Alta Vista

Strange things happening at Alta

[kris]

I have noticed some strange things with Alta. In this 6 months I have developed about 18 sites, none of which were submitted to Alta Vista via the Express Submit. Shortly after the sites are completed and submitted to Ink, Fast and Yahoo, these sites also appear on Alta. Not just appear, but they ALL had a #1 rank for thier targeted keyphrase! We enjoyed this placement for about 6 weeks and then these sites are dropped from the DB.

I just completed our latest site and this stayed true to form, #1 on Alta without paying for inclusion. I am sure this site too will be dropped in the next month or so unles I pay.

Can anyone explain this?? It seems as though new or fresh sites get a "boost" for a while and are dropped shortly afterwards.

[angiolo]

I have the same experience with a site submitted two weeks ago. I hope the site will not be dropped in the next few weeks...

Maybe it is the evergreen marketing tool: evaluate for free and decide to buy or not..

[bigjohnt]

Kris, that is what it appears top be. Yahoo and Looksmart used to do something similar when sites were just added, to give a temporary boost. This would show the inexperienced SEO or webmaster what a great bargain the engine is. I have not data, but personally convinced its a temporary boost, like the Yahoo "New" tag.

[TallTroll]

Well, yeah, but shouldn't it actually produce some traffic in order to demonstrate its value?

I've seen reports from a few people that Alta is providing a noticable amount of traffic, but it seems to be restricted to certain sectors (probably related to Altas residual userbase, and a bit of advertising). Certainly I don't consider them a major traffic source for any of my sites.

If I got a #1 ranking for every k/word I targetted, then Alta switched it all off, I wouldn't notice. How does that make me want to pay?

[duhboy]

Hello all
The same experience for me also. Initially great and steadily improving SERPS
then abismal. I often wonder what gives, but like many others, I don't loose too much sleep over AV.
This does however conflict (in my head anyway)with the thought that all engine traffic is important in its own way.
Thanks, Duhboy.

[bigjohnt]

Good point TT. I guess it is merely for show, for people checking their own ranking. AV's traffic has been dismal, and a small percentage of dismal is nil.