By Richard Zwicky Published October 31, 2003, SiteProNews
Wouldn't it be nice if the search engines could comprehend our impressions of search results and adjust their databases accordingly? Properly optimized web pages would show up well in contextual searches and be rewarded with favorable reviews and listings. Pages which were spam or which had content that did not properly match the query would get negative responses and be pushed down in the search results.
Well, this reality is much closer than you might think.
To date, most webmasters and search engine marketers have ignored or overlooked the importance of traffic as part of a search engine algorithm, and thus, not taken it into consideration as part of their search engine optimization strategy. However, that might soon change as search engines explore new methods to improve their search result offerings. Teoma and Alexa already employ traffic as a factor in the presentation of their search results. Teoma incorporated the technology used by Direct Hit, the first engine to use click through tracking and stickiness measurement as part of their ranking algorithm. More about Alexa below.
How can Traffic be a Factor?
Click popularity sorting algorithms track how many users click on a link and stickiness measurement calculates how long they stay at a website. Properly used and combined, this data can make it possible for users, via passive feedback, to help search engines organize and present relevant search results.
Click popularity is calculated by measuring the number of clicks each web site receives from a search engine's results page. The theory is that the more often the search result is clicked, the more popular the web site must be. For many engines the click through calculation ends there. But for the search engines that have enabled toolbars, the possibilities are enormous.
Stickiness measurement is a really great idea in theory, the premise being that a user will click the first result, and either spend time reading a relevant web page, or will click on the back button, and look at the next result. The longer a user spends on each page, the more relevant it must be. This measurement does go a long way to fixing the problem with "spoofing" click popularity results. A great example of a search engine that uses this type of data in their algorithms is Alexa.
Alexa's algorithm is different from the other search engines. Their click popularity algorithm collects traffic pattern data from their own site, partner sites, and also from their own toolbar. Alexa combines three distinct concepts: link popularity, click popularity and click depth. Its directory ranks related links based on popularity, so if your web site is popular, your site will be well placed in Alexa.
The Alexa toolbar doesn't just allow searches, it also reports on people's Internet navigation patterns. It records where people who use the Alexa toolbar go. For example, their technology is able to build a profile of which web sites are popular in the context of which search topic, and display the results sorted according to overall popularity on the Internet.
For example a user clicks a link to a "financial planner", but the web site content is an "online casino". They curse for a moment, sigh, and click back to get back to the search results, and look at the next result; the web site gets a low score. The next result is on topic, and they read 4 or 5 pages of content. This pattern is clearly identifiable and used by Alexa to help them sort results by popularity. The theory is that the more page views a web page has, the more useful a resource it must be. For example, follow this link today -
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/ traffic_details?q=&url=http://www.metamend.com/
- look at the traffic details chart, and then click the "Go to site now" button. Repeat the procedure again tomorrow and you should see a spike in user traffic. This shows how Alexa ranks a web site for a single day.
What Can I Do To Score Higher With Click Popularity Algorithms?
Since the scores that generate search engine rankings are based on numerous factors, there's no magic formula to improve your site's placement. It's a combination of things. Optimizing your content, structure and meta tags, and increasing keyword density won't directly change how your site performs in click-tracking systems, but optimizing them will help your web site's stickiness measurement by ensuring that the content is relevant to the search query. This relevance will help it move up the rankings and thus improve its click popularity score.
Search Engines Can Use the Click Through Strategy to Improve Results
Search engines need to keep an eye to new technologies and innovative techniques to improve the quality of their search results. Their business model is based on providing highly relevant results to a query quickly and efficiently. If they deliver inaccurate results too often, searchers will go elsewhere to find a more reliable information resource. The proper and carefully balanced application of usage data, such as that collected by Alexa, combined with a comprehensive ranking algorithm could be employed to improve the quality of search results for web searchers.
Such a ranking formula would certainly cause some waves within the search engine community and with good reason. It would turn existing search engine results on their head by demonstrating that search results need not be passive. Public feedback to previous search results could be factored into improving future search results.
