AltaVista
was at one time the undisputed most comprehensive Search
Engine on the Net. Now that there is a high level of
competition among Search Engines, AltaVista is still very
important. It has many devoted users, and is still worth the
time it takes to submit.
AltaVista
is also now a part of the LookSmart network, which may or
not be good since Look Smart has ticked of its clients with
their decision to "upgrade" their listings to a high-priced,
low-quality pay-per-click model.
Gone are the days when you can get your
site indexed by Alta
Vista in a 24 hour period. To do
that, you now have to pay $199. You can still add your url
for free, but it will takes about 3 weeks to get indexed. I
have gotten indexed in a lot less time, but I wouldn't count
on that being the norm. Go For express
($199) and basic ($99) submit or
for their free submission
go here.
I recommend the free service. For one
thing, you are not guaranteed higher listing if you pay, and
the other, if you pay for the listing, an upgrade is through
the free service, your listing is deleted!
Use this tip to optimize your pages
for AltaVista.
Steps to Carry Out the Tip:
- AltaVista no longer spiders full
sites using links between pages. You must submit the
specific page you want indexed or it will not be located
and indexed.
- AltaVista does NOT support frames -
so the only text it will index on a framed site is the
text between the <noframes> tags. If you must use
frames, make sure to include the<noframes> tag, and
put some relevant content in it. Don't use a worthless,
insulting statement such as: "This page uses frames, but
your browser doesn't support them." If you're going to be
this rude you may as well say: "Go away stupid! I don't
want your business!"
- AltaVista likes keywords in the title
of your page. So, be sure your title contains your most
important keywords. On AltaVista, the <TITLE> tag
is everything. If you don't use the <TITLE> tag
with your keywords, you don't have a chance on this SE.
AltaVista only indexes the first 100 characters of your
title. You should not repeat your keywords.
- If you want to control the
description of your site in the AltaVista search results,
be sure to use the description META tag. AltaVista will
use it as the summary they display in search results. So,
make sure you use the description META tag, and make your
description interesting to your target market. AltaVista
also uses the keywords in your description and keyword
META tags to index your site. AltaVista only indexes the
first 150 characters of your description META
tag.
- AltaVista doesn't seem to favor
keywords in Meta tags, but they should not hurt you, so
use them anyway.
- AltaVista is case sensitive now, so
you will want to include the capitalized versions of your
keywords.
- AltaVista mixes their search results.
When you are looking at the search results for a
particular query, you may notice that the highest ranking
pages change positions. That doesn't mean that the site
has been reindexed. If your site drops out of sight don't
worry too much. It should show up again in later
searches. They only way I can think of to increase the
chance of your pages always ranking high is to submit
several pages with differing keyword
densities.
- In an attempt to prevent submissions
that manipulate search results, Alta Vista may exclude
these types of practices:
- Pages with text that is not easily
read, either because it is too small or is obscured by
the background of the page
- Pages with off-topic or excessive
keywords
- Duplication of content, either by
excessive submission of the same page, submitting the
same pages from multiple domains, or submitting the same
content from multiple hosts
- Machine-generated pages with minimal
or no content, whose sole purpose is to get a user to
click to another page
- Pages that contain only links to
other pages
- Pages whose primary intent is to
redirect users to another page.
Alta Vista frowns on URL submissions from
customers who spam the index and will exclude all such pages
from the index. Please Note: Alta Vista may even exclude
your website if it is HOSTED by a
See the following URLs for more
information and to register your pages:
AltaVista Add URL page
AltaVista Add/Remove a URL help
page
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