ranking on ask and other engines

[Paragon]

Just been researching web positions for one of my websites.
It has reasonable positions for most phrases on Google etc, but very poor for ask.com.
Yes I know Google is the main engine to concentrate on but it would be nice to be on page 1 for all search engines

Normally I've found if you get the ranking on Google then the others tend to follow suit, just seemed odd that Google, MSN, yahoo positions okay, but not Ask.
Any suggestions?
Does anyone do anything different to get ranking on other search engines?
Does anyone know what Ask uses for its ranking strategy that may be different to that of the Mighty Google?

[Lingua21]

Hi,

I personally wouldn't bother with trying to rank highly in Ask but if I was feeling that way inclined I would spend some time reading through some of the best threads on here:

http://forums.seochat.com/ask-jeeves-optimization-62/

In fact, in the past I have only tried to rank in Google. Maybe if you try to rank with other search engines it could adversely affect your Google positions. I would be interested to know what others on this forum think.

Your best bet is to perpetually concentrate on producing quality content on your site which authority sites will want to link to.

Cheers - Mike Dove

[RedEvo]

Are you sure you are not seeing personalised results in Google?

d

[Paragon]

Are you sure you are not seeing personalised results in Google?

d

Positive...

[seotra]

I too would not worry too much about Ask. Concentrate on Google and the rest will follow

[David Egerton]

Google are 80% of the search market so I'd agree with comments to focus on this.

I believe you can get government funding to optimise your search listing - odd but I've heard it from a couple of people. A chap called Jon Dodd can tell you more..

**SNIP**

Also you may want to consider some paid for search also. Research has shown that when you combine paid for with natural search your click throughs are more than doing either of them on their own. I.e. the sum is greater that the individual parts.

[Indizine]

"I believe you can get government funding to optimise your search listing - odd but I've heard it from a couple of people."

Gov funding varies from region to region, city to city and even town to town, so check with your local Business Link, local enterprise agency (www.nfea.com) and even your local Council. Do not assume what someone can get in one area of the UK, is available elsewhere. Not many business funding schemes are nationwide.

[seanstevens]

If Google is 80% of the market, spend the appropriate amount of time and budget getting it right there. I don't know the numbers, but assume Ask to only be around 5%, so would only spend a very limited time and effort working on it.

[Paragon]

I agree with concentrating on Google, which I do and the other search engines tend to just follow suit.
But for 1 of the sites I'm responsible for it gets reasonable Google ranking but poor on Ask and I'm greedy and want to get good natural listing on all search engines. A 5% increase in traffic would be nice.

[justinmarch]

Ask is about 2-3% of the UK market so yes as the others have said target google (and if you use ethical methods) the rest will follow.