Tonight I was in a bar talking to a drunk... He said he worked as a programmer for google and told me that "everyone tries to rank on google and its too complicated, the AOL algorithm is based on google, and if you just base your efforts on what works for AOL it is a lot simpler and you will get better rankings on Google too"..... Now I'm not naive, I am experienced in SEO, make a very good living from my own websites which I have ranked well in google for main competitive terms, but like many on here I am chasing those number 1-3 keyword spots on main keywords, rather than 5-10. I am 95% sure that what he was saying was drunk bravado, trying to impress me / be "above" me type talk, which is based on something he's heard and not experienced, and even comparing my rankings between AOL to Google they look almost identical anyway... but that "gold rush seeking" part of me can't ignore it , I have to look into this a little and thought I'd seek your thoughts - I can't even find any guides on "how to rank on aol" / "aol algorithm" etc Is this just bravado talk, or is there anything to it? Does anyone have any thoughts / experience here, or are there any "how aol algorithm works / how to rank on aol" guides out there?
AOL is "enhanced" by google. Which means that there are going to be differences in the algorithm. However, he has some accuracies but targeting AOL for keywords would be the same thing as google as they are very very similar in results with a slight differences.
So is there any "basics to ranking on AOL"? I.e. a very brief view of my understanding of how to rank on different search engines is: Google: way too complex, need backlinks (quality and quantity, old and new), domain age, on page, meta title..... + much more. Bing / Yahoo: buy a keyword1-keyword2.com domain, put your keyword in your meta title and H1 title, build some very simple backlinks and hey presto - first page ranking within a month. Aol: ??