List of Most Popular Australian Search Engines

[Kal]

Hi all - Below is a list of the most popular Australian search engines & directories in alphabetical order for your reference. I will update this as necessary:

AAA Matilda / Lookabout (http://www.lookabout.net)
AltaVista Australia (http://www.altavista.com.au)
Anzwers (http://www.anzwers.com.au)
Cowleys (http://www.cowleys.com.au)
Excite Australia (http://www.excite.com.au)
Go Eureka (http://www.goeureka.com.au)
Looksmart Australia (http://www.looksmart.com.au)
OzSearch (http://www.ozsearch.com.au)
Sofcom (http://www.sofcom.com/Directories)
WebWombat Australia (http://www.webwombat.com.au)
Yahoo Australia/NZ (http://www.yahoo.com.au)
WebSearch Australia (http://www.websearch.com.au/)

<edit>WebFind removed</edit>
<edit>WebSearch added</edit>

[sanity]

Thanks Kal,

Do you know if WebFind is still working? I haven't been able to connect to them for a while...

sanity

[Kal]

Hi Sanity - last I heard WebFind were in financial difficulty. Apparently they were trying to raise capital to keep the search engine alive, so I had left them on the list until they made an announcement.

But I just noticed that their .com.au site is now offline - that's recent. Looks like it's time to remove them from the AU list.

[ihelpyou]

Thanks for the list Kal! :thumb:

[sanity]

Thanks Kal.

It's a shame really. We don't have too many AU search engines as it is.

sanity

[Kal]

Yes it is a shame. And most of the ones we do have are fed by the major engines and ODP/Inktomi. New Zealand has plenty more engines than we do. There's a market opportunity if ever I saw one! Thought GoEureka was going to make a big play, but haven't heard big things from them in a long time.

[sanity]

You're right there Kal. You'd have thought GOeureka would have been successful especially with the backing of Pacifc Access. They have done nothing with it for so long.

How do the NZ SE's fare?

sanity

[Kal]

Pretty well I think. NZ Search and Search NZ are affiliated so they take up a lot of the market. Access NZ is losing some market share it seems. Like NineMSN, MSN NZ have cosied up with NZ media (and ISP's) to provide exclusive search listings to their customers, so they are a market leader in search. Yahoo NZ doesn't get nearly the traffic from NZ searchers that Yahoo.com does.

I personally like NZ Explorer just because they are a bit of an underdog, they're fast and they have positioned themselves in a unique way. Sinewave's www.hitwise.co.nz is a great source for finding out the popularity of certain NZ search engines at any given time (the NZ counterpart to www.hitwise.com.au). Shame site subscriptions are so expensive.

[Kal]

Just a note that AAAMatilda has changed domains and is now called Aussie Seek (http://www.aussieseek.com). Also, I'm going to make this thread sticky so people have faster access to the list and can add more as they come across them.

[sanity]

Thanks for the heads up Kal. :cheers:

How have you found them? I always found the site terrible to navigate and added to the fact that after a short period of listing they always wantd $$ for not much return.

Soph

[ihelpyou]

hey Kal, that link redirects to this:

http: //lookabout.stormpages.com/

[Kal]

That must be what they want. They sent me an email advising of the update and they provided www.aussieseek.com as the address.

[Kal]

Yep, SearchNZ is listed in the NZ search engine forum. A new Aussie one sent to me today: Got That Online (http://www.gotthatonline.com/) Haven't had time to check out thoroughly but will give it a look. Also I should list :

Lookle (http://www.lookle.com/) and
OzGuide (http://www.ozguide.com.au/) (tourism related search engine)

[excell]

I wouldn't be bothering with that one Kal. cruise around the 7search site a while.

We have a little Australian business directory website here:

Ozebiz Index (http://www.ozebiz.com.au)
Australian ONLY businesses (no affiliates, mlm, adult etc) are invited to list there.

