Wagner Operas is here -- Oh, Googleglory where art thou?

Wagner Operas is finally online. It's been up and running for a few months now, and the results on Google are extremely poor.

Allow me to provide you with some details. Head on over to Google and do a search on the name of this site "wagner operas." As of this writing, you won't see this site anywhere near the first page. However, do a quick search by writing the words "Tristan Isolde," and lo and behold: there we are -- currently ranking 8th, and very much in the hub of Googleglory, sitting comfortably on that first desired, mythical first page.

Stranger still are the results obtained when doing a search on random words related to the life and work of Richard Wagner. Type "parsifal bayreuth," for instance, and Google currently ranks us number one on the list. Number One! With those two words this site is currently beating out all information coming from all opera house websites around the world, including the official Festspielhaus website in Bayreuth. As a matter of fact, the Bayreuth website is nowhere in sight if you search on those two words. I never thought that we were going to dethrone the official website of the Festspielhaus at their own game -- much less at their own name.

There are a lot of sites on the Internet devoted to Richard Wagner. One could argue that they are reaping the rewards of longevity when it comes to the ratings game. However, let's take a look at what happens when we leave Googleland for greener pastures:

Over on MSN we typed the words "wagner operas" and we ranked third. This was exciting news! Over on Yahoo the same search yielded a result of 10th. Still thrilling results! Searches on Lycos and Altavista provided similar "feel-good" first page ratings.

A search on the lesser-known search engine Dogpile, however, put us back in the proverbial dog house.

What's going on over at Google, and why are new websites, such as mine, not getting the ratings that are obtainable with MSN and Yahoo?

Scottie Claiborne, a web marketing strategist, has a possible answer for this problem. I will describe her findings in my next post.