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The Axandra newsletter archive

16 July 2002

WEEKLY SEARCH ENGINE FACTS
http://www.Axandra.com

Issue #12 - July 16, 2002
Copyright © 2005 Axandra / Voget Selbach Enterprises GmbH

Welcome to this week's issue of Search Engine Facts.

1. Facts of the week: META Description tag for AltaVista

Some search engines use Meta tags to get information about your Web page. AltaVista is among those search engines that use Meta tags.

There are Meta tags for page description and page keywords. AltaVista uses the document title (with the TITLE tags) and the page description meta tag to display your listing.

So it's up to you to decide how your listing on AltaVista should look like. If you want your listing on AltaVista to be:

--
Baseball News and Score Stats

Breaking baseball news and information for all professional teams with real-time scores!
--

you should write your TITLE and META Description tag as
follows:

--
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Baseball News and Score Stats</TITLE>

<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Breaking baseball news and information for all professional teams with real-time scores!">
</HEAD>
--

In our search engine ranking study which we conducted in April 2002, we analyzed more than 140 Web page attributes to find out which are important for a good search engine ranking.

Among other things, we analyzed how many letters #1 Web sites on AltaVista use for the content of the META Description tag.

We discovered that most #1 Web sites on AltaVista use 100 to 160 letters for the META Description tag but that the length isn't important at all for a good ranking.

However, is it important to include your keywords in the META Description tag? How many sentences should you use in the META Descrip on tag? You can find the answers in our search engine ranking study report for AltaVista which you can get for free this month (read below for details).

More information about Meta tags on AltaVista:
http://help.altavista.com/search/faq_web#9

More information about our study reports which are available for Google, AltaVista, Inktomi, AllTheWeb and Teoma:
http://www.Axandra.com/search-engine-studies/index.htm

You can even download a free sample report here:
http://www.Axandra.com/search-engine-studies/sample.htm

2. 19 common mistakes that prevent your Web site from getting top rankings on search engines - Part 10 of 19

Is your Web site not getting listed in search engines? Is your Web site listed but it's not getting top rankings? In our series we tell you the 19 common mistakes for low or no ranking and what you can do about it.

Reason #10: You are hosting your Web site at a free Web space provider.

Some search engines (e.g. AltaVista) limit the number of pages they will index from a single domain. For example, if your Web page is hosted at Geocities.com or Tripod.com, it might happen that your Web site is not listed just because the maximum page limit for that special domain name is reached.

Some search engines no longer even index pages residing on common free Web hosting services. Their complaint is that they get too many spam or low-quality submissions from free Web site domains.

However, Google is the exception. Google does index Web pages on Geocities.com and Tripod.com. Those pages also seem to have a Google PageRank of at least 3/10 because they are linked from a popular domain.

In summary, if you are serious about doing business on the Web, it helps tremendously to have your own domain name. Put yourself in the customer shoes: Would you buy from a Web site that is called "sub.free-web-space- provider.com/~category/162742/ my_business/home.htm"?

A domain name is easier to remember for your customers and it helps to build trust.

And while we're at it: A recent survey by Consumers Union found that only 29 percent of Americans trust Internet sites that sell products.

Consumer WebWatch research report on trust:
http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/news/1_abstract.htm

How to gain your customers' trust:
http://www.ecommercebase.com/article/37

3. Get the AltaVista study report for free - only this July

This month, we offer you a special webmaster bundle: If you buy ARELIS, the professional software for reciprocal links management, you'll get the AltaVista study report (306 pages, US$39.95) for free.

ARELIS is the top rated Windows software that automates most of the previously tedious and time-consuming tasks for getting reciprocal links to your site.

Getting reciprocal links to your Web site is important for a high search engine ranking. Reciprocal links can also get you a lot of targeted traffic to your site.

Last week, ARELIS received another top rating. Michael Wong of Search-Engine-Optimization-Strategies.net awarded ARELIS with 9 out of 10 points and says:

"ARELIS is an excellent program. The software interface is nicely layout. Set-up is quick and simple. The software is good at finding relevant sites, quickly. ARELIS includes all the features you would want in such a program.

It is obvious that the authors have put a lot of thought and planning into the software. [...] It's no wonder that virtually every software library rates it 5 stars. [...] even a HTML expert couldn't tell if a link directory was created by hand, or a program such as ARELIS."

Only this month, and only as a subscriber of this newsletter, you can get the AltaVista study report (value: US$39.95), free with every purchase of ARELIS at this special offer page:

http://www.Axandra.com/special-offer.htm

4. Previous articles

Search term position on AllTheWeb/FAST
https://newsletter.seoprofiler.com/newsletter11.htm

Document types, WiseNut vs. Google
https://newsletter.seoprofiler.com/newsletter10.htm

JavaScript usage on Google
https://newsletter.seoprofiler.com/newsletter9.htm

Search terms in URLs on Altavista
https://newsletter.seoprofiler.com/newsletter8.htm

Keywords in IMG ALT texts for Inktomi
https://newsletter.seoprofiler.com/newsletter7.htm

5. Recommended resources

>>> How popular is your Web site?

Find it out now:
http://www.CheckYourLinkPopularity.com

>>> Did you know?

We pay you up to US$139.98 every time one of your visitors buys our products.
http://www.Axandra.com/affiliates.htm

>>> Marketing Web sites we recommend

http://www.Axandra.com/webmaster-resources/index.htm

Please recommend this issue to anyone you know who is interested in search engine facts. It's a good way to stay in touch with your clients, too.

If you're receiving this issue as a forward, and would like to get your own free subscription, visit

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