Here are few other directory type sites that is worth listing on (meaning they send some traffic)
Every little bit helps :)

Vicnet (http://www.vicnet.net.au) - Victorian directory, but accepts national sites
Guide to Australia (http://www.csu.edu.au/links/) - Charles Sturt University Project
Click for Australia (http://www.clickforaustralia.com/Form.htm) - See the advertising page for benefit of reciprocal link back (not required)
SearchNZ (http://www.searchnz.co.nz/) - Think that might have been mentioned above?

[sanity]

I didn't know you owned Ozebix Excell. I always put client sites in there and we do get referrals! Vicnet is also a good referrer.

Thanks for the other sites. I'll take a squiz.

Sophie

[excell]

I don't own it sanity, I just built it when we were starting out. We have grown our businesses together :) It's great to be networked with them, especially when it comes to the hosting service.

Badly needs a re-vamp design wise. I have all the new graphics done but just never have the time!!!!!!! SEO wise it's a shocker so don't look too close, but it's well positioned.

[sanity]

Yep the interface isn't great excell. Not a bad little referrer though.

I'll be interested to see the new interface. We need more Australian SE's and directories.

[sanity]

Did Got That Online tell you they were Australian Kal? I can't see any reference.

Soph

[sanity]

Just found another one:
http://www.aus-biz.com.au/

[Kal]

Originally posted by sanity
Did Got That Online tell you they were Australian Kal? I can't see any reference.

Soph

Yep - based out of Maryborough, Queensland. I've invited to owner to join the forums...

[sanity]

Good on you. It'll be nice to have them on board!

[ihelpyou]

How many Aussie members do we have now?

Seems to me you aussies are taking over the forums? :eek:

[sanity]

Of course we are taking over. ;)

We should do a head count and see how many there are. From memory:

Sanity
Kal
Excell
Kaj
Kneelsit
Nuthin
Ozoilgas

[ihelpyou]

All sharp members there so far.

Do ya all have any members in here not soo sharp? :D

[sanity]

Nuh. :D :D :D

[Kal]

Don't forget chris_d and proofreader. There are probably more but I can't remember them at the moment! Quite a lot of members from New Zealand too.

[peter_d]

Quite a lot of members from New Zealand too.

Where's that, then? ;)

[Rob Mac]

Hi Kal and all.
First off I would like to clarify a few things so we get things right from the start. Got That Online.com is aussie owned by myself. It is not an australian only directory, it is global. We list sites from all over the world and as such provide global exposure... it's what the net does. We are not powered by Inktomi, Dmoz, LokkSmart or any other database but own own which grows daily. We are currently ranked at 45k by Alexa which is better than some of the more well known names out there and not as good as other (by a long shot :-(
However we grow daily and little by little establish ourselves. It hasn't been easy without any form of funding just consistent focus and many amny long hours.

So what I'm saying is: we are building our directory as a stand alone database. We offer a free listing option as well as 3 very reasonable paid listing options as well as an affiliate program.

I will say this, aussies can be proud of this little aussie battler (that you have never heard of but enough people from the rest of the world have to be ranked 45k by Alexa)
I think that's a bloody good effort so far.
It's true, you can't find everything there yet that's for sure but as I have said we expand daily.. We keep things simple and clutter free.

So there you go guys. That's just a little fill in on another aussie owned directory. Hope I covered everything adequately.. I go off on a tangent sometimes :-)

[ihelpyou]

Welcome to the forums Rob! :hi:

Sounds like you have a nice directory going there! Good luck to you. :)

[Rob Mac]

Thanks Doug,
yes it keeps me very busy now.. as I review everything myself... sooner or latter I will have to expand and start employing people.
This is a great resource, it covers so much.. I'll start digging tommorow.
Thanks again Doug

[excell]

Hiya Rob, Just had a look at your directory, it's pretty neat, nice and fast!

Only problem I have is relevancy, can anyone buy a top listing anywhere?

I did a few searchs and was a bit amused to get "gastric reflux" for the search term "accommodation nsw" and "ozparts" for "hotel australia"

Not that I am critising you and I am all for the little aussie battler, I'm one of them myself! But are you thinking of tightening that in the future?

