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Table of Contents
Basics
Advanced Help
Usenet
Add a Page
Frequently Asked
Questions
- Webmaster Questions
- Business Questions
- Contact Information
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Frequently Asked Questions
To see the top 10 most frequently asked questions on the AltaVista site, visit the Feedback page.
How can I improve my search results with AltaVista?
Use more words specific to your topic and ignore
the number of results you see. The most relevant content will appear at the top of your results. You can also use the Refine button to see more
suggested keywords.
How do I make AltaVista Search my home page?
You can make us your home page by making changes in your Web browser of choice. When you click on Options at
the top bar a pop-up menu will appear. Click on General Preferences. Go to the option for "Home Page."
Enter the following URL:
If you can not locate this option on your browser, check the Help section within your browser.
How does AltaVista determine which site comes up first in the search results?
AltaVista uses a ranking algorithm to determine the order in which matching documents are returned on the results page. Each document gets a grade based on how many of the search terms it contains, where the words are in the document, and how close to each other they are. Repeating a word over and over in a Web page, known as "spamming," has a negative effect on a site's ranking. As soon as it is discovered by software programmed specifically to detect spamming, the offending site is prevented from appearing in the AltaVista index.
How do I prevent my Usenet posts from being archived?
Simply add the following line to the header of your posting:
If your software does not have this feature, make this tag line the first line of your message, or include it in the last line of the message. Please remember that we archive newsgroup postings only for a few weeks.
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