If you know how the various search engines compose their rankings, you'll be able to optimize your pages for higher rankings. You can improve your site's HTML to please the search engines, but that may only get you so far. Doorway pages take optimization to the next level.
Since meeting the specifications of all the search engines at once is practically impossible, let optimized doorway pages do the job. The following table provides comprehensive information about the major search engines. It even includes the number of characters that should be included in some tags.
Search Engine |
Keywords |
Location of Keywords |
Document Length |
HTML Title |
Meta tags |
Themes |
What's spam? |
Other info |
AltaVista
Search Engine |
Only the first two occurrences are indexed, use in <title> and top of the page |
Top of the page, <h> tags |
Longer pages favored,
600-900 words |
Most important keywords here, 300 characters,
short titles preferred |
Not very important, but use them just in case |
Yes, consistent keywords throughout the site |
Repetition of keywords one after the other, meta refresh tags, invisible text, identical pages, excessive submissions. |
Repeat keywords in files names. Use keywords in text links. |
Google
Search Engine |
Weight and proximity matter most |
<h> tags,
bold text |
Wide range, from 50-600 words. |
Keywords here, up to 90 characters |
No |
Yes, consistent keywords throughout the site |
Use of link farms, cloaking, excessive repetition |
Link popularity is the most important factor |
HotBot
Search Engine |
Frequency and weight in the body are most important |
URL text and title |
Short, 100-250 words |
Most important, keywords here, up to 105 characters |
Very important, both description (150 characters) and keywords (75 characters) |
Yes, consistent keywords throughout the site. |
Repetition of keywords one after the other, meta refresh tags, nearly identical pages, invisible text, irrelevant keywords, too many submissions |
Use keywords when describing links, and naming files |
Lycos
Search Engine |
Keywords spread throughout the page and in the title |
Top of the page, <h> tags |
Short, 100-250 words |
Keywords here, second word, up to 1129 characters |
Not indexed by Fast, but shows up in top rankings |
Yes, consistent keywords throughout the site |
Repetition of keywords one after the other, nearly identical pages, invisible text |
Not recommended
Use ALT tags |
