StepForth's WebProNews Profile The following is an interview I had with Garrett French, Editor of WebProNews.com. The article is focused on the nuances of the Inktomi Database. Enjoy!

You can find this article at the following WebProNews Forum URL:

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=11431 (at the bottom of the page)

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 11:55 am

Post subject: Inktomi Insight

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Inktomi Insight. I called Ross Dunn today, looking for some insight into Inktomi, Yahoo’s search engine in waiting that they will pit against Google here in the next month or two. Ross is one of my favorite SEO experts and my favorite Canadian.

He likes Inktomi’s predictable and stable algorithm. It allows him to provide stable, predictable Inktomi placement to his clients. It’s the StepForth office’s favorite database to optimize for. If you have a good placement with Inktomi it may alter slightly, he says, but it won’t drop.

From the searcher’s perspective however this isn’t the best scenario because it indicates a lack of algorithm upkeep that may deliver more spam than useful results, and deliver Google more searchers.

If Yahoo’s going to make Inktomi a true Google competitor then their algorithm is going to begin to have a more Google-like unpredictability as they start dodging our optimization techniques and really striving for ultimate relevance.

So watch for some big changes in the Inktomi algorithm when Yahoo officially moves to only Inktomi results. (Probably at the time of Google’s IPO.)

Ranking well with Inktomi (for now…) is simple, says Ross. Make sure you have good meta tags, keyword titles, and good body text with your keyword relevantly peppered in there about 3 or so times. Standard optimization stuff, what used to rank you well with Google. Don’t spam them though. Check out Ross’s buddy’s article if you have any spam concerns.

Pay For Placement. I asked Ross about Daniel Brandt’s observations that Inktomi drops unpaid pages (they recently dropped about 49,7000 of Daniel’s pages). It’s true. Ross says Inktomi is definitely an engine you should pay to be in. “I’ll pay twenty bucks for stability any day.”

Is that Canadian or US?

But seriously, it’s probably a good idea to fork over a little dough right now for Inktomi placement. Get in early with Google’s main competitor.

Ross has not noticed any difference in the Inktomi bot’s behavior. Inktomi’s bot’s name is Slurp.

_________________

Garrett French

Editor, WebProNews.com

https://www.WebProNews.com