I am curious!

[ihelpyou]

Which search engine and/or directory do you feel is the most important to get listed in first?

Take the quick poll and you can reply with your thoughts also.

[JuniorHarris]

I have read Yahoo, as the listing may boost popularity.

[ihelpyou]

hey all, weigh in here with votes and replies.

I am not going to give my opinion until there are more votes and replies. Mine will be quite long..... ;)

[ihelpyou]

BTW,

Anyone can start their own poll in any forum they wish. Just start it in the correct forum where it might belong.

Also, please remember to start a different thread if your post strays off of the current thread's topic.

[Blue]

...I voted for Google for the following simple reason:

I have never "SE Optimized" my own main business site (foolish, I know) as I get most of my business through other means: word-of-mouth, printed yellow pages, flyers, etc..

I do have meta tags (though I'm sure Doug would have much highly relevant advise for me) and my front page is mostly text (again, I'm sure Doug would make a lot of changes to the text).

And I will get around to hiring an expert one of these days (yes Doug, probably you :: I like your ethics :) as well as your expertise!).

Despite this fact, my logs show that the overwhelmingly major percentage of hits come from Google (around 61% vs 21% from Yahoo with the others trailing along at about 3% and lower). I have a (regional) listing in Yahoo ~ which is the only SE I have actually submitted to, as well as listings in most of the others (presumably from spidering).

I also noticed a marked increase in traffic once Google had spidered my pages whereas with Yahoo the traffic didn't make as much of a difference (though I know this may not be relevant because the listing is only regional).

Well, that's my vote and the (probably skewed logic behind it).


:cheers: ,

[JuniorHarris]

blue, sounds like reasonable logic, especially if it works for you!~ :) Google is by far our number one referer...so your logic works well with me. I suppose from a traffic only point of view, Google would indeed be the first logical choice...especially since the submission is free. Whereas with Yahoo, to even stand a hope of being accepted one must shell out $199...given that I would almost rather spend my money with PositionTech (http://www.positiontech.com).

[ihelpyou]

I agree with all that is said about Google. Google is also my biggest referrer of traffic.

Okay. Now I will share my thoughts on this. :eek:

My vote is for Looksmart.

The reason?

[list=1]
Very good link to have for link popularity.
Google spiders all new Looksmart listings very quick.
Inktomi spiders all new Looksmart listings fairly soon.
Your Looksmart listing gets into the MSN, AltaVista, and Excite directories in a reasonable amount of time.
Hence, more link popularity is accomplished.
Hence, you can get into the Inktomi database the free way without submitting to anyone.
You get into Google without submitting.
A penalty is incurred with Inktomi if you submit to them and your site has no links coming into it yet.
You avoid this immediate penalty from the get go.
[/list=1]

In summary:
You get into a few of the top engines indirectly and pretty quick if you cough up some bucks ($199) right at the start and before you do anything else.

<sidenote>Your page should definitely be optimized first before you submit to Looksmart. I think you can see why.</sidenote>

[Blue]

...So place your vote in the poll....or are you exempt ~ ("Employees and their family members cannot participate blah, blah, blah ?) :)

[ihelpyou]

oops! Voted on now. :D

[diva]

Talk about a "DUH" moment. I submitted my site to Google about 8 weeks ago. Lately, my site stats have been going through the roof. (Quite honestly, I'm so busy I just glance at the totals and don't dive into the specifics.)

So here I am going, "Wonder why I'm getting so many visitors?" DUH!!!!

[ihelpyou]

diva, you have 17 pages linking to you with Google. This is good.

As long as a site as at least one good link to it, it will do well in Google.

p.s. I fixed your Url in your signature. Now you have another site that is linking to you! ;)

[diva]

Thanks for fixing my URL here. :scattered

I have TONS of work to do, yet I keep coming here to read and write.

You need a disclaimer: "Warning!!! This forum is extremely addictive. "

I've got to get back to work!!! (I'm going to have to hit "do not e-mail me"..... I just can't help popping back to see what's happening.)

[ihelpyou]

Well see, that's the whole idea behind the being able to subscribe to ANY thread or Any whole forum you wish, even if you have never participated in that forum or thread!! 8)

[Advisor]

I voted for Google, but in reality it's a tossup between Google and Yahoo. It really depends on your site. If you happen to get the right listing in Yahoo, it can bring far more traffic than you'll get anywhere else. Hundreds or more per day of unique visitors. But it all depends on your category and your listing.

Now with Google, on the other hand, you can get ALL your pages in and thus, tons of keyphrases. If you have a really big site, chances are you'll get more referrals from Google. For instance, on my Parentsroom site parentsroom.org I have a crappy listing with Yahoo that simply mentions something like "a site for moms and dads" (hey it was a free listing!). So I get maybe 3 - 5 visitors a day from yahoo from people looking for stuff that has to do with moms and dads, or whatever. But this site has been around since 1995 and is huge. Just about every parenting issue imaginable is somewhere on the site. Google has taken it upon itself to spider pretty much the whole thing. So I get tons of hits from Google every day from phrases like "bedwetting problems" to "chicken recipes." And really, I never even optimized most of the pages. From Yahoo, you can't get in all those zillions of relevant keyphrases and simply have to go general.

