There is perhaps no greater tool available to
webmasters researching the activities of the engines than the freedom to
use the search engines themselves to perform experiments, test
hypotheses, and form opinions. It is through this iterative—sometimes
painstaking—process that a considerable amount of knowledge about the
functions of the engines has been gleaned. Some of the experiments we’ve
tried go something like this:
- Register a new website with nonsense keywords (e.g., ishkabibbell.com).
- Create multiple pages on that website, all targeting a similarly ludicrous term (e.g., yoogewgally).
- Make the pages as close to identical as possible, then alter one variable at a time, experimenting with placement of text, formatting, use of keywords, link structures, etc.
- Point links at the domain from indexed, well-crawled pages on other domains.
- Record the rankings of the pages in search engines.
- Now make small alterations to the pages and assess their impact on search results to determine what factors might push a result up or down against its peers.
- Record any results that appear to be effective, and re-test them on other domains or with other terms. If several tests consistently return the same results, chances are you’ve discovered a pattern that is used by the search engines.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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