Strategies for INK

What will work and not work for Inktomi ?

[gopi]

I always wondered why its hard for me to get any decent ranks in Inktomi. I am NOT a newbie SEO and have good rankings in Google , but inktomi is always a mystery.

Google is very obvious , KW Title ,killer anchor texts and some links from high PR sites ,in no time you are in Top 10.

But INK ??? I struggled with differnet meta tags ,KW densities but i am no where near the top 10 even for my site name in INK.

INK Gurus , please help me...

[gopi]

No one replied ???

[NFFC]

Link pop over time always works for me.

Are you optimizing for them or one size fits all?

[bobothecat]

From what I can tell with the recent Inktomi update is that ( just like Google ) meta-keywords are less of a player.

Appears as if `good' ( depends upon your view ) content is what it takes now. I Think now, more than ever... if you have good placement with Google, and you pay for inclusion with INK, you'll get great rankings. ( We all know that Google is generally the `content` king ... I said `generally` :) ).

I currently average #1-3 for searches that display over 50k and that's without the help of worthless LookSmart. ( Just my own opinion - as far as LookSmart is concerned ).

[korkus2000]

Titles seem also to be a huge player in the recent update. I am performing a lot like I perform in google.

[scorpion]

I believe URL's are important for inktomi. A good url on one of my sites got way more hits than a poor one. I mean, if a URL matches keywords the user searches for, you will get higher placement than if you say had a site with one subject and a totally irrelavant URL.

[thejenn]

I've found that the main trick to pulling traffic from an Ink listing is to optimize for a few secondary keyword phrases that are more specific and more detailed.

The reasoning? Now that Ink is gone from Google, the secondary MSN listings are really the primary traffic driver for Inktomi listings. Since MSN lists results from Overture and Looksmart before they even get to Ink, you don't stand much chance of pulling MSN traffic on a generalized or competitive keyword phrase in Ink.

Try running a search on MSN for the keyword phrases that come up during research. For instance...run a search on MSN for "guest speaker." You'll get a couple pages of Looksmart listings, followed by the Ink listings. Thus, even if you are #1 on Ink for "guest speaker," you simply are NOT going to pull traffic from MSN for this phrase. Now, try another search for christian guest speaker. Notice that there are NO Looksmart results...it goes straight to Ink listings. Thus, a #1 ranking on Ink for THIS phrase, is going to bring you a decent amount of MSN traffic.

Granted, using more detailed phrases produces less traffic per search term (because they simply aren't as popular), but the traffic that you do get is usually VERY targeted and it doesn't take very many of these phrases before traffic begins to add up.

[panicbutton]

Inktomi, despite recently changing their algorithm, is still the spammers best friend. It is very hard, dare I say impossible, to get good rankings if all you have is good content. To get good rankings I would suggest keyword densities above 50%, all text in <h1> tags and thousands of doorway pages. Sites with these attributes tend to do well in Inktomi from what I've seen.

Additionally, pay-per-inclusion sites will always rank below the results for Inktomi's pay-per-click customers (I forget what the program is called). Because of the better return to Inktomi from these larger ppc players, Inktomi puts them high in all results - thus effectively engineering a spammy environment themselves, urgh.

From a user perspective I can't see how Inktomi will survive. It's results are genuinely useless for all but the most finely-honed queries. When compared with Google, Inktomi's results are deficient in the extreme. You have to wonder how long MSN will put up with them. And once they lose MSN it's all over.

[scorpion]

since when does inktomi have a pay per click program???

[redzone]

panicbutton,

You are way off course saying that the PPC URL's (Index Connect) get bumped up to the top.

In fact, URL's submitted through index connect, go through the same "new URL in Index" penalty that PFI URL's experience.

We go through very stringent editorial matching up URL's to end content in Index Connect, and don't receive any "bump" in relevancy or index rank by Inktomi... We get the same refresh cycles as the URL PFI program, also. The only difference is we give up a hefty percentage on the backend, instead of paying a flat fee (annually up front.

KWD of 50%+?? You gotta be kiddin me? :) Inktomi is very serious about getting back into the web search side of the biz, and though they "back-filled" their index with "free" crawled URL's, I can guarantee they will be "gleening" out the junk.

Site popularity is a "major" weighting factor in Ink's algo... A freshly registered domain, doesn't stand a chance..