Is any search engine employing such a ranking formula? The answer is yes. Exactseek recently announced it had implemented such a system, making it the first search engine to integrate direct customer feedback into its results. Exactseek still places an emphasis on content and quality of optimization, so a well optimized web site, which meets their guidelines will perform well. What this customer feedback system will do is validate the entire process, automatically letting the search engine know how well received a search result is. Popular results will get extended views, whereas unpopular results will be pushed down in ranking.
Exactseek has recently entered into a variety of technology alliances, including the creation of an Exactseek Meta Tag awarded solely to web sites that meet their quality of optimization standards. Cumulatively, their alliances combine to dramatically improve their search results.
ExactSeek's innovative approach to ranking search results could be the beginning of a trend among search engines to incorporate traffic data into their ranking algorithms. The searching public will likely have the last word, but webmasters and search engine marketers should take notice that the winds of change are once again blowing on the search engine playing field.
About The Author Richard Zwicky is a founder and the CEO of Metamend Software, a Victoria, B.C. based firm whose cutting edge Search Engine Optimization software has been recognized around the world as a leader in its field. Employing a staff of 10, the firm's business comes from around the world, with clients from every continent. Most recently the company was recognized for their geo-locational, or GIS technology, which correlates online businesses with their physical locations, as well as their cutting edge advances in contextual search algorithms.
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
When it comes to pay per click search engines, GoTo.com is the clear leader. Over the years, GoTo has established relationships with many of the top search engines and directories, including Dogpile, Netscape, Hotbot, MSN, Compuserve, NBCI, American Online, Lycos, AltaVista and CNET.
So what does all of this mean to you and how do you use these relationships to your benefit? If you bid on keywords/phrases with GoTo and are listed in one of the top three positions, your site will also show up on the above engines when someone performs a search for one of your keyphrases. For example: Suppose you've snatched up "London vacations" as a keyphrase in one of GoTo's top three positions. If an AltaVista user types the phrase "London vacations" in the search box, the results page will have your site listed at the very top. You'll have similar results at the other search engines that are powered with GoTo listings. A nice way to get a top listing, don't you think?
According to GoTo, the top three bids - which they call "Premium Listings" -get more than twice the number of searches as a regular listing. Let's take a look at just where your site will appear on the various search engines /directories when you secure a premium listing.
AltaVista: To show up on AltaVista's search results page you need to be in the top six bid positions at GoTo. These bids will appearing as "partner listings" on AltaVista's search results page, with the top three bids showing up at the top of the listings and an additional three appearing at the very bottom of the search results page.
America Online: American Online boasts over 2.3 million members. To show up here you'll need to have one of the top three bid positions at GoTo. The links are labeled as "Sponsored Links" at the top of their results page before other search options are listed.
Lycos: The top three listings from GoTo appear under the heading "Featured Listings," before Lycos' own search results. There is also a link labeled "More Featured Listings" that leads you to a full page of GoTo results in bid order. Two more GoTo listings show up in the first ten results under what Lycos refers to as "Web Sites" section.
Netscape: Owned by America Online, they also display GoTo's listings under what's called "Partner Search Results" but only the top two bid positions are shown.
HotBot: The top three GoTo bids show up on HotBot's search results page under the title "Featured Listings."
MSN: After performing a search on MSN, the results page has a link that says "Get the Top 10 Most Popular Sites for [ the keyphrase you searched]". When you click through, the first three listings you'll see are the top three bids from Goto for that keyword or phrase.
CompuServe: If you're in the top ten at GoTo.com, you'll show up in searches at CompuServe. All of their search results appear to be supplied by GoTo and are labeled as "Premium Web Pages."
CNET: If you perform a search on CNET you'll see GoTo.com's top three listings for that particular word/phrase appearing in the right hand column in a box titled "Goto.com Search Partners."
