finding mit on the internet s. lisanti april 2004
TRANSCRIPT
Finding MIT on the Internet
S. Lisanti April 2004
Overview
Q: Why have a search engine strategy?
A: 85% of web traffic comes from
search engines.
Meta tags
Q: True or false? To get a top ranking in search engines, all you need to do is to add "meta tags" to your web pages.
A: False
Types of search engines
• Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Inktomi, Ask Jeeves, MSN
• Meta search engines such as Search.com
• Local search engines, MIT-wide or site-wide
How does “mit” rank? [Google]
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2. MIT distribution site for PGP
3. Welcome to the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
4. MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home
5. About ICRA
6. MIT Media Laboratory
7. Home - The MIT Press
8. Radio-Locator
9. The Internet Classics Archive: 441 searchable works of classical ...
10. Technology Review: Welcome
11. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
12. MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
13. Die Bahn - Reiseportal - [ Translate this page ]
14. Open Source Initiative OSI - The MIT License:Licensing
15. College and University Home Pages
16. MIT Libraries
17. MIT Sloan School of Management
Top 4 hitsor 7/10
Other MIT terms
Search for - Ranking
Media Lab 1
Media 3
Sloan School 1
Sloan 5
Nanotechnology 37
Linguistics department 12
Computer science 3
Biotechnology research 0/40
Frank Gehry 0/40
Gehry building 0/40
What do people search for?
• Google Zeitgeist
• Search.com
Top Yahoo search terms (4/27/04)
Google ads
Word Tracker (MSN search)
Overture
Search engine advertising
• Fundamentally different from banner ads, since the searcher is not passively observing banners while reading news.
• The searcher is actively seeking information and may be in the process of locating a product or service for purchase.
• Thus, the search engine prospect is better qualified than the banner clicker.
Cost per click
• The average cost-per-click (CPC) is 29 cents, even as rumors proliferate about $7 CPCs on popular keywords such as “casino.”
• For direct marketers, 29 cents converts to $290 per thousand, which is a respectable rate for collecting interested prospects.
Ad budget
• The Minimum Budget: Yahoo’s flat $300 annual fee that Yahoo charges to be in its human-compiled directory may help ensure that Google picks up your home page quickly in Google's crawler-based results.
Google Alert
SEO: What is PageRank?
• PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web.
• Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be.
• The importance of the page casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a page's importance from the votes cast for it.
Writing for the web
• Headlines
– Fire Your Biggest Gun First. There is no point in holding
back the greatest benefit until half way down the page.
• Expand text references
– For example, a stamp collecting page might have references
to "collectors" and "collecting." Expanding these references
to "stamp collectors" and "stamp collecting" reinforces your strategic keywords in a legitimate and natural manner.
Writing for the web
• Have Relevant Content
• Smaller pages are better than larger ones because it is easier to target a search term when there is less text on the page to dilute the focus. Matching search terms to a page's content is essential.
• Use HTML instead of graphics whenever possible
• Include links
Keywords
• Pick Your Target Keywords.
– Each page in your web site will have different target keywords that reflect the page's content.
• Position Your Keywords.
– Use your target keywords for your page headline, if possible. Have them also appear in the first paragraphs of your web page.
Web page
Meta tags
<HEAD>
<TITLE>New center to study impact of ocean pathogens on human
health. MIT News Office.</TITLE>
<meta name="keywords" content="Biology; Environment and energy;
Health sciences and technology; Oceanography and ocean engineering"
/>
<meta name="abstract" content="Scientists from MIT and two other
institutions have joined together to create a new center for research on
issues involving oceanographic, biological and environmental health
sciences." />
</HEAD>
Order of importance
Link text The Title tag The Description tag The Keywords tag The H tag (heading)Bold text Text (content)Alt text
Search at MIT
Top MIT search terms (1/2/04)
63 jobs 53 employment 49 sloan 41 cssa 34 lsc 33 websis 29 library 29 kerberos 28 pgp 28 iap 24 athena 22 media lab 21 certificates 20 human resources 20 chemistry 20 athletics 19 chomsky 18 reuse 18 physics 18 eudora 17 mit press 17 economics
Google licensed for MIT
• We’ll receive the “search appliance” on July 1, 2004
• Start using Google in the Fall
• Help MIT publishers transition to Google during the rest of the year.
Customized search results
Future work
• Keyword promotion is essentially a niche-oriented medium. What should be our key word strategy?
• Consider focusing efforts on News Search engines such as Google News
• Dspace alliance with Google, promote research papers
• Different forms of publishing: automatic news updates via email, etc.
• Pay for ads for specific events
• Promote better search engine optimization at MIT
Finding MIT on the Internet
• Questions, comments?