Gary Gach asked:

As for the immediate subject, I'm always curious about the degree to which a company can increase web circulation via placement in search engines. Are meta tags at the beginning of web pages important (i.e., how search "spiders" find a site)? Is there something called the "deep web" emerging requiring new tactics? etc. How about exchanging links with leading journalism sites (that list "cool links")? Webrings!?

--- My answer:

It's funny you ask that. I just got done working with Joe on new meta tags. To answer your question, these tags are CRUCIAL to the success of a web page, because it IS how spiders find a site, and index it for the portal or search engine (SE).

And because SEs are very savvy to the tricks we pull, and because each of them have different algorithms to calculate a site's placement in a search, it's also CRUCIAL to write these tags well. A good title, description, and keywords can make or break a website's SE placement, and therefore visits.

Reciprocal links (like exchanging links with other journalists) is also important, because a lot of SEs are starting to place a higher value on sites that have a lot of links to them. Want a real ego boost or deflation? Go to google.com and type "link:www.yourdomain.com" (insert your own domain name, of course) and see how many pages link back to your own. A-R.com has exactly 400. Those are reciprocal links, and they help a site get a higher placement in an SE when the appropriate search terms are typed in. Webrings are the same type of idea, but I've never played around with them. I'm in one, but haven't seen an increase in traffic (not that I've paid attention to it).

Anyway, that's my three cents on the subject.

Erik Deckers http://www.kconline.com/deckers

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

Answers

I maintain the old script that Joe has used for years to update the Website. The script itself needs more than an update--the whole system should be rethought from the bottom up--but I'm too busy for that right now and it's a different topic.

I'm writing just to say that I'll be happy to plug in any meta tags that people on the newspaper come up with. The trick is to make them look good in a plain text version but become properly formatted HTML when the pages are posted. I'm willing to work on that.

I don't know what words work well for different purposes, and I flatter myself that if I did know I'd get more hits on my own Web page.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2001