[Rob Mac]

Hi excell..
:-)
mmm I think thats a little (LOT) tooooooo loose..
yes in the future I will be updating the whole database script.. the lot... it will introduce key word relavancey in the next version (update)
At present to get a top listing in a chosen category you would choose one of our paid options. That will place the listing in #1 postion and gradually it will go down... It's not ideal, but never the less, certainly provides added exposure to a given site/s.
the changes won't be implimented for a few months yet.. But your right.. there are some issues that NEED to be addressed. :-)

[sanity]

Hey Rob Mac welcome to the forums. :hi: :hi:

It's great to see a directory run by an Aussie - there are so few out there. I like the name too.

Fixing the relevancy will be a good thing but apart from that I like it. :D

Hope to see you around in here.

Sophie

[Rob Mac]

Thanks Sophie, I am allways open to sugestions.
I thank all the guys here for giving me such a warm welcome. It can be a cold place online at times especially in business.

Does anyone have any word on Miss Megabytes "OzDirectory.com.au"?

[Kal]

Re Ms Megabyte - I bought an issue of the magazine about 6 months ago, mainly because of the detailed categories - good for targeting potential clients. But I haven't seen the mag lately and come to think of it, I haven't seen Ms Megabyte on the Today Show for months! Maybe the whole thing has died an electronic death? :confused:

[sanity]

I'm a little bit embarrased to ask. Who is MS Megabyte? :o:

Ta Soph

[Rob Mac]

Ms MegaByte had a spot on Nines morning show... she was pregnant a few months ago so I would say that she's looking after bub.. She also had a direcotry that was called "OzDirectory.com.au" plus a magazine after the same name, and as Kal mentioned it was very good... It was predominantly business listings, some had URL's some didn't... a little similar to NineMsn owned "MyDirectory.com.." that was heavily advertised through TV media last year. Every now and then I would check to see how OzDirectory... was going... Now it's offline for some reason..

The advertising cost to advertise in either the magazine or the directory was .... well... up there lets say... I also bought the magazine about 6 or so months ago.. It is such a shame tosee things fall over (if that is whats happened)

I've tightened up the search at Got that Online.com also.

[sanity]

Thanks for the info Rob.

Wow you're quick to work on things with Got That Online.com.

How are entries added? Submission by site, you source and add, spider...

[Rob Mac]

re Sanity: how are sites added ::. Typical directory style : submission by site.. I do add/source some. Everything is given a quick review.

No spyder. As we grow we will eventually add many unseen features while keeping it a searchable directory. The thing I'm happy with is that we are building an independant database.. It creates a different set of viewing options for the surfer in doing so..
Mind you, I wouldn't mind a db the size of some of the big guys. Another, we do not gaurantee traffic. we can't legally and neither do the big players unless you have a ppc type arangement (etc variations on the theme) with them.. PPC se's are very interesting.. many people don't have a good grasp of how they "really" perform. Thats probably another topic... :-)

[excell]

Here is one you may not have heard of as their inner pages are not getting indexed, but never the less, we are beginning to see a little traffic. I believe about 50% of their index is OUR clients but I would like to see them get help and promotion as they have proved to be ethical and faithful over a number of years.

Presenting Australian Business Directory (http://www.australianbusinessdirectory.com/)

Please go add your Australian Business URLs :)

I will invite them here in case they wish to learn about SEO etc.

[sanity]

Thanks Excell.

Here's another one I found over the weekend. http://www.directories2000.com.au/ I have't used it yet but plan too.

[Kal]

Hey excell - re Australian Business Directory, you might want to have them correct the two spelling errors on their Add URL page (should be category and occasional). I just added my site but missed the URL box and when I went to correct it, I received an error stating I had already submitted. Oh well.

[grimreper]

I would like to say thanks to excell for inviting me to this forum.
I am the owner of the domain www.australianbusinessdirectory.com (http://www.australianbusinessdirectory.com) , and i know it's a mouth full. We are 100% Australian and have been operating for nearly 2 years now. We do not charge for any listings on the site. At present, we do little maintanence on the site, but, a new database is in the making for it, powered by SQL. We do not have any ties to any other search engine or use any other resources to gain links. We try to ensure only Australian Business's are listed, but sometimes a few slip through. This is because there are so many search engines listing everything else, thus increasing competition with the Aussie Business.
Any Australian Business is free to list, with the exception of a few undesirable 1's.
Thanks again, and if any 1 want any info, or is having problems listing their sites, just send me an email and i will add it for you.

