IMPORTANT: AltaVista expanded it's rules on what it considers spamdexing during the first quarter of 2000. One notable change is that you should avoid creating multiple duplicate pages or near-duplicate pages if there's a chance that AltaVista would find them. Create pages with good, and varied content.

It's thought that AltaVista is more likely to reindex your page after changes are made if you change the size of the file by 50 to 75 bytes (characters) since your last submission. You could do this by simply adding or subtracting spaces at the bottom of the page as needed. The logic is that the engine may skip pages that it thinks have not changed much.

As of December 4th, 1999 up to 67 character domain names can now be purchased versus 23 character domains. This can significantly increase the number of Keywords you can include in a domain name and thereby increase your rankings for those Keywords. Click here to learn more. To check the availability of a domain or to purchase a domain name, click here.

Your ranking and the ranking of other sites may be influenced by the link "popularity" of the site. This is determined by how many OTHER Web sites link to your own. The more sites that you can get to link to you, the better!

You can improve your score if you allow your doorway pages to be spidered by AltaVista rather than submitting them directly.

Obtaining a domain name with your Keyword in it may significantly affect your score on AltaVista. Including the Keyword in a sub-directory name or page name can also help, although not as much. Separate multiple words by dashes, underscores, or slashes in the case of sub-directories. Consider purchasing a secondary domain name for this purpose if ranking well on AltaVista is important to you.

Along with using your Keyword at the top of the page, you might consider using your Keyword at least once near the bottom of your page in the Body area. This can help convey an overall "theme" to the page and may improve your score.

Since plurals are not recognized as being synonymous by AltaVista, try to use the plural form of the Keyword in addition to the singular form when possible to capture more potential traffic.

AltaVista is believed to be case sensitive. If you are not already doing so, consider using upper, lower, and proper case versions of your most important Keywords to increase traffic.