SEO for Inktomi and MSN

[dbmasters]

I have a few sites that I have done SEO for, mostly doing quite well. I have optimized for Google, and done very well, and the common sense tactics that work for Google have helped most other SE's as well.

That said, Inktomi and MSN, while the rankings are, eh, average, could be much better. What is different?

The primary site I am concerned about is a dynamic site, with not more than 3 querystrings on any given URL. I have, in the last couple days, modified the primary pieces of the site for a more related meta description and titlebar text. Previous it was just site name and the section of the site they are in. The main sections are an article/news management system and a forum.

What I did with the article/news was made the titlebar and meta desc have the site name (which is keywords) and the section, drilling down into categories I added that, into article added the article title.

With the forum I did the same type of thing, only with the forum name, drilling down into the topic title.

Google seems to prefer body content over the meta/title stuff given that I have done very well there already as well as other engines. Will this meta/title editing help in Inktomi and MSN?

Thoughts? Comments?

[strategicrankings]

The title & description tags seems to help a lot in MSN and Yahoo!

I've ranked several sites in top 10 for quite competitive keywords for the past 4 - 6 months in both Yahoo! and MSN.

One example is the latest one i've ranked at top 3 on both Yahoo! and MSN for "mortgage website development". This site was not in Top 100 some 3 months ago and 6 to 8 weeks after on page optimization the site was at top 3 for the above keywords and top 20 for other related keywords, but nowhere to be found on Google. We know where is the clue since the site does not have a solid link popularity on Google and since Yahoo! and MSN give more weight to on page factors, we are not unhappy to rank at top position there in the meantime.

Its impressive how its easier to rank in top 10 on Yahoo! & MSN for the same keywords and no where to be found on Google :rolleyes:

[dbmasters]

Thanks, as I suspected then, so I should be good. Actually, I had a much easier time getting ranked on Google, I suppose cuz the site I am targetting at the moment, is a very content rich site that is very keyword optimized by the very nature of it's content...so I never spent much time with it otherwise...plus I have great incoming links, so thats no worry.

Inktomi has been crawling me like crazy for months but I still never get good rankings, given that the bot comes constantly, I suppose ranking changes should be noticable relatively quickly then with my title and desc optimization.

Due to the dynamic nature of my web site the "keywords" tag is kinda tough, so, what I have done is begin each one with a series of the obivous key phrases (just a few...3 or 4) and then end it by taking the titlebar title, and replacing the spaces between words with a comma, then pulling out the stop words. Does that sound like a decent way to deal with keywords considering the limitations of my site due to dynamics?

[David Wallace]

Inktomi uses the meta description tag to form the description for a page that will appear in the SERPs. Therefore if you have added/optimized them in the past few days, then when they pick up those changes, it should increase your chances of placing well.

[dbmasters]

cool, that means the things I have been reading are correct, thanks for your time, and see ya at the top of the rankings :)

[dbmasters]

Interesting, I made some changes a couple days ago (titlebar and mete desc and meta keyword), and a few more yesterday (most title tags in href's and such things) and I did a ranking analysis and I am VERY high on MSN and Inktomi now. Front page on some second on others.

There is no way my changes could have had THAT quick of an effect is there?

Or do they update as they crawl, unlike Google which seems to change things radically every now and then rather than "on the fly"?

[Marcia]

Just a note, last year Yahoo acquired Inktomi and it's technically Yahoo's own search technology now superceding and replacing Inktomi.

I also still think of it as Ink, simply because optimizing for the two is so similar - but it's now Yahoo! Search that's the relevant entity. And a good thing it is; it's nice to have more than one basket to put our eggs in rather than just one, like it was for so long.

[dbmasters]

Oh, yes, I am aware of that, but I also assume that other search engines use Inktomi (regardless of who owns it) for backfill results or even their primary, so rather than just saying "Yahoo" the search engine, I thinkl of it as Inktomi the search provider...