Rob Russell

[grimreper]

Kal, if you would like to send me your URL i will enter it for you.

You can send it admin@australianbusinessdirectory.com

Regards

[excell]

Hiya Rob, thank you for hearing my call there. :)

We look after a few sites that are listed with you and have noticed an increase in traffic from your engine, can we expect with your new sql site that you will be optimising the inner pages for higher rankings on the search engines? ( i.e. flattening them?)

I think if you are taking that into consideration you could rock and roll!

[grimreper]

Hi excell,
The new site, when completed, will be geared at pushing all sites listed in our database. We have been experimenting with different things to get our sites to Number1 in their respective category on the major search engines. Of the last three domains we have submitted we have succeded in this. This will be put into practice in the new database to ensure that not only Australianbusinessdirectory, but the sites listed within it, reach good rankings on the major search engines.

Regards

[grimreper]

By the way, i have fixed the spelling mistakes on the add url page.
thanks for letting me know about them.

Regards

[excell]

"Of the last three domains we have submitted "

why do you feel you need more than one domain? Surely if you optimised your main web site it would do better than scattering intself?

I don't mean to critise you, but in all seriousness we would not choose to list on a directory that had multile backdoor domains etc.? Can you clarify please?

[grimreper]

Sorry, it's late here. Our prime business is Domain hosting and registration, but we also design sites for various clients through out Australia. The 3 domains i mentioned where clients domains that we optimized.

[excell]

Oh IC, Hey you in Perth is not as late as me in NSW .. . good night :)

[grimreper]

Nite

[sanity]

Hi Rob welcome to the forums :hi:

It's great to see Australian se's and dirs and I'm sure all of us here are happy to promote them.

Hope to see you post here often.

Sophie

[grimreper]

Thanks for the email Kal, we have updated your listing to include you url.

[sanity]

Re: Got that Online.com

Has it always been paid submissions only ? I thought when I first looked at it there was a free submit option.

Soph

[Rob Mac]

Hi Soph,

yes there is still the free listing option. It is located (where it allways has been lol :-) beside the paid listing option directly under the search bar (in the blue area)

side note about free listings :: it is not nessacary to subscribe to our newsletter. If you do not supply your email address (in the form), the newsletter subscription confirmation page will still pop up and tell you that you didn't supply your email address..

your site/s WILL still be place pending in the database..

Thanks for your interest Soph
Rob

[sanity]

Thanks for your quick reply Rob. I've PM'd you as well.

Soph

[excell]

Here is a good one for listing travel/tourism/accommodation Australian sites.... They are up and coming on strong in the search engines!

http://www.ausemade.com.au

Reciprocal link or pay for listing.. etc. but all very good

You need to e-mail them details of the site you want to list for assessment including:
Title/URL/address/Ph/Fax/ description to 200 characters.

Nice peoples :)

[excell]

ok,, I just uploaded the new Ozebiz website... would like to know if you all have comments etc.

Changed the base pages and the algo etc.

What do you reckon? better than the old yellow & green and waving flag at least :)

LOL, my partner and I are just having a chuckle.. and saying it has "far too much content and will scare visitors away"
OH WELL - at least the about page has some "white space" and a nice lady.

Please let me know if you find errors etc. thanks.

Ozebiz Australian Business Directory (http://www.ozebiz.com.au)

[ihelpyou]

Nice looking site Excell!

LOL That lady is you, right? :together:

[excell]

hehehe ... most definately not.. she is shareware and I am not. :)

[Kal]

Originally posted by excell
hehehe ... most definately not.. she is shareware and I am not. :) :green: :green: (site looks good excell!)

[sanity]

Looks good excell. The only thing I'd suggest is left aligning the search box with the logo above.

