This article takes an in-depth look at some of the innovations
introduced at ExactSeek.com (http://www.exactseek.com),
including, most recently, the implementation of a unique ranking
algorithm that factors in Alexa traffic data.
Search engines basically cater to two audiences - webmasters
and web searchers. Although there is an obvious overlap between
the two groups, the latter dominates in numbers and most search
engines bend over backwards to keep web searchers happy by
continually tweaking search result algorithms. Webmasters, on
the other hand, are more or less left to fend for themselves.
ExactSeek was founded 2 years ago on the premise that webmasters/
site owners are the driving force on the Web - not in numbers,
but in terms of ideas, development, enthusiasm and innovation.
The goal for ExactSeek, then and now, was to build a major
engine that catered to this audience and web searchers more or
less equally. Part 1 of this article deals with ExactSeek's
focus on webmasters.
FREE SITE LISTINGS
ExactSeek's belief in the importance of the webmaster audience
to search engine growth and traffic resulted in the rapid
introduction of three types of free site listings, each geared
to helping webmasters give their websites maximum exposure
within the search engine.
Here's a short explanation of each:
Standard listings: As the name implies, this site listing
is just a basic website listing in the ExactSeek database,
comprised of Site Name (taken from the Title tag), description
(taken from the Meta Description tag) and Site Link (the website
URL).
These basic listings show up numbered 1 to 10, etc. in
ExactSeek's search result pages. Any webmaster can obtain a
Standard Listing simply by filling out the form at:
http://www.exactseek.com/add.html
Enhanced listings: Not strictly a website listing - really more
of an enhancement to the standard website listing. In brief, an
enhanced listing consists of a small icon residing next to a
website's standard listing which when clicked opens a 150x150
javascript window with additional information about that website.
The cool thing about the enhanced listing is that webmasters can
add up to 800 characters of text or HTML code to the content of
the window, allowing them to:
- Embed audio, video or Flash.
- Include logo, product or service images.
- Include links to secondary site pages.
- Use font enhancements (size, color, style).
- Include more detailed information about their websites.
Simple examples can be seen at:
http://www.exactseek.com/enhanced.html
Priority listings: Introduced for those webmasters who wanted
something in return for adding an ExactSeek search form to their
websites. These listings appear in the first 10 to 100 ExactSeek
search results, highlighted against a light blue background.
Visit the link below to see an actual example:
http://exactseek.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?termperl
Obtaining a priority listing is a simple 3 step process outlined
at: http://www.exactseek.com/addpriority.html
The three types of listings noted above offer any half way
knowledgeable webmaster a means to maximize site exposure with
minimal effort. Best of all, any site meeting ExactSeek's
submission guidelines is added within 24 hours. No pointless
weeks or months of waiting. In 24 hours, websites are either
indexed or not. If not, the most common reasons are:
1. The site submitted lacked a Title tag. The ExactSeek crawler
ignores sites without Title tags.
2. The site submitted was pornographic or contained illegal
content.
3. The site submitted was dynamically generated and its URL
contained non-standard characters like question marks (?),
ampersands (&), equal signs () percent symbols (%) and/or
plus signs (+).
4. The submitting webmaster failed to respond to the submission
verification email message sent out by ExactSeek. Or, as is
becoming more and more common, the webmaster failed to
receive the message due to sp@m and ISP filtering and, thus,
could not confirm submission. Webmasters using AOL, Hotmail
and Yahoo email addresses may soon find it impossible to have
their websites added to any search engine using a
verification system.
THE DO-IT-YOURSELF APPROACH
One of the most irritating things about many search engines
is that it can take weeks or even months for free website
submissions to be indexed. And once sites have been added, it
can take weeks for changes to content and/or tags to be
re-indexed and for webmasters to see if those changes had a
positive effect on site ranking.
ExactSeek opted to put a measure of control back in webmaster
hands by introducing a do-it-yourself approach. Early on, two
simple online tools were made available which allowed webmasters
to quickly check the positioning of any website in the ExactSeek
database for any keyword(s) relevant to that site and then, if
necessary, do something about it.
(a.) Site Ranking Tool
Tracks the top 10,000 site rankings for all keywords in the
ExactSeek database, allowing a webmaster to find his site
ranking for any keyword(s) relevant to his website.
(b.) Web Crawler Tool
Allows webmasters to schedule recrawls of their websites as
often as once per week. Self-scheduled recrawls and instant site
ranking checks provide webmasters with a quick read on which
optimization strategies work and which don't.
Both of the above tools can be found with additional explanation
on the following page:
http://www.exactseek.com/srank.html
DO-IT-YOURSELF - THE NEXT STEP
More recently, ExactSeek implemented a simple free membership
system that takes the do-it-yourself approach one step further.
Any webmaster who has successfully submitted a website to
ExactSeek is automatically a member and can obtain a Member ID
and Password for login purposes by using the appropriate form
at the ExactSeek Member Login page.
(http://www.exactseek.com/member.html)
After logging in, webmasters can access a Member Account Manager
which allows them to edit, enhance, delete and/or recrawl their
site listings as often as they like. Revolutionary? Maybe not,
but a big step away from total reliance on search engine
scheduling.
Part 2 of this article will look at how traffic data from
Alexa Internet was incorporated into the new ExactSeek ranking
algorithm, the algorithm's impact on delivering quality search
results and at how ExactSeek's new paid inclusion program stacks
up against other paid inclusion and PPC programs.
About the Author
Mel Strocen is CEO of the Jayde Online Network of websites. The
Jayde network currently consists of 14 websites, including
ExactSeek.com (http://www.exactseek.com), SiteProNews.com
(http://sitepronews.com) and SEO-News.com (http://SEO-News.com)