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As such, I've recently tried Inktomi paid inclusion for a couple of pages (on different sites) in the hopes of picking up some rankings. I decided to use the index pages for inclusion as they're fairly text orientated, and already have listings in ODP and Google. The Google listings aren't quite where I'd like them to be just yet, but I'm slowly getting them to crawl up the list on my desired terms over the last couple of months.
The problem is, I'm getting nothing from the inktomi listings - not a single hit. It's been about a month since inclusion, the domains are available in the partner sites from what I can tell, but any term specific rankings must be WAY down there, far enough that my patience runs out looking for them anyway :)
I realize that partner sites each have their own algorithms, but I have a hard time believing that whatever's working for me on Google is THAT far fetched from what AltaVista, MSN, and AOL want to see to deem these pages relevant. I don't cater any pages for any particular SE, I really just try to focus on all-around legitimate content laid out in a (hopefully) SE friendly manner.
That said, my question is this:
Do PFI rankings go up over time regardless of page content? (assuming algos don't change) I've read some things here that seem to imply some partners (AV notibly) may increase my relevancy over time, in essence "penalizing" my listing for the time being as it's new. Fact or fiction? What of MSN and AOL?
If that's not the case, can anyone offer any suggestions for a well "balanced" page that doesn't have to tank in one or the other? I'm not really intersted in setting up doorway pages unless it's absolutely necessary, but I don't want to try and achieve Inktomi related rankings at the expense of Google positions.
Sorry if this seems to go back to the ABC's of SEO, I'm mostly just curious if there's any obvious things I should be considering or traps to avoid.
The only thing I'm really aware of is that Google doesn't care much about what's in the HEAD of my document other than the title, and META tags are of some importantce to Inktomi. Therefore, it's entirely possible that my META tags are the one element on my page that are total garbage, preventing me from scoring any listings.
If that's the case, and Google doesn't care about my META tags - is it "safe" to play with META content without worrying about getting kicked in the Googles? Is that how you would proceed if you were in my shoes, by just changing the META content? Or am I missing something else altogether.
Thanks,
Baraucs!
I haven't seen Inktomi PFI stuff change over time.
My normal strategy is to use one of my interior pages for Inktomi (optimise the 'about us' page, or some such).
No need for it to look like a nasty doorway page, just optimise around the text that is currently there.
If your index page is doing well on Google, leave it alone - no point in taking risks if your strategy revolves around Google.
We have quite a few pages that score well on both Google and Inktomi, but on anything competetive I like to keep them apart.
The 'tweak and re-tweak' approach required to fine tune your Inktomi PFI page is not safe for a well ranked Google page IMHO.
I have not paid for inclusion on Ink, but have pretty good placement within Ink as the sites were there well before paid inclusion came along. I get very few referrals from Ink listings anymore. If what was reported in another string is true and LookSmart and MSN are both going with Google ... that will reduce their importance to an even greater degree.
Wait a little bit (a few weeks) and see what happens with those two engines. If they don't switch over to Google, I'd save the pennies and submit to LookSmart.
Keep optimizing for Google and your rankings in other engines will climb eventually. Inktomi doesn't pay much attention to meta tags anymore ... but they don't necessarily hurt you either.
(edited by: Liane at 4:45 pm (utc) on Mar. 8, 2002)
If that was quick draw competition we'd both be dead:)
Please advise where that thread is ... I haven't seen it.
[webmasterworld.com...]
What elements on your Inktomi tailored pages would you 'tweak' and how long would you wait on average to re-tweak? META keywords + title?
What I'm still confused about (it doesn't take much :)) is this; am I <i>really</i> tweaking my pages for <b>Inktomi</b>, or for EACH partner site separately?
Some things I've read seem to say that each partner uses the same data, but then parse it out differently based on their own algorithms. This <i>seems</i> to be true because they don't all come up the same on the different partner sites correct?
So if that's the case, when a partner takes data from Inktomi, do they take ALL the listings and sort them out on their own terms, or does Ink first rank them somehow and then each partner site re-ranks?
I'm confusing <i>myself</i> here, so here's an example.
If I go to AltaVista and run a search for "dog", AV says there's 20252475 sites with dog in there somewhere.
At the same times, AV only lets me search through 100 pages with 10 links a piece, totalling 1000 results.
Now, if Inktomi first ranked how important each URL in it's DB was about dogs, AV could do one of two things I'd imagine:
They could take the top 10,000 listings returned from Inktomi and apply their own algorithm to these results to AltaVistatize them down to 1000 listings, sorted differently than Ink "pure search".
OR
They could fish out ALL the Ink listings and apply their own algo, taking it down to the 1000 listings again.
In the first scenario, I'd have to rank within the top 10,000 on Inktomi directly to even potentially get on AV. I'd then be ranked again on different algo's from AV, making SEO for AV a two step process. In the second scenario, just being in Inktomi's DB gives me equal opportunity to rank on AV, and what Inktomi things of my page doesn't really matter.
Now that would also lend itself to the question, if each partner site has their own algo's, who cares how Inktomi (pure search) ranks pages? End users don't use the Inktomi search direct right?
Optimise for Inktomi.
You will not get the same position on all the Inktomi partners, many factors involved here but the most significant is that MSN has featured sites, sponsored sites and Looksmart Directory stuff above you.
I tweak a site and check 7-10 days later for changes.
If you use the site search (at the top of the page) you will find loads of info already posted about optimising for Inktomi.
Good luck
Thanks again for the responses.