On another note where's this woman I can't see her :confused:

Soph

[excell]

Thanks for the compliments Guys. I think it will work better for everyone now (I think everything is fully functional). I don't have time to think about the layout right now soph. Got to prepare for a conference if presenting at...but I will fiddle some more when I get free (if ever).

The lady is on the about & contact page, I like the kangaroo (http://www.ozebiz.com.au/link-to-us.html) better! :)

[Aussies-Online]

Here is another one for your list

Aussies-Online.com (http://www.aussies-online.com)

[excell]

woah .. hello there I am glad to see hillcrest has spotted your site and listed. :)

Must be worth it NOT.. do you know anything about SPAM?

I don't mean to be negative and stand to be corrected, but do you really believe that this will work in the current environment?

If so, then could you tell us more about your future plans for accessibility, usability and findability?

[excell]

Uh huh a lot more is explained here:
explained here (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=6156)

Stick around, read previous posts and enjoy Aussies-online. It's all good.

[lauren]

OurBrisbane.com Directory run by the Brisbane City Council, which is well promoted. Free listings for local businesses only. It might not spike your traffic, but it probably won't do any harm for business ;)

Seach the directory:
http://directory.ourbrisbane.com/default.asp

Add listing (need to register first):
http://www.ourbrisbane.com/brisbane/directory/login.htm

Cheers,

Lauren.

[sanity]

Originally posted by lauren
OurBrisbane.com Directory run by the Brisbane City Council, which is well promoted. Thanks Lauren. :D

[Dez]

Hi Kal,

I wonder if you would consider another site for your AU list of recomendation:

http://WebSearch.COM.AU

The Australian Search Engine

Was launched on March 25th, 1994 - at the time for exclusive in house use
by Geko.COM.AU dialup internet users, but over time was made available to
Austalian Internet users, and then eventually the rest of the world.

The single aim http://WebSearch.COM.AU sets out to achieve is to provide the
very best possible search engine where people can find 100% Australian only
( i.e *.au only! ) web sites.

WebSearch AU * only * crawls and indexes *.au sites, that is, sites which have
a site address and or domain name within the *.au top level domain name zone.

I've begun work, as of Decemer 2003, on a Geo IP module which will hopefully
allow me to index non *.au sites based on their being "hosted" within an IP
address range that is witin Australia, but I'm not confident that I will easily be
able to automate the validation of the content to be Australian, so I'm not
planning for Geo IP to be a real living breathing feature for some time if ever.

Am I planning other counties, yes, infact I have a WebSearch NZ but it's about
get a 100% refresh as soon as I can complete the integration of the latest
code release for WebSearch into it - currently WebSearch NZ is full of spam'ed
urls and dead links and I'm embarased to claim ownership but there you have it.

The ultimate aim is to have a WebSearch XYZ for every TLD in the world in time
and I've previously had WebSearch UK and WebSearch HK running as test sites
but have parked them for now till I can fund further growth in infrastructure,
as almost 10 years of development and personal investment has taken a heady
toll on my back pocket.

Please feel free to post questions about the site / engine / technology / my
favourite carbonated beverages, whatever, I'll gladly answer what I can.

Cheers,

Dez

ps: yes, I am "affiliated" with http://WebSearch.COM.AU

[excell]

Can't be any good, my sites are not all on top:D
Only joking!

Interesting algo though, what are you doing about SPAM?

[nuthin]

it is an interesting algo .. indeed.
i typed 'search engine optimisation' just out of curiousity and i would say that most are relevant .. but i feel netregistry(sub domain doorway).. gravitymax.. shouldnt be there because of the spamming techniques used.. but cant complain too loud!! even google has trouble getting those damn netregistry folks..
one day... one day...

i would also like to know websearch's position on spam & how they identify an australian site just the .au or ip or content?

probably better suited to the fourm you just made :-)

[Dez]

excell: hi, yes spam'in per se is indeed a head ache and has proven to be an ongoing challenge but as you'll see from the current state of results the engine is providing, I have a pretty good handle on it and I've been testing a force fed spam cluster to see what further measures I can put in place.

