Search Engines and Directories

Their Importance to Small Businesses

Most people searching for something on the Internet will use a search engine. There are lots of search engines available, but less than a dozen are of any importance. These include Google, Yahoo!, MSN Search, Ask Jeeves, AOL Search, AltaVista, Netscape, Looksmart and Overture.

Google and the Organic Search Engines

The most popular search engine is Google, which is used for 36% of all searches globally. It is growing in importance almost on a daily basis as more and more people come to trust its massive resources and rely on it as their search engine of choice, largely because people trusts its ability to "organically" attribute importance and relevance to web sites based on precise search criteria.

Link Popularity is more than just about how many sites link to you. It's how and whom you link with that also plays a factor. The more links you can get to your site, the better. But remember quality counts, so don't link to any FFA (Free For All) sites. Only attempt to get links from quality sites that have some relevance to what your site is about. Use keyword text links. When other web sites use words in the link that points to your site, Google reads them. So, if sites linking to you use keywords in their link text, Google may well increase your ranking for those words. Google's link popularity feature is based on an algorithm known as PageRank, and is exclusive to Google. This algorithm is changed quite regularly, which is why rankings for a particular website may, and probably will, go up and down over time. Try to get a good listing in the Open Directory (qv.). Google pays attention to a listing in DMOZ (another term for the Open Directory); in fact, the major directories tend to reinforce each other in many ways.

Use your top keywords in the first paragraph. Main readable text is important with Google (as opposed to the meta-keywords). Google doesn't look at meta-keywords any more, and there are signs that other search engines are following suit, given the trickery used by some web designers over the last few years to gain high listings. To simply repeat the meta-keyword "football" because it tends to be a popular word that casual surfers search by is not going to be of any use to consumers who are looking for a site that sells garden gnomes (for example). Google recognises this, and rightly so.

To learn more about search engines and directories click here.

The Open Directory Project

The Open Directory Project, or the ODP, (also known as DMOZ) is different to other directories in that it is run by over 37,000 volunteer (real) human editors.

This reliance means that it can process submissions sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. The editors presumably contribute their services out of the sense of kudos they get from being part of this large, unprecedented project. It is a worthy search engine.

To learn more about the ODP click here.

Pay Per Click Search

These differ in the way they make their revenues from the other search engines, though other search engines, like Google, are beginning to incorporate PPC aspects to their operation.

PPC engines include Overture/Yahoo Sponsored Search (formerly called GoTo), FindWhat, GoClick, Espotting and Kanoodle. Google also has its AdWords Select facility.

Pay per Click Engines for small businesses is a relatively new strategy. With these search engines you literally pay a certain amount of money for every click they send your way. The more you bid per click, the higher you'll rank for your search term and the more visible your link will be. A cogent attraction of such systems is that you are assured that you're paying only for those people who actually click on your link and find themselves in your website; there's an obvious comfort in the certainty of this. That's also why it is so important to select the search terms which are absolutely specific to your web site: the reasons being twofold. Firstly, the more specific the term in Pay per Click Engines for small businesses the less you will have to pay for a more visible listing.

To learn more about pay-per-click engines click here.

Free Web Site Submission

In the meantime, here's an opportunity to submit your website to several search engines for free, courtesy of ourselves! Search engines include Google, Yahoo Web Pages, AOL Search, iWon.com, Whatuseek, Exactseek and Jayde. In addition, your website will be your site will be listed in the following Meta Search Engines: Search.com, Metacrawler, Dogpile, Mamma, C4, Canada.com, Ixquick, Infogrid, Query Server, WebInfoSearch, 800go, Debriefing, Highway 61, 37.com, OneSeek, MetaSpider, Vivisimo, PlanetSearch, SurfWax, QbSearch, ProFusion, Proteus, Go 2 Net, MegaGo.com, WebFile, MyGO and Megacrawler.

The live links to our free web site submission services are featured in our new and highly acclaimed ebook. Click here to download it.

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