Google and Altavista - Similarities

Similar positions in G and A since last A update

[bluemi]

Just read an interesting article (in German) about similar positions of sites in Google and Altavista since Altavista's last update middle of August. I checked for some of my sites and various keywords, and it's true. Most of them have quite similar positions in Altavista as they have in Google. Is this true for anyone else, or maybe just because I'm in a rather low traffic field? Maybe the only way for Altavista to regain some bigger market share again. On the other hand, why go for the copy when you can get the original? And with an update interval of 45 - 60 days Altavista still can't match Google.

[PaulPaul]

They are completely different for me.

[Polarisman]

Altawho?

Why bother. They don't matter.

[przero2]

Polarisman, I would disagree. You could get respectable traffic from alta(who?) sometimes as much as 10% of big G depending on the site's positions.

[Polarisman]

Altavista is clearly a "has been", while Fast, Wisenut, et al are wannabees. As things stand now, and it appears for the foreseeable future, Google is the only search engine to worry about as far as SEO is concerned. Along with Yahoo they are by far the two major drivers of traffic on the net. Any traffic from Alatawho or any other the other seven dwarves, should, IMO, be considered gravy. Feel free to disagree, but the numbers do speak for themselves.

[PaulPaul]

According to my logs, Polarisman is right. :)

[Beachboy]

I agree. I tell my SEO clients where we will focus the effort, and AltaVista isn't where the attention goes. Neither is Inktomi, FAST/Lycos, or other little guys. What I find particularly interesting is all the commentary on hundreds of SEO websites touting the importance of these search engines, without revealing how little market share they really have. Hmmmm. ;)

[steveb]

If you aren't getting significant traffic from altavista and especially msn, then you are doing a not-great job.

Google and Yahoo have the lion's share of the market, but 25%+ is elsewhere. That is a lot to ignore.

[ciml]

> That is a lot to ignore.

I agree. I tend to be complacent; if it's optimised in Google it'll probably do fairly well in the others (or at least as about as well as it can without PFI/PFP).

I tend to go for many targeted phrases, rather than one 'big' general phrase. For someone in the other position (needing to score highly under a single word) then Google may be out of the question for them. For a highly popular phrase, it's better to be #1 on AV than #101 on Google.

[stuntdubl]

This is more of a questions than a reply, but everyone seems to say that if you optimize for G, then you should do fairly well in the other engines. I have very good listings on a couple different keywords for G, but I am nowhere to be found in Alta(who?), Fast, and others. The site is relatively new to google (about 4 months in the index), and I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do, or if I just wait it out. I haven't found much on optimizing for Fast (my second pick), and I'm wondering if someone could point me in the right direction.