Infact, you'll note that currently I have disabled the "Add your site" site submission ( $free ) facility due to recent MASSIVE abuse by robots and scripts, I got the around 27,000+ site submissions per hour and growing rapidly - the sad thing was less than 1.5% of that 27,000 hourly submission base was legit and worth while, and was on the whole regular spam'ing of the same url's and sites over and over - one UK based firm appear to have tried pushing their clients URL's into the submission engine over 40 million times in 12 months !!!

All of that for a $free site submission facility just got too much to warrant providing it for the time being.

I will have it back in approx one week, but it will be via a self validation method where the submitting party will have to enter a "key" with the url etc.

The other thing I'm implementing now is a "trusted submission partner" interface where SEO's and partners will be able to submit as "trusted" known entities via and interface that will accept multiple URL's but will require a registration for free to alow me to validate that the party requesting trusted status is real and not a robot / script driving spam generation black hole.


nuthin: laugh, very funny - I'm sure your sites are there, perhaps I could help you on getting them placed better with some work on understanding Version 3.0.1 of WebSearch ( current version I'm running live with ) and the smoke and mirrors that drive the back end architecture.

The key to the next site submission facility I'm going to make available is that it will be REAL TIME !! yes, thats right, you submit it, the cluster will crawl the URL(s) you submit, index, and almost immediately you'll be able to search for and find the sites you submit - neat huh.

The next stage will be something along the lines of managing the prioritisation of submission partners against the freebies, where I'm considering something like 30 days for freebies with single url's, then say $9.99 for submissions within 14 days, $19.00 for submissisons within 7 days, $29.99 for submissions withing five days, $39.99 for submissions witin three days, and $49.99 for submissions within 24 hours.. this will allow me to afford to support partners bringing known good, trusted submissions and provide them the support they deserve, as well as still being able to provide a good freebit submission without draining too much resource to support it. The systems are automated so I can make it as smart or dumb as required of course. It would be all self serve, but again to registered bona fide professionals adding value rather than the scary minority who abuse such things * grin *

as for your question of "how does WebSearch identify an Australian site.." - thats easy currently, the engine only accepts, crawls and indexes sites which are in a *.au TLD. I have build and tested a GeoIP agent that would seperately run across ip address space that was suppsoedly in Australia, but the issue is that there's a lot of work in qualifying ( by robot ) if the content is Australia related, which is the whole point of WebSearch AU of course - 100% Australian content ( as is the aim with other regional focus WebSearch sites to come this year ).

But yes, you're right - I should probably cross post this into the thread I opened to talk about WebSearch rather than fill other threads with off topic stuff ( sorry guys and girls ).

Thanks for asking - really great to be albe to answer your questions and to discuss the engine as it's been "in hiding" as it were perhaps for a bit long * grin *

Of course, I would just as keenly welcome negative thoughts and feedback if it is justified as I don't just expect postive feedback, any issues you find or have will help me address them and hopefully solve them, and build and provide a much better facility.

I do of course track full click traffic so if you have sites and are curious about how much click through referring has been provided, I can easily provide that and am planning on a registered user system to allow people to submit sites, and then query over months what the results were for their site and search clicks and keywords that drove traffic to them - thats the free system too of course, not the paid ad system I recently did a soft launch of.

If any of you are curious about the pay per click, I'd be happy to provide you a $5 free trial - just register at http:///ads.websearch.com.au/ - setup and prepare your ad(s) and campaign, and drop me an email ( dez at websearch dot com dot ay ) with the login you created, I'll credit the account with $5 free ( it defaults to $20 but I'll make sort it out so you have $5 free to play with ) - as I'm hoping to get coverage as quickly as possible for thousands of keywords accross the site and any feedback of course on the results.

Cheers,

Dez

[Dez]

oh, I forgot to add:

if you have URL(s) you feel you would like to urgently have included, that are in the *.au name space ( TLD ) - I'd be happy to have you post them in the thread I created for the engine and I'll do my utmost best to get them into the engine ( I'll check daily where possible and report back ).

and once the self serve site submission tool's been rewritten to deal with robots and scripts, I'll gladly post it here for your submissions right away.

naturally the site crawls automatically more than 98.5% of it's know sites, but much of that comes from the valuable top level sites - something like 1.5% of the seed sites are from bone fide submisssons in the *.au name space that in turn link to and allwo crawling of the majority of the name space, so that one URL you might submit may lead to hundreds of thousands of "links" from your site, so they are very dear to my heart and I welcome them at all times.

