on Dec 16, 2003 (gmt 0)

The idea with the semantics/commercial algo is to avoid targetting.

So what you are saying is that if I find the complete antisithis of the term that someone is searching for then my site will be #1. I can actually fool the new algo by feeding it the exact opposite.

So I optimise my site for red string theory and I'll get to #1 for blue specific widget.

Just in case anyone is so confused that they actually try that please don't I was just joking. It looks to me very much like CIRCA technology is a distilation of Monty Python's Flying Circus "Word Association Football" sketch and The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy "Improbability Drive". Both of these documents will no doubt become essential reading for students wishing to trace the source of CIRCA technology.

A site index page has just appeared at #1 for my main target search term. It uses the term just twice "widget thing" like this <A href="frames_widget.html" class="centre" title="widget thing service">widget thing</A>

That's two words out of 125 user viewable words. PageRank7 no other page in SERPs has a PR above 5.

The other interesting thing about this site is that it has anchor text and links to pages about topics which in the American dialect are synonyms of the particular term searched for.

In #2, #3 and #4 are pages each from different sites all of which have PR5. Each of these is much more highly optimised for the keyword pair in title, alts anchors and in one case heads. All of them have links out and use words which in the American dialect are synonyms of the particular term searched for.

I would be interested in hearing if others are seeing anything like this. One conclusion could be: Use your keyword pair together, exactly as you expect it to be searched for, but sparingly and use some synonyms for that term, making sure that you link out to pages which contain those synonyms and if you have a high PR you will rise to the top.

In broad terms the top result looks like an important page (PR7) which is about the topic searched for and which has links to pages which are on related subjects. It looks like an authority site but it is only broadly relevant. Having taken a quick look through I would say that more than half of the sites in the top 50 are more specifically relevant.

The problem that causes this is the difference between English and American English coupled with what is a brand name in the US being a generic for something entirely different in the UK.

In the words of Ira Gershwin

You say either and I say either
You say neither I say neither
Either either , neither neither
Let's call the whole thing off

Best wishes

Sid