Top Rankings in MSN are Easy!

 ã2003 Andy Jones All Rights Reserved
Reprint Info Here

Search engines have become big money propositions lately because Google has proved you can make a good profit by serving up relevant results to search engine queries. Google is the 900 pound gorilla. They rule the Search Engine market right now. Yahoo and AOL are currently using Google results in their search engine listings and MSN is using Inktomi but I certainly don’t think this will continue. There are just a handful of viable search engines right now. Google, Intktomi, Hotbot, Ask Jeeves, Teoma and Alta Vista come to mind. With this limited supply of legitimate search engines, Yahoo, AOL and MSN are in the process of scrambling around to acquire their own search engines so they can battle Google.  Overture, which is the second place pay per click service behind Google AdWords recently bought Alta Vista. Yahoo, in turn, bought Inktomi.  Can you see what is happening?  With the limited supply of search engines as mentioned earlier, the also-rans behind Google are trying to mount a serious challenge to Google’s search engine dominance. To do this, they need market share and technology which is provided by these established services.

In the past, a typical scenario for me would be to get your new website up and running, collect some inbound links and then hope GoogleBot finds you in short order.  Sometimes you are in the directory in 2 weeks and sometimes it is 6 months.... and you gotta hope you optimized everything correctly and picked the right keywords. It sure can get stressful!! Let me tell you about a little workaround

I have been using the Inktomi Pay For Inclusion Service for some months now and have learned what it takes to get a decent listing in Inktomi/HotBot/MSN. Right now, Inktomi provides search results to MSN and HotBot. they have a little paid inclusion deal that is a perfect setup for search engine optimization.  For $39 annually, you can get one URL included in their database and their robot will crawl your site every 48-72 hours.  See where I am going with this?  For all practical purposes, Inktomi indexes your site similarly to Google.  Close but not exactly the same as Google has some off the page factors that will greatly influence the search engine results pages.  Close enough that if you can get a decent listing in Inktomi, the same should be true for Google. So while I am waiting for old GoogleBot to come visiting 724 Leads, I am tweaking and refining and adjusting the 724 Home Page on Inktomi. Tweak your page, the Inktomi Slurpbot appears just like clockwork within 72 hours and you get to see the immediate results to your page changes. Just repeat the process over and over until you get the page just right

Now, I do believe the Inktomi database will regain some importance. In years past, they were the predominant search engine. If Yahoo decides to use the Inktomi results rather than paying their direct competitor, Google, for results; I imagine getting a decent listing in Inktomi will become very important indeed!

Over the past two months I have learned quite a bit about the way Inktomi works. As a matter of fact, I go into the entire process in great detail in my Search Engine Optimization BLOG. If you want a blow by blow account with actual results of what happens when I make changes, the BLOG will be quite informative. It also shows Google rankings and the correlation between my Inktomi results and the initial Google results. I think the BLOG is unique information because I am not theorizing or relying on information provided by some other “expert”; what you see is the real deal – as it comes down.

Inktomi is not using the advanced algorithms and search engine ranking concepts that Google is using currently. The currently rely on the older META tag format. The section that follows details the tips and techniques I use to obtain top listings in Inktomi, HotBot and MSN.

Properly optimizing a page or entire website for Inktomi is not rocket science. Optimizing a page for both Google AND Inktomi is a bit of a challenge. Pay attention and I will show you exactly what I have learned. Just as a bit of a disclaimer, all these techniques involve ethical search engine optimization. I don’t believe in trying to ‘fool’ the search engines for any reason. Inktomi has two good sections on Search Engine Spamming and desirable content. Both of these pages are extremely well written and apply not only to Inktomi but also to any reputable search engine. Well worth the read if you have a little time.

 One of the frustrating aspects of MSN results are the way they list the search results.  An excerpt from MSN explaining the results:

 “Within Web Directory results, there may also be links where the Web site owners have paid for the expedited review of their site or for clicks to their site. These sites are ranked using the normal algorithm applied to all links within each section, with no change in rank due to payment.”

