|
Search Engine Articles
Paying for Inclusion in
Directories and Search Engines
by Jill Whalen (The Web Whiz)
Re-written May 1, 2002
It seems that everywhere we turn these days, we are constantly hearing the
phrases pay-per-inclusion (PPI) and pay-per-click (PPC). There are now a number
of ways that the search engines and directories are collecting funds from people
trying to get their Web sites listed.
The most important thing to note when discussing this topic is that money spent
on PPI programs goes solely towards getting your site into the search databases,
and that's it. You can pay them all you want, but PPI is not going to give you a
higher ranking. Remember this before you fork over your hard-earned money.
Paying for Directory Listings
If you have a business or any type of commercial site, you have to pay Yahoo!
just to consider your site for inclusion. Once reviewed by their editors,
they'll add your site only if they believe it's worthy, but keep the fee
regardless. (Yahoo!'s review fee is currently $299 per year.) According to their
Terms of Service (TOS), they hold all the cards and you are at their mercy. That
said, Yahoo! is fairly good about adding most submitted PPI sites as long as
you're not trying to deceive them somehow. (Deception includes, but is not
limited to, submitting duplicate sites, doorway domains and other sites that add
no value to their directory.)
Once an editor decides that your site is up to their standards and adds it to
the database, you get no special treatment in the rankings department. This is
why it's necessary to prepare a carefully crafted and extremely succinct
keyword-rich description before you submit. If you're not happy with the
description you end up with (they often change it), you should send in an email
appeal detailing why their description is inaccurate. Depending on the scope of
changes requested and the reasons behind them, they may or may not make your
changes. After your one appeal, what you see is what you get. (It's possible
that with Yahoo!'s new annual-fee program you will be given a chance to edit
your listing at renewal time. This wasn't laid out very clearly in their current
TOS the last time I checked.)
As far as your rankings go, it appears that the more popular a site is on the
Internet in general, the better chance it has for a high ranking in Yahoo! also.
So once again, it's important to make your site the best it can be! (Please also
read my article "Submitting to Directories" for more information on this.)
With the LookSmart directory, the situation is even more convoluted. In fact,
their latest change to a combination of PPI and PPC is so outrageous that I
don't recommend submitting to them at all anymore. With their new business
model, it doesn't appear that many sites will see a worthwhile return on
investment from them at this time. Plus, LookSmart has a habit of changing their
terms of service any time they feel like it, and therefore can (and do) take
your money and add your site, then remove it at a later date. If all that isn't
bad enough, their clickthrough reporting does not appear to be accurate (at the
time of this writing) when compared to actual server log statistics, and
therefore it's possible that you'd pay for clicks you never actually received
from them. All of these things add up to a company that I personally want
nothing to do with. Don't take my word for it, however; please take a look at
their product offerings and decide if it makes sense for your business. Just be
sure to read their TOS very carefully, and remember the old adage, "buyer
beware"!
The Open Directory (ODP aka DMOZ) does not offer a PPI program, and both
business and non-business sites can be submitted for free. I know of no plans
for a PPI program at this time.
Paying for Search Engine Listings
Along with directory PPI, nearly every spidering search engine has a PPI program
in place (Lycos/FAST, AskJeeves/Teoma, AltaVista and all of the Inktomi-based
engines). These programs ensure that specific pages within your site will be
added to a search engine's database within a specified period of time (usually
between 48 hours and seven days), and will also be respidered on a regular
basis. Prices vary by engine and program from about $12 to $78 per URL for one
year of inclusion.
Search engine PPI differs from directory PPI since the search engines gather the
information from your actual Web page, as opposed to simply using the title and
description that you submit to them. As with the directories, however, paying
their fee will not affect your rankings in the results pages; it will ensure
only that your page is somewhere in their database. It could be in the top ten,
or it could be number one zillion and 12. It's up to you to optimize your site
using all of the goodies I discuss in my search engine optimization articles and
search engine marketing newsletter (High Rankings Advisor).
The good thing about these PPI programs is that your optimization efforts can be
rewarded very quickly if you know what you're doing. It's a pleasure to be able
to see the fruits of your labor in a mere 48 hours! These PPI programs also give
you the opportunity of tweaking your page in hopes of improving your rankings.
Pay-Per-Click Ad Programs Along with PPI programs, we also have PPC programs
such as Overture, FindWhat and Sprinks. These programs are actually advertising
campaigns, as opposed to traditional search engine optimization. You bid on
certain keywords, and if you're among the top bidders, your ad will appear in
the sponsored/featured section of many search engines and directories. Since
many searchers believe these ads are actually relevant to their search, they can
bring a lot of traffic. Even those who understand that they are ads may still
click on them if they are highly relevant to their search query.
Google has its own unique PPC program called "AdWords Select." These ads appear
along the right-hand side of the results pages. Bidding for keywords at Google
is quite a bit different from programs such as Overture, although many of the
basic principles remain the same. For more information on running a successful
Google AdWords Select campaign, I recommend purchasing Andrew Goodman's special
report entitled, "21 Techniques to Maximize Your Profits on Google AdWords
Select."
The downside to PPC programs is that you'll need to spend a lot of time managing
your bids to ensure that you're getting the best possible click price. It's also
worth mentioning that once you stop paying for PPC keywords, your site will no
longer be shown in the sponsored/featured listings, and you'll lose all your PPC
traffic. Because of this, if you do choose to go the PPC route, you may also
want to optimize your pages to appear in the "regular" results. This way if the
expense of managing your PPC campaign is too high, you'll have your regular
listings to fall back on.
Contact Jill Whalen by e-mail at jill@highrankings.com, or by phone at
508-309-3037
=======================================================
Jill Whalen of High Rankings is an internationally recognized
search engine optimization consultant
and editor of the free weekly High Rankings Advisor
search engine marketing
newsletter
She specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations and seminars.
Jill's handbook, "The
Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" teaches business owners how
and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make
sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines.
========================================================
|
|
