Theme based Sites Better?

do they rank higher

[vaniaul]

Dear All

I want to ask: Is it better to have theme based site i.e. Designing the webpages using similar keywords, relating to the main theme of the Site.

Does major search engines use "theme" based algorithms that evaluate the entire site to determine it's topical focus or over-all "theme".

Thanks in Advance
Vani

[kokopoko]

I've heard it's better to have a theme based site such as a site based on dogs than a site based on animals.

[rfung]

I am no expert on this, but this may be due to marketing issues rather than technical. You know the old adage 'find your niche' - you don't want to try and be everything to everybody, because you'll be lousy at it all - rather, target the sale to small niches (in the example, dogs) rather than animals in general. Now, if you create subsites for birds, cats,dogs, etc, that may work.

[arrowman]

I've heard it's better to have a theme based site such as a site based on dogs than a site based on animals.

Que? Why would "dogs" be more of a theme than "animals"?

And if this were so, why wouldn't "dobermans" be a better theme?

[rominosj]

IMO there is now need to have theme based sites. Search engines are not able to tell(FOR NOW) completely if a site is about a specif theme or not; however, this could change 5 to 10 years from now as their spiders become more powerfull. Right now there is the topic called LSI or Latente Semantic Indexing going around and it seems that when SE do understand what really goes on in a site, they will discriminate some because of their themes. You can read about LSI here: [javelina.cet.middlebury.edu...]

Romino

[graywolf]

I have a site about a very general topic, and I feature the sub-topic(s) that are most seasonaly relevant on the home page. The website also has adsense running on it. When I put a new page up, in the first few hours before the mediabot has a chance to read the page, it serves ads that relate to the topic on the homepage. This is true throughout the year.

So while it does eventually figure out what the page is about I think it has a default/fallback theme for the site based on the homepage content.

[chrisnrae]

[webmasterworld.com...] - Google Flavor may make themes more important than they ever were before. Assuming it becomes a trend. ;)

[john_k]

Given that you have posted this in the "Search Engine Promotion" forum, I think you need to expand on your question. Usually, when you are seeking to do search engine promotion, you have already decided upon a focus for your website.

As was pointed out, "animals", "dogs", and "dobermans" are all themes. Are you trying to determine which theme is best for running AdSense ads, running CPM ads, selling dog toys, or selling doberman training manuals?

[vaniaul]

Hello Everyone!

Thanks a lot for your valuable inputs. Rominosj & Chrisnrae, I really appreciate your valuable links. It has helped me a lot. I would really like to thank you all for sparing your time to help me out.