AlltheWeb Ranking... How is it done?

Looking into it because of the fall of Google

[allanp73]

Hi,

I was looking at the ranking of several of my sites on AlltheWeb (fast), so far pretty bad. The same sites rank well on Google and Inktomi, but do terrible with Fast.
So what am I doing wrong?

I noticed sites that rank better have fewer links and less keyword text. Does Fast prefer lower keyword density. How much emphasis is placed on links and anchor text.

I noticed that AlltheWeb doesn't seem to index all of the pages from my sites. How can I check for sure?
How can I encourage it to crawl better? (Note: the sites use text links with no frames or javascript which could confuse the bots)

How about the meta-tags how important are these and how does Fast rank their importance?
Title?
Description?
Keyword?

How about keywords in the URL? Do they help?

What kinds of penalties does Fast have? How can you tell if you are penalized?

Sorry for the multitude of questions, but I am interested in learning as much as possible because I feel like Google is going down and others (like Fast) are on the rise.
THANKS!

[outrun]

Hey allanP73,
This has been discussed before,

[webmasterworld.com ]

regards,
Mark

[heini]

Basically ATW has all the known ranking criteria in their algo.
Strangely I always fare well in ATW with the exact same optimization I do for Google. (Strange only because several members claim the opposite).

You need to do:
- good onpage optimization, that is: title, desc, headers, etc.
- good internal linking, relevant anchor texts
- good inbound links, with relevant anchortexts

Tip: look at the clusters, see where the results are coming from, see how they are grouped.

TipII: Don't believe the hype of keyword stuffed domains. Keywords in domains help in exact same way as in Google: they make having keywords in anchor text easier, that's all.

[edit_g]

Strangely I always fare well in ATW with the exact same optimization I do for Google.

Same here - I've never tried to optimise for them but by optimising for google I get surprised when I (not often) check the SERPS over at ATW and find good rankings on the same keywords and phrases.

[heini]

BTW: ATW does CTR measurements on many serps, probably not a bad idea to just click your url from time to time :)

[edit_g]

Surely that's unethical. If I go down that road then the next step is clicking on my competitors' Overture listings once a day when I check the bids! ;)

[edit]ahem... who said that?![/edit]

[Brad]

>>with the exact same optimization I do for Google.

Same here. Over time ATW will find the sites linking back to you and you will start to rise. It pays to be patient.

[deanril]

I was ranking good in All the Web/Fast now not so good, all of a sudden like with in 2 weeks, their algo has changed for sure...

I was like #6 for a big keyword, #10 on google, now Im #8 on google and #18 on All the web. All may keywords suck, #1's on Inkomi and google are #8-#15 on All the web......

I cant figure it out.....

I have the most backlinks in All the web aswell......

[deanril]

If you got HotBot, and look at Fast, you get dates, Im competing with sites that have dates like October 8, 2002

What the hell.....

[mil2k]

their algo has changed for sure...

Yes i agree. Being in a unique situation I can say that they are devaluating multiple one way links from single sites. Something like a PR Cap. :)

[Rumbas]

I'm on par with most stuff said here. IMO Fast likes on page stuff more than some of the others. That makes their serps a bit more on topic for me.
Other than that make sure you have that ODP listing and ensure that your internal link text is optimised too.