If you do well in Google, you will do well in Inktomi.
Reciprocal links from similar, relevant sites that are indexed in Ink, targeted keywords in Title, descrip, and solid content in the body.

TheJenn: What may only be providing secondary results for MSN today, could be providing "all" search results at Yahoo tomorrow. :)
Always optimize for the "large" traffic keywords that are relevant to your site, because you never know..

[fiestagirl]

I think that panicbutton is talking about the Indexconnect program at Inktomi. A PPC program for the big players with huge budgets.

[namniboose]

My site was stuck on page 5 for over a year in spite of trying EVERYTHING. Then suddenly my site went to page 1 and I think it is to do with the length of time the site has been in the index (I don't believe it coincided with a change in algorithm).

[thejenn]

To get good rankings I would suggest keyword densities above 50%, all text in <h1> tags and thousands of doorway pages. Sites with these attributes tend to do well in Inktomi from what I've seen.

You're kidding, right? Because 1) What a great way to get ditched when they finally get around to cleaning things up and 2) You'd have to create these pages so that ONLY Ink could see them. I prefer as little work as possible. :) Why create separate pages for every engine when you can just optimize one page to rank well in all of them?

What may only be providing secondary results for MSN today, could be providing "all" search results at Yahoo tomorrow.

Clearly, you are correct. My statement above was made assuming that they were already optimizing for the proper high traffic phrases for sites like Google. My suggestion was to ADD some secondary, more targeted phrases if you wished to pull some Ink traffic via MSN. Should Ink end up providing results at Yahoo, or should they end up as a destination engine, like Google, this tactic will simply lead to even more high rankings.

[john316]

>>To get good rankings I would suggest keyword densities above 50%, all text in <h1> tags and thousands of doorway pages. Sites with these attributes tend to do well in Inktomi from what I've seen.<<

I agree with that. PFI and cloaking the submitted page is the way to go.

[nell]

Site popularity is a "major" weighting factor in Ink's algo... A freshly registered domain, doesn't stand a chance..
Reciprocal links from similar, relevant sites that are indexed in Ink

Ink's PPI doesn't give a hoot about site or link popularity. The only "major" weighting factor is that of your "major credit card".

[bobmark]

I haven't noticed and PPC bias in inktomi. I think, as someone said here, longevity helps. Also if you only paid for one page - presumably your home/entry page for inclusion - I find it will not follow any link outside your root directory; that is a page hard linked off my entry page will get included if it is in the root directory; a page hard linked off my entry age in a sub directory will not be included.

[panicbutton]

Thanks to those that pointed out the Inktomi PPC program is called Index Connect. BTW, the suggestions of KWDs of 50% and <H1> tags were meant to be enclosed in <sarcasm> tags </sarcasm> :-)

Redzone, it's great to hear that Inktomi are "tuning" up their engine.

I'm sorry, but I find it difficult to believe that Ink treats the PFI schmoes the same as it does the big PPC clients. (If Inktomi *are* treating them the same then Ink shareholders should storm Ink's HQ and demand to know why Ink is sabotaging it's own revenue streams).

Ink's clients (eg. MSN, hmmm, can't think of any others ;-)) want the best return ($) for their user's searches. MSN ain't gonna want non-monetized search results (PFI or Free). What they *do* want is a nice, fat, juicy share of a $0.25 PPC (Bill isn't in this for benevolent reasons you know).

Artificially boosting the PPC results means it's a win-win situation for Ink and MSN. It's difficult to see this not being attractive to both companies. The PFI will eventually wither on the vine (I don't believe I'd recommend it to my clients again when renewal comes up unless there are some pretty dramatic changes in the Ink "engine tune up") and it will eventually all be PPC once PFI clients realise they can't win with PFI no matter how good their sites are.

[redzone]

PanicButton,
We wouldn't be complaining if our IC clients got a "relevancy" bump just for being an IC client, but it ain't happening that way.

Also, with the "backfill" that Ink. put in their index over the last 10 days, IndexConnect traffic actually decreased by about 30%, OUCH..

I think Inktomi is looking at the "big picture", and the "long run"..

Losing AOL definitely didn't help, but the major portals switch SER providers, almost annually... It's the nature of the game..

I'm just trying to figure out where Teoma and Wisenut are going to try and squeeze into a diminishing market place....