NBCI: NBCi appears to be pulling the top 15 GoTo search results to be displayed on their results page. By clicking "more results" at the bottom of the page, additional GoTo listings are displayed.
DogPile: The first ten results from GoTo.com are displayed on DogPile's search results page. Below those you'll see LookSmart's results followed by Sprinks listings.
FAs you can see, positioning yourself in the top three positions with GoTo can get you some major exposure on many of the most popular search engines and directories online today. If you've been hesitant about opening your own GoTo account you may want to reconsider after seeing how widespread their reach is.
Remember, with GoTo you're not paying for impressions - only for actual click throughs, and the traffic you'll receive is highly targeted. More bang for your buck, so to speak.
By partnering with GoTo and obtaining a "premium listing," you too can be listed at the top of the search engines and isn't that what everyone wants?
About the Author
Merle http://www.EzineAdAuction.com "Where some of the BEST Deals in Ezine Advertising are Made" Buy & Sell Ezine Ads in a live auction setting! Publishers sell off your excess inventory and Buyers pick up some Fantastic bargains. Go now.
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
By Jessica Albon
Copyright 2003, The Write Exposure
You spent a ton of time getting your website just right for Google. And now your site has sunk to the very bottom of the results for several key phrases.
Your traffic has plunged, and, worse, so have your profits. Sure, you know now you shouldn't have relied so heavily on one source of website traffic, but how do you fix the problem?
If your online business has taken a hit from the Florida Updates of Google, read on for five ways to build a broader base so the next algorithm change won't be as devastating.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT THE SEARCH ENGINES It's not the search engine's job to deliver traffic to your website. Rather, a search engine strives to give the best results to each searcher. Think about your site from your visitor's point of view. What information is that visitor looking for? And how can you make it clear up front that that's the information you provide?
Work at providing information from your website and giving the search engines that information-don't work so hard at convincing search engines that your site is what visitors want.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT SITE VISITORS Each visitor to your website is worth a certain dollar amount to you. Whether or not they buy. If you don't already know this amount, now's the time to calculate it. With this number in hand, you can consider advertising and pay-per- click strategies that'll bring more traffic to your website.
If you're looking for stability, seriously consider what a visitor is worth to you and then check into pay per click advertising to bring in the right number of visitors every day.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT FOLLOW UP You've been stalling and hesitating to set up a follow up program. It takes too much time, you thought. And, besides, you were getting that steady flow of new traffic. So you didn't set up anything. And now that you're hurting for traffic, you don't even have a group of people you can offer a promotion to to bring them back to your site. Without a follow up program, the little traffic that's trickling onto your website is lost forever.
Get those people to opt-in to receive updates from you so you can bring them back to your website time and again until they buy.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT WEB PROMOTION Sure, it's easy to hire an SEO expert and sit back and wait for the search engines to bring traffic to your website. But search engines are run by third parties over whom you have no control. And that means relying on them to bring you traffic is risky at best.
Instead, look for ways you can bring traffic to your website yourself. Publish articles on other sites, set up cross- promotions with related websites, go off line for traffic.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR WEBSITE Do you think visitors should visit your site and think you're exactly the solution they're looking for? Without visiting your competition, considering their options, contacting your help desk, or having any questions? Good luck.
Instead, set your site up to be a friendly experience for the traffic you do get. Give each individual visitor plenty of support and resources. Not only will this increase the number of visitors who buy, but it'll also increase the number of visitors who recommend your site to a friend.
Ultimately, the responsibility for bringing traffic to your website rests with you-not the search engines, and not your SEO expert. By taking responsibility for bringing the visitors you need in to your site each month, you'll be able to ride out any algorithm changes, shifts in public opinion about specific search engines, and other day-to-day changes in business. Setting up these systems now will start bringing traffic to your site very quickly, and will also have lasting effects.
Want more tips on how to build follow up programs that'll put your profits back under your control? Visit http://www.designdoodles.com for free information on creating newsletters to follow up with prospects.
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
