DJALCHEMI

Does Google have something against wikis?

This site does pretty well on its Google rankings, especially if the search uses terms that are in my title tags. Usually I get a top 10 ranking within 48 hours of posting: try googling Eno Blair or BBC Interactive Music Player, for example. By comparison, my 69 Love Songs wiki site — which has been around for six months now and has several other sites linking to it — ranks 267 when googling 69 Love Songs, or 49 if you restrict the search to UK sites.

I'm trying to figure out why this is. The term 69 Love Songs appears in the title tag of every page on the site. The pages aren't XHTML compliant (as those on this site are), but the wiki code doesn't allow me straightforwardly to correct this. So I wondered if Google has some algorithm that reduces the ranking of wiki sites. By comparison MSN's search clearly has no such qualms. A search for 69 Love Songs on search.msn.com ranks my wiki site at 25, while the same search on search.msn.co.uk currently scores it a Number 1 ranking, even without the 'Only from United Kingdom' box checked. Curious.

Update, 15 November 02005: as of today the same Google search that used to rank the 69 Love Songs wiki site 267th now ranks it 8th. I didn't change a thing.