So I'd say you have to be in Yahoo as your directory pick, and Google as your SE pick. The rest of the engines can go take a hike...they **** and bring no visitors. And LookSmart, well I have issues with them. They bother me.

Jill

[Advisor]

LOL...I guess you can't say s*ck here! (At least you can say crappy :)

J

[ihelpyou]

lol.... yea, got the **** filters on.... :D

All of us have our different ways of getting indexed and ranked. What works for one, does not work for another. Funny how things work.

My vote for Looksmart is pretty much based on my beliefs I have had for awhile. This little test kind of shows my way of thinking:

http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/t141/sb83eef75cabfd6bd37772f139a761687.html

Yahoo can bring lots of traffic but if your listing is not good, forgetaboutit.

[Advisor]

Yeah, I know LookSmart is definitely worth getting listed in, and I always recommend it and submit there for my clients. But I still don't have to like it! And I refuse (so far) to pay them to list any of my own sites. But yeah, my client's do pay and I tell them how good it is while biting my tongue :P

(My issues with LS are a long story!)

Jill

[ihelpyou]

Well, you should post the long story here as they visit here VERY frequently..... maybe they would help you out a little with the issues?

[Hope]

I have to say google is. The only reason I say this is because of my logs. I get more referrals from Google than any other search engine. :nerd:

[ihelpyou]

Yep. Google is my biggest referral also. BUT, what contributed to your good ranks in Google? Link popularity had a lot to do with it and Looksmart is a good link to have when you start.

[Hope]

*remembering back to my LookSmart nightmare* I am sorry, I just can't say that Looksmart is on my good list yet. After 8 months of emailing and getting no results I am a bit frustrated. What is even more frustrating is when you send an email and the listing is changed within a couple of hours. Thank again for that. Maybe someday they will get back on my good side.

Yes, our link popularity really helps with our Google ranking. There are only 5,770 pages being reported by Google. I am not sure that the Looksmart links are there, since I haven't actually taken the time to look for them. I am sure that the ODP and Yahoo! listings help too. Since relevency is very important to linking, I would have to say there there are over 3000 pages that are more important than the directory listings. (the cnn, time and pbs might help a bit also ;) ).

[glengara]

A bit late to this, but I'm a Dmoz man myself. IMO a correct category listing here is the fundamental building block to a successful SEO strategy. Same principle as LS, without the pain and the woeful SERPS.

[MsSearch]

In my experience with Google, I find my ODP listings to be a big influence on my Google rankings...i am a big supporter and believer of Google but feel that directory listings (esp. ODP) are more improtant to focus on.

[markymark]

For me, you haven't included my voting option. Ink. paid inclusion is now always my first step. Firstly, because - when it is updating properly ;) - I can tweak a site to breaking point before going anywhere else and also because I can then more clearly see the value of a Looksmart listing. You need to remember that I am UK based and Freeserve, LineOne, AOL UK and other big ISPs are all Ink. based.

Otherwise, I would say Google. My site disappeared with the last index and with it 75% of my traffic. Thought I'd been banned actually, but Google have assured me otherwise - so it is down to my dodgy web host.

[ihelpyou]

Sorry markymark. It is too late to edit the actual poll now but you can be sure your vote is counted.

EVERY vote needs to be counted and EVERY vote will count! Unlike the last Presidential election. :D

I digress now......

[Mel]

Hey Doug - Since you say listed in FIRST I'd have to go with Looksmart although their new fee structure makes me shudder.

Why? As mentioned it will get you into both Google and MSN pretty smartly, it is fast, and perhaps more important is that you have a modicom of control over your listing title and description. Compared to Yahoo, where you may never get a title and description you like, and ODP where you may never even get listed it shines. NOw than Ink is also coming up with LS results its more important than ever

[ihelpyou]

Well, ya know how I feel about an LS listing. :) Mine is the only vote for them so far.












oops. I see there are two votes now. :cool:

[Mel]

Here's My experience

Looksmart
submittd to LS was indexed within 48 hours and visible within 72 hours. I was not happy with the title (company name only no keywords) emailed them and within seven days had a title and description nearly to my specification visible. My timing was good so Google picked up all my pages on its regular spidering as did MSN. MSN also picked up all pages on a linked site within ten days - this site also had one page submitted via PT three months ago, but that was the only page MSN spidered unitl the LS listing of a linked site.

DMOZ
Submitted to them 2 months ago no response and no listing. Emailed them four times over the past month with no response.

Logic tells me that Yahoo should be my next target, but the Yahoogle listing is #15 and bringing in good traffic so maybe I'll wait a bit.