Forum Moderators: mack
Results look very good so far, Look out Google!
AND THERE WAS THREE
The Dr
Ok, that's interesting. I do a site, niche, very relevant in its topic area, have never been able to get it into top 50 for 2 word keyword phrase in Google or Yahoo. Many people would be happy to find this site using that keyword phrase. It's currently bouncing between 2 and 4 in MSN beta. So this site is finally going to get some recognition, it's very old domain, I've been working on it as a freebie for years, so there's only a certain amount of time and resources I can put into it.
On google, that 2 word keyword phrase returns many fascinating sites where you can buy products related to let's call it widget x. And that mention or have reviews of our site. But no sight of our site.
Using your logic, I guess msn beta is the best search engine out there, and google and yahoo both suck. But wait, yahoo has decided another site I do is an authority for its topic area, but google still has most of it in some weird sandbox type purgatory even though I've done everything by the book to help googlebot out. So I guess that means that msnbeta and google suck. For a while msn beta really liked that site, had it number 1 for target keywords, then it changed its mind and decided only a vaguely related page for target keyword was the real page. But then again, for some other weird keywords, that site is number 1 in google, but not in msn hardly at all. So I guess that means that msn beta and yahoo suck. Hmmm. Scratches head. I think it's good to have 3 main search engines. And hopefully one day there will also be a non-profit one, like a library, that will only rank information type sites, no commercials ones unless you specify that in your search.
So it seems that all 3 are best, but all three also suck, since they can't agree. Or maybe they are different, and use different things to determine where your page ranks, and you can't make them all happy at once with any guarantee, although you can always try.
Personally, I think all 3 suck this year, they are all having major failures consistently that have not been fixed, msn beta is most excusable because it's a baby. Google's failures are beyond excuse as far as I'm concerned, and yahoo really just doesn't seem to care very much, a lack of care that is reflected in webmaster's disinterest in yahoo, reflected in almost no yahoo forum postings anywhere on the web.
[edited by: 2by4 at 2:18 am (utc) on Jan. 19, 2005]
Maybe they do plan to bring users to it through other means...
Will be interesting to see how the stats move. Can only get better from appox' 4%.
It has a large part to do with what each individual (and G$$gle) considers an 'authority site'!
We have a collection of "blue widgets" and we market them on the internet for other people to find it and buy them. The collection of ‘blue widgets’ is not that small around 250 widgets, but the entire collection is about these "blue widgets", not cigars. I am the authority on new MSN and no one on Google unless I pay them 40 cents PC and then some savvy webmaster decides to put Ads by Google on their page for keyword "blue widgets" but their site is about 'sour grapes' so when people finally click on that add from the 'Grapes page', I as the Authority have to pay for it to the authority that allows to display the add. I see you point about the devotion to quality content, but to my opinion MSN has the best one about the widgets that I have.
None of the sites MSN found are selling music, books and posters etc.
Apparently MSN beta believes searchers want to buy cigars. Of the 3 sites MSN beta found, the top #1 "authority site" (sic) on the actress is a tobacco company's link page. In the #2 spot, only the original CBS-TV site, unchanged for 3 years, has content about the actress. The 3rd site is a site with a few pages that mentions the actress in a show that never aired in the U.S. That site has not been updated in a year.
What these 3 sites share in common is that none of them have links to any site in the network of independent sites, message boards sites, photo sites, blogs, and official sites that comprise the fan communities for these genres, where users can find current, up to date information about the personalities.
MSN beta has dreadful results in this area.
If a person is too dumb to not be able to be objective, they deserve whatever happens.
A person would have to be a complete blockhead to not objectively know what an authority site is in their niche. Disputing the value of authority is nonsensical.
The only issue is the search engine's ability to accurately discern true authority.
[edited by: steveb at 2:29 am (utc) on Jan. 19, 2005]
I agree. That's what is so vexing. Our site has clips and/or stories about every professional gig the actress has done in the past 3 years, including 4 different jobs in the last 8 months. No other site is even trying to be as current.
That is why I believe Yahoo placed us in their directory a couple years ago immediately after our first request, and why we have been the #1 site on Yahoo, Teoma, Ask, Mama, and Yahoo ever since for this two word actress name search.
