Article: Enter the World of Paid Search Engine Submissions, Part 2

Enter the World of Paid Submissions
...once you understand the rules, you may really like
the advantages
Part 2

By Robin Nobles

In Part 1 of this article, we discussed some of the major
engines and directories that are currently using pay submission
or pay inclusion programs. What, what about the other engines?

Plans of Other Engines?

Now that pay submission programs are here and likely to stay,
what are the plans of some of the other engines? ...will they
jump onto the bandwagon?


AltaVista

Kristi Kaspar with AltaVista responded with the following
details on AltaVista's submission services.

"Currently we provide a few different ways to submit into our
index:

"A. You can use the add URL function, which is located on the
left hand navigation bar below the fold. Users have the ability
to add sites to the AltaVista index at absolutely no cost to
them.

"B. Another option is to use the LookSmart express submit. This
is a way to add a large amount of sites into the LookSmart
directory, quickly and easily. These sites then automatically get
updated not only into the AltaVista directory but to other sites
that use the LookSmart directory as well. These are directory
links, and are treated with the same relevancy formulas as the
rest of the pages that are submitted to our index.

"C. The next option is to participate in the GoTo model. We are
an affiliate
partner of GoTo and list one or two of the top listings at the
top of the AltaVista results page. These sites are added through
GoTo, and those that are most relevant with the query term that
the user has queried are the ones that are returned at the
top of the page.

"These are the only models we currently have."


Excite

Currently, Excite doesn't have a pay submission service, and I
couldn't get them to respond as to what their plans for the
future are. However, if you're looking to get into Excite's
directory, you'll have to submit to LookSmart ...and choose
between the $199 and $99 submission options. You can also
purchase keywords through FindWhat, which provides its top
results at the bottom of every page of Excite's results.


Google

What are Google's plans for a pay submission service? Cindy
McCaffrey, Vice President of Corporate Communications with
Google, answers:

"Google has no plans for paid submissions. We believe that
providing a search service that delivers objective and unbiased
results is most useful to users."

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Google is one of the few major engines that doesn't use either
LookSmart or GoTo results. However, they do offer AdWords, where
you can purchase keywords similarly to the way GoTo operates.
Results appear on the right side of the search results page.

http://www.google.com/ads/index.html

Lycos

Lycos didn't respond to the question about their plans for
implementing a pay submission service. However, GoTo now
provides its top three listings to Lycos in a special section
called "Featured Listings" at the top of the Lycos search
results. Interestingly, the Featured Listings are actually
spelled out, versus a link that takes you to another page that
contains those listings/URLs. Also, at least two additional GoTo
listings will appear within the first 10 results in the "Web
Sites" section on Lycos.

So, though you don't have to pay to submit to Lycos, if you have
a problem getting
in the engine, you can purchase keywords through GoTo. You can
also submit to the ODP.


Northern Light

Susan Stearns, Director of Marketing with Northern Light,
responds to what their plans are for implementing a pay
submission program.

"To my knowledge, we have no plans for such a program. While
we often do priority crawling of certain Web sites, they are
ones that are selected by our editors or are a part of a
contractual arrangement with the site -- usually as a part of a
site search agreement."

In Conclusion

For companies who are serious about creating an online presence
and able to maximize the potential of search engine optimization,
the pay for inclusion model is ideal -- provided that the
submission fees are considered "affordable" for you or your
company. In most cases, the cost can be looked at as very cheap,
yet effective, advertising.

Now, more than ever, it is important to evaluate which engines
and directories are most effective as traffic sources and focus
on optimizing for those portals first. It's also important to
understand that, without optimization, you may be wasting
your entry fees.


This article was written by Robin Nobles, Director of Training
at the Academy of Web Specialists
http://www.academywebspecialists.com. Over the past few years,
she has trained over 1000 people in her online and onsite courses
in search engine positioning strategies and has written three
books that can be ordered through Amazon. Visit the Academy's
training Web site to learn more about their online courses:
http://www.onlinewebtraining.com.