Should I change my description?

[blizkrieg bop]

I bit the bullet and spent the $299 to submit to LookSmart. I'm on MSN now as #53 for "Breast Pumps" and #18 for "Medela Breast Pumps". I'm not sure how to get higher in MSN.

Do I need to change my description around? Its only been a few days since I submitted it so I think I can still change it.

I notice that some of the sites that rank high for "breast pumps" don't even have these words in their description. So maybe I shouldn't worry about the description to LookSmart anymore but try to optimize my website for MSN.

I would hate to find out next month, when it was too late, that if I had worded my description differently I would have ranked higher.

Thanks:)

[ihelpyou]

You are right, the desc. does mean some but the keywords you gave LS mean a bunch more. You gave them 3 when you submitted. The quality of your site and what the editor thought about it mean a bunch as well. There, you have really no control of at this point.

MSN got your listing after only a couple of days from submitting to Looksmart? Are you sure your MSN listing is from your LS listing? Maybe it is from the Inktomi database as normally it can take up to 3 weeks before MSN gets ahold of a new LS listing.

[ihelpyou]

Nope. You are in the MSN directory now.

All I would do if I were you would be to try to get the word:

breastfeeding

separated into two words like this:

breast feeding

All else looks just fine with your description as you have many combos of keyword phrases in it that you will come up in MSN on. Just get that word separated if you can.

[blizkrieg bop]

I just checked my receipt from Looksmart dated 2/13. There is a link where you can manage your account (which doesn't seem to work at the moment). When I looked at their description a few days ago it matches the MSN description word for word.

I have a dumb question: "Breastfeeding" was the second keyword I gave Looksmart. Should I change that to "breast feeding" also? Can I still do this, or will I have to pay them?

Thanks a lot

[ihelpyou]

No, you won't be able to change your keywords you submitted to them. I just think you are better off with the word 'breast' in the desc. another time. More combinations of the word 'breast' can be had that way.

Breastfeeding is very popular and right now you are no where to be found on it in MSN. By separating the word, you could be found on terms with 'breast' in it.

[ihelpyou]

Sheesh, now when someone types in the word 'breast' in Google, they will see this thread pop up in the results on the word 'breast'.

[blizkrieg bop]

LOL!

Thanks a lot Doug:hi:

[Mel]

Hi blitz:

you still have thirty days after you were accepted to ask for a title and description change. In your case I would sugest that you ask that your title be changed to some thing like "Medela breast pumps from birthcare" with the excuse that your listing is about Medela breast pumps and it is misleading to searchers when they see just birthcare. Note that most of the higher ranking site have a similiar description.

[MsSearch]

:hi: blitz

Another suggestion to try and rank better without paying Looksmart for changes (although you do have 30 days to appeal for changes) is to add some informational (non-commercial) pages to your site about breastfeeding (possibly adv. vs disadv., how-to's, etc...) and submit them to Zeal for free...

Just an idea....

[blizkrieg bop]

Thanks for the suggestions. I submitted this page to zeal a few days ago: http://www.mybirthcare.com/hlthinstructions.asp. It was a non-commercial page that talks about health and safety issues of the breastpump but I got the following response: Thanks for the suggestion, but this site is designed primarily to promote breast feeding products: http://www.mybirthcare.com/products_pumps.asp and thus is deemed commercial content, not eligible for community addition. I guess as long as I have the products tabs across the top of every page it will be considered a commercial site. I lost a point for that one :(

I also called LookSmart and asked if I could add more to my title since Birthcare doesn't really mean much. He said that the title can only have the business name and nothing else. After I got off the phone I looked at the listings on Looksmart and saw that that was not true. Many of the titles have some of the keywords also. I will try to contact them again later today.

Thanks

[ihelpyou]

Yes bob, that is correct. Those other listings were paid for however. Your first listing has to be your business name. Other listings can look like this:

mybirthcare - breast pumps

Just like that with your bus. name first and the page next. You have to pay for any extra listings as well. You can pay for up to 5 url's in Looksmart. That is what you are seeing.

[Mel]

I would encourage you to try to change your title and description, but make sure when you do so you do not say you want to change it for SEO reasons but for reasons of making it easier for searchers to find what they are looking for.

I was able to change both the title and description of my looksmart listing by replying to the email address which the confirmation letter came from.

My title was changed from
Brandway

to
Search Engine Optimization Guide - Brandway Corporation

and these changes carried through to the MSN listing, where it ranks very nicely.

[KevinC.]

Blitzkrieg/ Doug,, others:

wondering, are you doing your search by navigating through the directory or by punching in keywords in the box.

I had absolutley no presence in MSN until I paid position tech to to index five pages of my site, and now I come up very well with tons of search terms.

Does being accepted to Looksmart have the potential to do as well on MSN?
I would guess no, because they just give a couple of keywords whereas with position tech you have all the titles and text from your site to be accessed. I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

Also, how many categories can you sign up for? I just did the $149 a month ago can't remember.

Kevinc.

[Mel]

Hi KevinC

Yes a Looksmart listing will get you a much better ranking in MSN for the same keywords, because Looksmart listings always appear on MSN above all the web pages. Only after they run out of directory listing will you see web pages, so in many cases it is the ONLY way to get a first page ranking in MSN (uless you want to run an Overture top three PPC campaign, but that is another story)

Regarding searching, I always use the search box - navigating through the directory manually is not only a tedious business, but you may not find all the relevant sites,as they can be in many different categories that you might not think to look in.

[KevinC.]

Mel,

I'm with you, I never navigate through the directory. Hence, then the only real reason or main reason, to buy into more categories on Look Smart would be to be able to add more keywords -- ( if you need them), correct?

Kevin

[Mel]

HI Kevin

Yes and to get better ranking for those keywords.