I have been recently working on some Czech sites and interestingly Google comes first in both Czech Rep and Slovakia. Seznam is primarily used by around 60% of the two countrie's population and following the usual Google optimisation methods just didn't have any impact on Seznam! Unfortunately I don't speak Czeck so I cannot really access any Czech documentation about Seznam optimisation. However, from the results I get so far this is what I think: - Seznam favours links from within the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Backlinks from .com sites did have a negative impact in my rankings - Keyword in URL seems to be more important than in Google - Keyword in page title is massive - Hosting matters. I site that is hosted in Czech Rep has more chances to rank higher than a site which is hosted elsewhere. However, I'm sure there are loads of Czechs and Slovaks out there with great experience on the topic and I would be very interested in their views. Any good /bad experiences would be greatly appreciated. Would you agree that Seznam looks like Google 5 years ago?
So...{ for the record - I'm not Czech but live and work in Prague ;}...I agree with most of your statements except one: there is no such thing that links outside .cz/.sk sites will hurt; it's more like they would be disregarded. As to relevancy in results...it's IMO even worse than G 5 years back in time; especially for the long-tail phrases. On the other hand people here use it a lot more than google, mainly because of national pride sentiment. There is some heat recently with google doing invasive advertising campaigns and bringing more awareness, plus more options available here ( like local listings ). Something on the topic was posted in "Prague Post" here : http://www.praguepost.com/business/7190-rankings-shift-for-search-engines.html But let's hope the competition will make things better for Seznam.
Indeed, Google recently announced that they have overtaken Seznam but it is still early. Drilling a bit more into Seznam's likes and dislikes it is said that unlike Google it isn't 100% pure algorithmic search. Some people's opinion is that in Seznam there is some human factor involved but I don't quite understand how it works. I can definitely say that there is a lot of money exchange happening as the number of site-wide links, footer links and blog-roll links is outstanding! Any more ideas or information about Seznam would be hugely appreciated as I am not Czech and do not live in the Czech Rep. either.
Couple of basic rules: - Keywords in URL ARE more important than in Google: Separate words using dash, dot or underscore - If you not, they wont be distinguished... - Do not have too long URLs - Have good backlinks from CZECH sites that have already been listed in Seznam and have relevance (and Seznam Rank). Direct them not only to homepage. - Meta tag "keywords" is not taken into consideration - Keyword in page title and headline is massive
this is the first time i m hearing about seznam, is it kind of new search engine out there ? and gaining popularity ?
It is mainly used in the Czech republic as well as in Slovakia. Kind of very focused, language-nice search engine. Czech and Slovak languages are extremely similar, if mentioning one language and two countries confuses you.