InformationWeek

There's no secret involved in getting a high ranking. Producing a strong showing in search-engine listings doesn't take clever tricks or arcane tactics. It takes Web-design skills, perseverance, hard work, a thorough knowledge of how the various search engines rank Web sites, a smattering of good luck, and, most of all, compelling content.

In fact, now that top search engines such as America Online, LookSmart, Lycos, and Yahoo rely mainly on human editors for determining their rankings, software programs that used to move Web sites to the top are falling out of favor. The only sure way to achieve a top slot is for your Web site to offer information that people want to read.

"Web designers must design for search engines, not just for browsers. But the absolute best way to be listed is to have really good content," says Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, an online newsletter that has been following search engines for years.

He and others cite Nike's Web site as an example of what not to do. A check of the Web site (www.nike.com) shows a lot of black background and not much in the way of content. This doesn't let search engines pick up keywords or phrases and index them. Indeed, even flesh-and-blood editors might be put off by the stark presentation. "Nike has a huge image on its home page, which is useless," says Sullivan. "Your home page is your calling card." A spokesperson for Nike says the company is satisfied with its Web site.

The number of search engines tops 1,000 and is still growing. But most Webmasters focus their efforts on the top 10 (see chart, p. 174) in hopes of drawing users to their sites. The potential rewards can be great. Using search engines is the second most popular activity (85% to 90% of users) on the Net, behind checking E-mail (98%). About half of all Web surfers find specific URLs from search engines.

The game is played like this: Each search engine demands certain characteristics from Web sites. Some criteria are cut and dried: How many keywords are used, how they relate to the home page title, and whether they jibe with the descriptions. Other criteria, such as content and presentation, are more subjective. Knowing what each search engine wants is the key to successful placement.

AltaVista, for example, uses a spider, an automated searcher, to study a Web site's metatags--the keywords placed into the HTML code on the top of the first page of a Web site--and then rate it for relevance in its category. The search engine also checks other keywords and phrases within the page and how many other Web sites link to it as a test of its popularity. In some cases, popular sites carry a cachet and get higher rankings.

About 25% of pages examined by AltaVista are thrown out because they don't meet requirements or because they're duplicates, says Tracy Roberts, director of product marketing at the Palo Alto, Calif., company. Her advice for good placement is simple: "Better placement comes from better content. If you do a great job, we will find you." AltaVista claims an index of 270 million Web pages that cover 90% of sites on the Internet.

While parts of AltaVista's Web site use people to decide rank, sites such as Yahoo rely solely on human editors to peruse Web sites and rank them. Anyone can suggest a Web site and the editors decide whether to include it in the directory listings. The criteria can be subjective, but Yahoo's Web site offers the following advice: Study the 14 categories to make sure that you suggest the correct category and subcategory for your Web site. Like all search engines, Yahoo places a lot of emphasis on following its unique rules to the letter.

Listing a site is free, but Yahoo came up with an interesting idea last year because of its sheer market power and the number of people who kept bugging the company about getting listed. Yahoo Express charges potential Webmasters $199 for the privilege of having their Web site read by an editor. The money doesn't ensure placement, only consideration and a guaranteed response to their request. Among the criteria for consideration: The site must be commercial, located in the United States, have working links, and the submitter must accept Yahoo promotional E-mail.

"There's no one single way to get good placement," says Tom Dugan, president of NewGate Internet Inc., a Sausalito, Calif., company that helps clients with positioning. Dugan says that his team of eight to 10 people, who are dedicated to search-engine placement, learn by trial and error what a particular search engine wants in the way of content and structure. They charge customers from 20 cents to several dollars for each visitor click that comes through a search-engine listing they've placed.

Getting placement is made more difficult because search engines are constantly changing their criteria. This is partly an attempt to continually respond to users' needs. But it's also an effort to keep out the vast number of pornography sites that flood search engines in hopes of popping up on an unrelated list.

Automated search engines use algorithms, which are mathematical equations that look for clues such as frequency of keywords, how close they're located to each other, and other proprietary criteria, to build their lists. When Dugan started doing this work five years ago, he and many other placement companies were able to figure out these algorithms rather easily and submit URLs that rose to the top. But search-engine operators have become more savvy, use more complex algorithms, and change them often. "The most difficult is InfoSeek," he says. "They change things so often that our task is to keep up with constant changes. We must be willing to change our operation almost on a daily basis."

Dugan says many companies think they have strong search-engine placement but they're often mistaken, and it's preventing them from attracting new customers to their Web sites. For example, a company will test placement by typing its name or main product into a search engine. Lo and behold, it's tops on the most-popular search engines, pointing directly to their Web site, so they walk away smug and happy.

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