Search Engine Index Flux and Rank Checking

From: Metamorphozis.com
By: Ralph Tegtmeier

Like so many other search engine optimization agents, we, too, have found all ranking checkers we tested, including the market leaders, to be highly inaccurate at times, though not consistently so, which of course only makes matters worse. And which is why we finally resorted to writing our own server based, customized solution.

However, when determining a web site's search engine ranking, there's another fairly important issue to consider as well: search engine index flux. Take Google as an example: depending on whether you check rankings on "google.com", "www.google.com", "www2.google.com" and "www3.google.com" *and* depending on which phase in their ongoing reindexing run you
happen to hit, results may differ dramatically. (This applies to linkage checks, too, btw.) There's actually only a fairly short phase in any given calendar month when results on both "google.com" and "www.google.com" will be consistent. The situation is quite similar with
AltaVista, Inktomi and other contenders.

Traffic load, load balancing measures, indexing runs spread across hundreds if not thousands of web servers (Google is famed to work with 10,000+ Linux boxes!), ongoing ranking jobs, time of day, etc. are all factors which may skew results or make them fairly unreliable, especially in a scenario where you may have to illustrate a given ranking when presenting your
services to potential clients.

This is something SEO clients should be educated about very early on in the process to avoid possible loss of credibility and confidence.

Ralph Tegtmeier is the co-founder and principal of fantomaster.com GmbH (Belgium), http://fantomaster.com/ , a company specializing in webmasters software development,
industrial-strength cloaking and search engine positioning services. He has been a web marketer since 1994 and is editor-in-chief of fantomNews, a free newsletter focusing on search engine optimization, available at: http://fantomaster.com/fantomnews-sub.html
You can contact him at mailto:fneditor@fantomaster.com (c) copyright 2002 by fantomaster.com All rights reserved. Downloaded at: http://fantomaster.com/

DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware.

More Web Development Articles
More By Developer Shed

 

developerWorks - FREE Tools!

NEW! IBM – Taking Web 2.0 to Work David Barnes, Lead Evangelist for IBM Emerging Internet Technologies will discuss aspects of Web 2.0 that bring value to corporations, academia, and government. He'll also discuss IBM's vision around Web 2.0, including the importance of remixability and consumability. The discussion will culminate with examples of various IBM Software Group solutions you can use to get ahead of the Web 2.0 adoption curve. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Application Development Tools for the Mainframe Developer You probably have thousands of lines of COBOL code loaded with business intelligence and being used to run your business, along with an army of developers maintaining these applications. Learn how to prepare your applications and developers so you can keep that competitive edge and move to a service-oriented architecture with the IBM Rational Enterprise Modernization solutions. Replay is available for 9 months. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Develop Systems Software Assets with IBM Rational Asset Manager Join us for this on demand webcast to learn about developing complex systems more quickly and efficiently. We'll cover market drivers for developing, governing and reusing systems software assets and how you can develop system software assets with Rational Asset Manager. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Download DB2 9.5 for Linux, Unix, and Windows Download a free trial version of IBM DB2 9.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows. DB2 9 is the result of a five-year development project that transformed traditional (static) database technology into an interactive data server that merges the high performance and ease of use of DB2 with the self-describing benefits of XML. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Download DB2 Express-C 9.5 Visit IBM developerWorks to download IBM DB2 Express-C 9.5, a no-charge version of DB2 Express 9 database server. DB2 Express-C offers the same core data server base features as other DB2 Express editions and provides a solid base to build and deploy applications developed using C/C++, Java, .NET, PHP, and other programming languages. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Rational Asset Manager eKit Learn how to do more with your reusable assets with the free Rational Asset Manager eKit. The eKit includes demos on how Rational Asset Manager tracks and audits your assets in order to utilize them for reuse. Plus you’ll find white papers and a Webcast that discuss the challenges of a Service Oriented Architecture and how Rational Asset Manager can provide quick and effective solutions. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! The dirty dozen: preventing common application-level hack attacks As organizations have grown increasingly dependent on online software, the risk of malicious attacks has also become far more serious. Fortunately, well-governed organizations can protect their Web applications by injecting vulnerability assessments and ethical hacks into their software development and delivery processes. This paper describes 12 of the most common hacker attacks and provides basic rules that you can follow to help create more hack-resistant Web applications. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Try IBM Rational Asset Manager V7.0 online! You can now evaluate IBM Rational Asset Manager V7.0 online without installing or configuring it on your own system! Rational Asset Manager helps create, modify, govern, find, and reuse any type of development assets, including SOA and systems development assets. Rational Asset Manager helps you reduce software development costs and improve quality by facilitating the reuse of all types of software development-related assets. Visit developerWorks to learn more about this product and register to explore its capabilities online. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Webcast: Eclipse: Empowering the universal platform The Eclipse community is constantly working to extend Eclipse's functionality. In this webcast, learn about some of the most important and feature-rich projects under development. From multi-language support to plug-in development, tune in to see what Eclipse is capable of now. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Webcast: Striking the right balance between manual and automated testing Join this webcast to learn how IBM Rational's Functional Testing solution enables you to implement automation your way, at your pace, with your existing staff. In this webcast, you’ll learn how you can eliminate redundancy of manual test scripts, reduce errors, and increase test coverage through test automation. After this presentation you will understand how IBM Rational Functional Testing solution can streamline your manual testing and make test automation easily attainable. FREE! Go There Now!

All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!