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AltaVista uses a ranking algorithm to determine the order in which matching documents are returned on the results page. Each document gets a grade based on how many of the search terms it contains, where the words are in the document, and how close to each other they are. Repeating a word over and over in a Web page, known as "spamming," has a negative effect on a site's ranking. As soon as it is discovered by software programmed specifically to detect spamming, the offending site is prevented from appearing in the AltaVista index.
AltaVista will index the description and keywords up to a limit of 1,024 characters.
Their spider is a deep search spider and will find any URL which is connected to the main body of the Web through one link. In other words, if you submit your main URL, every link on
that page will be gone through and indexed. You need only submit the main URL and any page which is not linked from other pages which the spider will crawl through. Generally, the exception to this are dynamically
created pages.
They will index as much of your html as it is able to, including alt text comments in image statements, titles, urls, directory names, visible text, image maps and meta tags. They
ignore html comments.
Here is a list of techniques which AltaVista considers spam and which will fail:
- Repeated cyclic submissions, or submitting pages with numerous keywords or keywords not related to the actual content of the
pages.
- Meta Tags with keywords unrelated to page content.
- Multiple front door pages.
- Submitting a large number of pages in the hopes of their showing up more often on the result pages.
- Cloaking (submitting pages that show the spider content which is different from what users will see.
AltaVista says this about spam:
"Attempts to fill AltaVista's index with misleading or promotional pages lower the value of the index for everyone and render Web indices and your search experience worthless.
We do not allow URL submissions from customers who spam the index and will exclude all such pages from the index."
AltaVista's Directory
AltaVista is building its own directory using the old AltaVista/Looksmart directory listings with the new listings provided by the the Open Directory Project. They take the fresh data
from Open Directory fairly frequently and, according to most sources, spider those listings and apply their own algorithm.
Although they promise a larger database and fresher listings with their new endeavor, most people think they have actually gotten worse with the changes. However, they are a major
search engine, and you really need to be listed here.
The key to AltaVista is a listing with Open Directory Project.
Since AltaVista indexes the HTML information on a page but comment tags, you want to put your main keywords as close to the top of the body as possible. If you have javascript, you
don't want it in the first few lines close to the body tag, or your keyword relevance may be penalized. Put your main keyword in the very beginning of description meta-tag and put a synonym of it in your title tag.
If you're having trouble to be indexed by AltaVista, it could be that you are submitting more than two URLs per day from the same domain. Don't submit more than two pages per day, for
your site, and AltaVista will index them in a couple of days; if you try to submit many URLs from the same domain name, you could even never see those URLs indexed.
- What Will AltaVista Index? Meta tags, title, keyword frequency for the first 200 words.
- How Long Will It Take? 1 to 4 weeks to get into the search engine and 1 to 3 weeks to get into the directory.
- How Many Pages Do I Submit? Although they suggest one URL, it is
common practice to submit the most important pages of your site.
- What Meta Tags Does AltaVista Support? Title, description, and keyword tags.
- How Long Can I Make My Tags? Title tag: 78 characters, description tag: 150 characters, keyword tags: unknown.
- Does It Support Alt Tags? Yes
- Are Searches on AltaVista Case Sensitive? Yes
- Is There Anything Else I Should Know? Yes. AltaVista supports
frames and image maps. They update their entire index quarterly, but it is important that if you change your pages, you immediately resubmit them. Only submit 2 or 3 pages per day.
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