Wikia search SEO?
So on last Friday, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame entered into the spotlight to annouce that his search engine is going to be powered by the Open Source indexing platform named Grub, which also was the driving force behind LookSmart back in 2002-2003. I don’t know about you but referencing a search platform that essentially had to rewrite it’s business model to stay afloat doesn’t really make me feel all to warm and cozy about their choice of data indexing tools. But Jimmy is a hell of a smart guy and I’m sure Grub is going to be seriously reconfigured and tweaked for Wikia.
Early Optimization Tips?Â
Considering that we don’t know what on-page factors will cause positive ranking for your site in Wikia Search’s eyes, I would like to think that being as totally honest about your title tag, meta tags, and maybe even in your alt tags is a safe start. Knowing how Wikipedia is about community, internet marketing might have to be ready for a new level of transparency when it comes to presenting our sites while we’re trying to build awareness.
Even if I’m totally wrong about this, what harm can honesty do anyways? Exactly. As far as getting indexed, here’s my idea. Since Grub has already indexed a ton of sites out there, I would like to suggest these 3 things to see if we can be a part of something big and not just sideline quarterbacks;
- Get registered
- Download Grub (Win & Linux only.. sorry Mac ppl
) - Get over to this page and follow the directions. You will be inserting your URLs directly into the Grub index
Regarding step 3, I’d like to think that getting into their index early on might be of benefit down the road when Wiki’s search engine goes live. But it could be a giant waste of time as well.. that’s the exciting part of the future; you’re all mystified and stuff when it comes to what’s gonna happen. I feel like I should be waving my hands over a crystal ball right now….
Finally, I do encourage everyone to run Grub on their computers though. I mean if SEO practitioners and web developers are the least bit about trying to build a better web, we need to be helping to build a better search right along with it. And if wikia turns out to not be a better search, at least we can be part of an experiment for a different search.
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July 31st, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I can’t see how a little new competition in the search engine world could be a bad thing. I can see how it could help bring about a shift in the way some people search. Heaven knows we could use that! Maybe it would bring some of the really good sites that haven’t done much SEO up in the SERPs.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:27 pm
You know what man, you’re totally right about all of that. Wikipedia has something that all the other start up search engines don’t have; an enormous existing user base faithful to the site and brand to begin with.
No doubt that is a partial driving factor for Jimmy at Wikipedia to make this move. Hell, I would too if I was him…