What are they saying??  In essence, if you are using their Looksmart or Pay Per Click service, those results will be displayed first. MSN is one of the last search engines to specifically group paid, sponsored listings and identify them clearly as such. That means that your Number One web search result may be listed behind a bunch of entries that are paying for the listings.

Some debate has centered on keyword names in the page title. My personal experience has shown keyword phrases separated by a hyphen (-) do seem to improve the rankings for that page. An example would be “blue-widgets.htm”

Now back to the Inktomi page elements:

a)<title> tag – I normally use around 12-14 words incorporating as many keyword combinations and variations  for that page as I can. Remember the page title will be displayed in Inktomi and many of the other search engines exactly as you write it. Give it some thought and try to make it catchy and compelling. Enough so that the searcher will click on your listing.

An example for a company that designs and sells blue widgets in Dallas:

 “Blue Widgets Dallas TX, Premium Blue Widgets from North Texas Supplier. Widgico Widgets”

This entry should cover all variations of the way someone would search for the elusive blue widget:

Blue widgets dallas or blue widgets texas or texas blue widget supplier or widgets dallas tx or widgets dallas texas etc.

b) Meta description tag – 15-18 words are good here and you need to re-emphasize the keywords used in the title tag.

Example:

“Blue Widgets of Exceptional Quality. Widgico Widgets of Dallas,TX is the North Texas Supplier

One thing I notice on a daily basis is people insist on putting the company name or website name first in the title and description. That is from habit. In most cases, if we were writing a descriptive title or paragraph, the company name is the first thing we would put on the paper. It just ain’t so on the Internet. The competition is for “blue widgets” not the company name and Inktomi is VERY particular about that. The FIRST words in the title, description and keyword tag has to be your main keyword phrase! The company name is usually unique enough to still place well in searches.

c) Meta keyword tag – 6-10 words.  Inktomi is one of the last search engines that still recognize this tag. How long they will continue doing so is anybody’s guess.  I always include it and put my keyword phrases in there ranked by importance. Notice the use of commas after each keyword phrase and no spaces after the commas. Inktomi guidelines state this is the way they want it. I also try to use the exact phrases – not just a series of pertinent words separated by commas.

 Example:

“blue widgets,dallas texas,dallas tx,blue widget supplier,north texas,widgico”

The visible adcopy is pretty standard and very structured.

 The first line should be a repeat of your TITLE Tag content enclosed in an <hx> tag. I have tried <h1>, <h2> and <h3> tags with little noticeable difference. Whatever you decide on should remain consistent throughout your website,

Example:

“Blue Widgets in Dallas,TX.  Premium Blue Widgets from North Texas Supplier -  Widgico Widgets

The second entry is a sub heading that I designate one <hx> lower than the main heading. If the first one was <h1>, I make this one an <h2>. This sub heading should be in bold.

Example:

“Widgico Widgets has been the North Texas supplier of Blue Widgets for over 50 years!”

Then the page itself should have 200-250 words and I try to work my keyword phrases into the body of the text 3 or 4 more times. One of the good things you might want to do is to put another sub heading down in the body of the text somewhere. I always use the same <hx> as the sub heading mentioned above. This is a great way to work more keyword phrases in to the adcopy and it divides up your white space too.

All images, pictures and graphics should make use of the ALT image tag. Put ONE keyword phrase in there and make it descriptive for that image. This is an area of growing abuse. I have seen alt image tags stuffed with 10 keyword phrases that have no relevance for that image at all. The search engines will catch on to this and the penalties will be assessed. 

To close the body of the text, I repeat the heading or first subheading and enclose it in an <hx> tag.

That about does it for Inktomi. You can submit and see your results in 48 – 72 hours. Most of the time, you will be awarded with a top 30 listing right off the bat. Tweak it and resubmit until you are satisfied.