Optimise for google and the rest will follow?

That's been my theory am I missing out?

[surfgatinho]

Hi

My current theory on optimising is follow all the common sense rules that I know apply to google i.e. incoming links, use of titles, plenty of keyword related content etc.
It does seem to work BUT does it apply to other SEs.
In short my google rankings are good, however my Altavista rankings are pretty poor. Is there a different approach needed?

Thanks
Chris

[piskie]

For most of the sites that I manage, I also adopt a policy of "conform to Googles whims and the rest will be near enough". This is primarily because I work almost exclusively for small businesses with a limited budget and the amount of cost associated with a multiple S/E strategy can run away with budgets without a proportional ROI.

In fact the rest are normaly within the expected window and produce a percentage of referrals closely associated with their share of the market.

[chairwars]

Generally if you follow the common sense rules you will be fairly ranked in most engines. Thats my experience anyway.

[Mohamed_E]

I optimize for Google, and as a result do well enough on Ink not to worry about Yahoo's plans. Currently no other search engine sends me anything worth worrying about.

[Imaster]

I would say: take the key points of optimization for Google, Intomi, and other search engines, note them down, and optimize using a killer combo that serves all.

[nakulgoyal]

Also keep in mind to submit to dmoz in the RIGHT category and u get in Google Directory.

This places you in a lot of directories powered by Google and works really well.

KEEP IN MIND. DMOZ IS IMPORTANT. Don't Mass Sunmit there.

[Imaster]

KEEP IN MIND. DMOZ IS IMPORTANT

Yes, getting a listing there is important, but thats not the end of the world ;) Listings from other sites/pages is as equally important. If you read through other discussions, you may arrive at a conclusion that its difficult to get a listing in dmoz.

So don't upset yourself if you don't get one. There are many sailing in the same boat ;)

[fathom]

1. Google 55.2%
2. Yahoo 21.7%
3. MSN Search 9.6%
4. AOL Search 3.8%
5. Terra Lycos 2.6%
6. Altavista 2.2%
7. Askjeeves 1.5%

Google feeds Yahoo and AOL or 80.7% of all searches.

Frankly like you I optimize for Google, if others come from other search engines GREAT!

But generally speaking any changes you make to attempt capturing that other 19.3% will in all likelihhod reduce your effectiveness on the 80.7% - therefore improving your share of 80.7% is better than losing shares of 80.7%.

[surfgatinho]

Thanks for all the responses.
I'll keep on the current course as I can't really think of another approach and it makes sense!
Hopefully my AV rankings will pick up. Still seems wierd I can get the 1 or 2 spot in Google and Lycos and be nowhere to be seen in AV.
Maybe it's their loss!

[percentages]

surfgatinho,

AV isn't a big traffic provider, but in your case it maybe that AV hasn't updated your site and links in a while. If you rank #1 or #2 on Google you should be at the top of AV.

GoogleGuy gave away a piece of useful AV info in another thread that as far as I can tell seems to work. Find your own site in AV and a number of those that link to you. Then click on them......this will cause AV to spider your site and the link partners again (typically within 24 hours) and update accordingly. As dumb as it may sound.....it seems to work ;)

[Marcia]

Optimizing pages for Inktomi and sites for Google is generally broad enough to work across the board.

[Papa_Dawg]

Hello all,

I agree, provided you do everything right and the rest will follow. They all look at keywords in titles, urls, H1 and H2, ALT, blah blah blah. I think the difference is that each engine digests the information at its own pace. At least the real engines do.

Now, if I may. AltaVista employs a truly poor algorithm in my view. They are good for crawling deep content driven sites, but can rank you for squat. Again, as someone said above, follow google's guidelines - only becuase they have the loudest voice now. Let's see what the fute will hold for us.

Pops

[layer8]

Does the site get better responses on other engines if the code is w3c validated and you do not have any browser errors?

From what I make out on Google this is not that much of a concern if you have a good site.