Chapter 14. Search Engines: Good, Bad, 10 or 10,000?
Look Before
You Web

© 2001 - Barry Wroobel - Discovery Data Systems, inc.

Chapter 14. Search Engines: Good, Bad, 10 or 10,000?
(note: Set the left and right printer margins to 0.25" for printing)

What is a search engine and what does it do? While everyone refers to all of the search resources on the Internet as "Search Engines", there are actually different types. There are true search engines such as AltaVista and Excite, directory search services such as About and Yahoo, metasearch (or top level search) services such as Dogpile and Momma, weighted search services such as DirectHit and Google, meaning-based search services such as Ask Jeeve and RaginSearch, pay-per-click search services such as GoTo and Sprink, there are pay-for-placement search engines such as NetPower Search (meta search), and about half-a-dozen other search services. (A good place to find these is at www.searchengine.com). Each of these search services has its' own advantages and disadvantages. Because of the time delay in getting listed, and the fierce competition for top ranking, relying on search engines to push traffic to your website does not always work or work quickly. However, in the long run, unless you have the resources ($) to back some form of large area marketing and advertising program, you may be faced with the fact that getting a high listing in the search engines is going to be your number one source of web leads.

Clients call and tell me "I got an e-mail ad for a program that will list my pages with thousands of search engines." I tell my clients to file all of them appropriately in the recycle bin. If you have been using the Internet for more than 3 months, ask yourself this question, "Can I name even 10 different search engines?" If you are like most, you will rattle off maybe three or four top search engines and then stop. YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM YOUR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS! Yes there are thousands of these search engines. However, there are only about 10 to 15 top engines, and they know it! If you think that any one search engine is going to index over 1 billion pages, think again. Each of these top search services picks the top 10% to 30% of the submitted websites to list (where they rank the site is another subject). These top engines are getting very selective. They have more submissions than they have space. One of the first things they look at is: "Is this site already listed with those other little search engines?" When you submit your site to the top 10 or 15, they will dismiss your request to get listed outright if they find you are listed with those little guys. Most of the major search engines will consider your site not valuable enough to get listed in their directory. It is like looking for a job. If you start your job interviews off telling a potential employer that you have only been able to find companies willing to hire you at minimum wage, do you think he is likely to give you the executive job with perks? Once one of the big search engines bans you from their site, you may find your site is banned from all of the major services. It can be very difficult to get these top search engines to reconsider your site once banned. If even it takes a little longer, and requires a little more work, concentrate on the top 10 or 15 search engines first. After you get a listing in these top engines, you probably will not want to bother with most of the others.

Getting listed in a major search engine is becoming somewhat of a game. There are all kinds of things and maneuvers that can be used to get each of the major engines to list your site. There are several companies that will assist you in performing this task including DDSi. The service is called "Indexing" or "Indexing Services". Most of these companies charge a fee for their service. These fees generally start at just a few hundred dollars as a one time fee, and go as high as several thousand per month per site. Some of these services will guarantee your site will get listed in selected services within the top 50, or top 20, or even top 10. Use of one of these services may be a good investment for your site if they are legitimate. However, you should read the section titled "Indexing and Keywords" before you plunge in. It is difficult, if not sometimes impossible to tell who is legitimate and who is not. One key is their price and promise. If they offer their services for a very low fee (less than a few hundred dollars), or tell you they can get you listed in more than 20 search engines, it is a good bet that they are just mass e-mailing your submission using a submission program (available for free from several sources if that is how you want to proceed).

Indexing requires a considerable amount of planning and work to do it right. It may involve changes to your website, and filing fees. If the offer seems too good to be true, it most likely is. There is another trick that even some of the more legitimate indexing services are using that will be covered in the next section, "Indexing and keywords".

© 2001 - Barry Wroobel - Discovery Data Systems, inc.
(note: Set left and right printer margins to 0.25" for printing)