Search Engine Success Requires Persistence, Insiders Say

Webmasters attending the Search Engine Strategies seminar in San Francisco
heard a consistent theme throughout the day on Thursday. Persistence will
pay off.

None of the panelists claimed to have a single solution that could be used
to increase traffic to a site. But individual sessions revealed ideas that
covered a wide range.

The opening session was on doorway pages containing content targeted to
gain the attention of a single search engine. Webmasters can craft such
pages in the hope of increasing their ranking at one engine and fill the
pages with links to other pages inside their own site.

One way to use
doorway pages revealed at the session is to sniff out the IP addresses of
incoming browsers according to which search engine directed them, and then
direct the visitor to a customized page.

The net effect is to show the
search engine spiders one page and show a visitor a different page.

Throughout the day, panelists from the major search engines and
directories, including Snap, Alta Vista, Google, Infoseek/Go, and
Excite@Home, delivered a consistent message.

If you are badly ranked, it is
not their fault. As a group, they tried to deliver the message that certain
kinds of pages guarantee low search engine rankings. Among the
“must-avoids” for search engine success: Flash. According to Chris Tolles
of DMOZ, “Eat your spinach and don’t use Flash.”

On the “must do” list, consensus emerged on several points:

• Do submit to less popular keyword sections of the sites.
• Do submit to regional and smaller directories.
• Do be clear in a submission and always follow the guidelines listed at
  submission pages.

While the search engine site managers emphasized the point that they can
not directory control rankings, they stressed that the more links into a
site that exist on the Internet, the more likely a site will be ranked higher.

The day was moderated by Danny Sullivan, editor of internet.com’s
Search Engine Watch.