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Enter
the world of Paid Submissions - a great way to drive more traffic
to your Web site!
Until recently,
most search engines and directories were happy to take suggestions for
free addition to their index of Web sites. Now however, things are changing.
Many, in an attempt to beat the 'spammers' and deliver more relevant search
content, have started 'pay' systems.
There are
basically three models, paid submission where inclusion is not
guaranteed, paid inclusion where it is and pay per click,
which is described below under Overture.
Yahoo, LookSmart, Inktomi Espotting and Overture
You may be familiar with Yahoo, possibly Overture, and Espotting but few
people know about Inktomi,- it's database supplies search results to over
100 other engines.
Search engines and directories usually have their own database of internet
pages, but most also integrate results from other engines and databases.
A positive benefit may be obtained by paying for inclusion in these results.
This rather begs the question "Why search engine optimisation?"
In light of paid submissions, is optimisation still needed? Yes, actually
more than ever. Getting a site into a search engine or directory is only
a tiny part of the battle. Now that getting IN is easier, we can get on
with the REAL battle, which is getting our customers higher up the rankings
and keeping them there!
In addition to the regular maintenance needed to stop sites sinking under
the volume of new submissions, many SEs continue to rank a site on it's
search engine compatibility, making an on-going maintenance plan a necessity.
Overall
conclusions
Paying to gain inclusion is an indispensible way to drive more traffic
to your Web site. But all will be in vain if the site you are spending
your money on has not been optimised for search engine performance. It's
also essential for us to monitor SE position (as part of maintenance)
or your money will be wasted as other sites get ahead.
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| Yahoo
Directory: |
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At
the present time, all commercial sites must be submitted through
Yahoo Business Express service, unless you use a Regional category.
This is expected to change and all commercial sites will have to
pay. It's absolutely essential to get submission right first time
as once the site has been included, it's very difficult to change
or improve the listing. The experience and knowledge needed for
a Yahoo submission puts it firmly beyond the DIYer.
Cost:
Yahoo.Com £299 (non-refundable) per submission, PER
YEAR, inclusion not guaranteed.
Yahoo.UK
£249 (non-refundable) per submission, inclusion not guaranteed.
Conclusion
- Yahoo is the most popular Directory in the US and the UK. A must
have for serious UK business sites, especially if they have something
to offer the US market.
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| LookSmart: |
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LookSmart
provide their directory results to big players like AltaVista, Excite,
MSN, iWon, and more. According to LookSmart, they, and their partners
combined, reach over 83% of Internet users (not 83% of searches!).
Cost (non-refundable): Express Submit service is £299, it
guarantees a site review within 48 hours. The Basic Submission is
£149, offering a site review in approximately 8 weeks.
Conclusion
- If you want to be listed well in LookSmart, you have to pay. It
may not be the most popular resource in the UK, but it has very
useful partnerships with AltaVista and MSN, both of which display
results from LookSmart's index. As with Yahoo, must be right first
time.
With
no consultation, Looksmart recently migrated one-off directory listings
to an entirely different plan, therefore we can no longer recommend
this service.
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not looking so smart now |
| Inktomi:
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Inktomi
is not a search engine as such, it's a database used by many of
the world's leading search engines. Paid inclusions are indexed
within 48 hours then indexed every subsequent 48 hours, which means
we can make changes and see the results within a couple of days.
'Paid' pages get into the main Inktomi index that is used by all
of Inktomi's 125 partners, including HotBot, iWon, AOL, and MSN.
Costs are for 1 year.
Cost (non-refundable): 1st Page £39.00, Pages 2-100 £25.00
per page, Pages 101 + £15.00 per page.
We can still submit through their free Add URL form, but indexing
takes months, rankings may suffer temporarily and 'free' pages are
rarely re-indexed.
Conclusion
- A 'must have' - many UK based sites benefit from Inktomi as MSN
and AOL both use it’s index extensively. The re-spider function
enables valuable search engine performance tweaks. Recommend at
the very least
that we submit the 'top' page plus 3 important internal pages.
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| Overture:
Pay per Click |
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Overture
is a search engine with a difference, not only does it work like
a ‘normal’ SE, but also, Webmasters can bid for key words
and phrases.
Cost is ‘per click’ and depends on the market.The phrase
“music database” is currently top at 1 cent (minimum for
new bids is now $0.05). Top place for “ford dealer” costs
48 cents. It’s easy to buy position – if you want to be
number 1, just outbid the current holder!
Conclusion - not only can you rate highly on their own site,
but if you are in the top 4 (for a given keyword/phrase), you will
show up in the results of several major SEs - ideal for both payers
and ‘free’ words.
UPDATE
Overture USA
no longer accept 'foreign' (UK) sites without a 'regional locator'
in the key phrase and description.
Overture UK
supplies results to many UK engines and in some circumstances, may
provide more traffic.
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