* The keyword frequencies suggested below are based on the number of times ANY of the words in your keyword phrase "search engines" appear on the page, DIVIDED by the number of words in the phrase.

• A keyword frequency of 1 is suggested for the Title area. Your frequency is 2.0 right now so you might consider decreasing your Keyword count in the Title.
• A word count from 6 to 8 is suggested for the Title area. Your word count is 11 right now so you might consider decreasing your word count in the Title.
• A keyword prominence of at least 61% is suggested for the Title area. Your prominence is 47.1% right now so you might consider increasing your prominence in the Title.
• A word count from 14 to 34 is suggested for the Meta Keywords area. Your word count is 51 right now so you might consider decreasing your word count in the Meta Keywords.
• A keyword prominence of at least 55% is suggested for the Meta Keywords area. Your prominence is 50.5% right now so you might consider increasing your prominence in the Meta Keywords.
• A keyword frequency from 1 to 3 is suggested for the Link Text area. Your frequency is 5.0 right now so you might consider decreasing your Keyword count in the Link Text.
• A word count from 1 to 184 is suggested for the Link Text area. Your word count is 225 right now so you might consider decreasing your word count in the Link Text.
• A keyword frequency from 1 to 6 is suggested for the Hyperlink Url area. Your frequency is 21.0 right now so you might consider decreasing your Keyword count in the Hyperlink Url.
• A keyword frequency from 1 to 6 is suggested for the Body Text area. Your frequency is 12.0 right now so you might consider decreasing your Keyword count in the Body Text.
• A word count from 248 to 397 is suggested for the Body Text area. Your word count is 1917 right now so you might consider decreasing your word count in the Body Text.
• A total frequency from 5 to 18 is suggested for the page as a whole. Your total frequency is 44 now, so you might consider decreasing your frequency count.
• A total word count from 330 to 566 is suggested for the page as a whole. Your total word count is 2265 now, so you might consider decreasing your word count.
   

• When submitting your home page, it's probably better to submit only your domain name rather than explicitly specifying the name of the home page. We say this only because we've noticed many top ranking pages having the domain name indexed, but the home page name is rarely included in the Url.
• Some engines do not read META tags or Title tags properly if the Title tag does not appear first in the Head area. Please move your Title tag so it's the first tag after the Head tag.
   

• July 12th 2001: Include your company name and address on every significant page of your Web site. This will improve your chances of being found when a person searches for a product or service in a certain city or part of the country.
• July 12th 2001: Purchasing and setting up multiple domains can be a great way to increase your visibility on the Web and if you cross-link your domains, you can improve your link popularity for each site. However, it's best if you host the cross linked domains at separate Web hosts so that the first 3 blocks of the site's IP address (xxx.xxx.xxx) are different. Some engines may ignore link popularity if the IP addresses of the sites are too close together numerically. Also, include the Keyword in the Link Text when you link to your other Web sites.
• July 12th 2001: Read our Top 5 Tips and Mistakes of Search Engine Marketers for a great overview of what you should do and not do to promote your site.
• June 5th 2001: Recent observations confirm that AltaVista submissions tend to start out with a low ranking after being submitted and then tend to improve on their own over time as the page "ages". Therefore, optimize the page carefully with the Page Critic and submit it. Once you verify that AltaVista indexed your page, monitor your rankings for improvement. Avoid re-submitting pages already in AltaVista as that may harm your ranking rather than help it.
• April 11th 2001: AltaVista displays Sponsored/Featured Listings at the top of its search results which are derived from Goto.com. If you'd like to be positioned here, you will need to setup a Goto.com account and purchase top rankings for as little as 5 cents per click-through. Before doing this, read our tips!
• April 11th 2001: All major engines claim to prefer Web sites with high-quality content. In addition to improving your rankings, enhancing the quality of your Web site will also help convert more visitors to SALES. Don't fall into the trap of creating dozens of "cookie-cutter" pages that are devoid of valuable content or are lacking in aesthetics. See our article on creating high-quality pages to make your Web site the very best it can be.
• April 11th 2001: AltaVista now requires manual submissions. Learn the pros and cons to this change.
• There's four main areas that have the most influence in your AltaVista rankings. Learn these and other secrets direct from an inside source at AltaVista.
• IMPORTANT: Improve your link popularity! Your ranking is influenced by the link "popularity" of your site. This is determined by how many OTHER Web sites link to your own. Read past MarketPosition articles on how to improve your link popularity (very important). The more sites that you can get to link to you, the better! See our free LinkPopularityCheck.com service for many link checking options.
  [View Main Page Popularity]
• IMPORTANT: Be sure you are targeting the right keywords! If you optimize for Keywords that nobody is searching for then all your efforts will be in vain. Click here to learn more.
• AltaVista expanded it's rules on what it considers spamdexing during the first quarter of 2000. One noteable change is that you should avoid creating multiple duplicate pages or near-duplicate pages if there's a chance that AltaVista would find them. Create pages with good, and varied content that still adheres to the rules in the Page Critic advice. Click here for more information.
• It's thought that AltaVista is more likely to reindex your page after changes are made if you change the size of the file by 50 to 75 bytes (characters) since your last submission. You could do this by simply adding or subtracting spaces at the bottom of the page as needed. The logic is that the engine may skip pages that it thinks have not changed much.
• It's believed that AltaVista may prefer larger sites with lots of pages. The thinking is that a site with more content will most likely be of greater value to their visitors. Therefore, make sure your site has plenty of content with links to that content from your home page. This content should reside on your web site, though, and not on other sites.
• You can improve your score if you allow your doorway pages to be spidered by AltaVista rather than submitting them directly.
• Consider creating pages with varying Keyword weights for AltaVista. Click here to learn more.
• Obtaining a domain name with your Keyword in it may significantly affect your score on AltaVista. Including the Keyword in a sub-directory name or page name can also help, although not as much. Separate multiple words by dashes, underscores, or slashes in the case of sub-directories. Consider purchasing a secondary domain name for this purpose if ranking well on AltaVista is important to you. To check the availability of a domain or to purchase a domain name, click here.
• Along with using your Keyword at the top of the page, you might consider using your Keyword at least once near the bottom of your page in the Body area. This can help convey an overall "theme" to the page and may improve your score. Click here to learn why. Only make this change if it doesn't conflict with the current recommended prominence suggestion.
• Since plurals are not recognized as being synonymous by AltaVista, try to use the plural form of the Keyword in addition to the singular form when possible to capture more potential traffic.
• AltaVista is believed to be case sensitive. If you are not already doing so, consider using upper, lower, and proper case versions of your most important Keywords to increase traffic.
• For additional help in improving your rankings, click here, or see the Page Analysis.
• If you have time, try to establish a "theme" to your Web Site to improve your rankings. Whenever possible, link to your doorway pages from other pages and domains with your important Keywords in the linking text. For more information on cross-linking, themes, and the advantages/disadvantages of multiple domains, click here.
• If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions about the above advice, e-mail us at help@webposition.com.