Cheers,

Dez

[Dez]

Hi,

does this mean that the "453 pages" currently indexed by http://WebSearch.COM.AU robot crawlers are invalid? I'll gladly flush them an reindex for you, I see you now have "129" linked pages of which "126" are valid ( you've got some 404's there if you're interested..

a quick check showed that most of the links my robots have indexed are still ok, valid that is, as they are top level directory "links" as it were, ..Accomodation for example..

The monthly re-index for WebSearch AU is underway anyhow so I guess it will figure it out all by it's cleaver little self once it comes to refresh your site over the next day or so.

You'll know when WebSearch's crawlers have hit as there will be a whole bunch of Agent + Referer stuff in your access_logs ( it's well behaved, it doesn't kill sites / servers and respects robot directives to the fullest ! )

"Crawling.. Not browsing!" hee hee..

Cheers,

Dez


Originally posted by excell
ok,, I just uploaded the new Ozebiz website... would like to know if you all have comments etc.

Changed the base pages and the algo etc.

What do you reckon? better than the old yellow & green and waving flag at least :)

LOL, my partner and I are just having a chuckle.. and saying it has "far too much content and will scare visitors away"
OH WELL - at least the about page has some "white space" and a nice lady.

Please let me know if you find errors etc. thanks.

Ozebiz Australian Business Directory (http://www.ozebiz.com.au)

[Kal]

Just a note that I've now added WebSearch to the list at the top of this sticky thread.

[Dez]

Originally posted by Kal
Just a note that I've now added WebSearch to the list at the top of this sticky thread.

Thankyou,

greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Dez

[excell]

hmmm... I'll see what I can do about the broken links.:(

Thanks for the alert!

[Dez]

Originally posted by excell
hmmm... I'll see what I can do about the broken links.:(

Thanks for the alert!


If you do sort them out, be sure to re-submit so that the engine re-crawls whatever new URL's youve got in place won't you.

http://WebSearch.COM.AU

-> then click on "Add your site"

cheers,

Dez

[Nathan]

Hi All,

I have found this to be quite a useful thread although a little outdated. I have listed the changes that I have found below, and will start a new thread for ease of use.

AAA Matilda / Lookabout.net / AussieSeek - using updated.com
Altavista - Overture
Anzwers - Overture
aus-biz.com.au -
ausemade.com.au - Tourism related
aussies-online.com
Cowleys - No longer a search engine
directories2000.com.au
Exite Australia - Overture
GoEureka - Sensis
Got That online
Lookle - Under redevelopment
Looksmart - Sensis - site no longer around
ourbrisbane.com - Brisbane businesses only
Ozebiz - .au or .nz only, no mlm or affiliates
OzGuide - Tourism related
OzNetwork
Sofcom - no longer a directory
Websearch - .au or .nz only
WebWombat
Yahoo - Overture

Regards,
Nathan

[Kal]

Just wanted to add a new list of Aussie search engines and directories (http://www.search-engines-2.com/country/australian.html) that Danny Sullivan referenced in his newsletter today. Looks good! :thumb:

[texas4qld]

Hi Kal
Long time no see !
Looks like Looksmart is in a death roll, what's your opinion ?

[excell]

I'd be careful on that - check to make sure the referanced sites would be good for you (especially before engaging in link exchanges etc).

I wouldn't classify that as a "new list of aussie search engines and directories" more like a few random sites etc. :)

[ihelpyou]

yep, especially now with Google scrutinizing directories, and with good reason.

[Kal]

Good point Excell & Doug - yes do some checking to make sure the directories are worth submitting to first. I haven't had time to give the list a thorough going over, but at first glance there were quite a few good potentials that I'd not seen before.

:hi: to texas4qld - yep, I think LookSmart are trying to dig their way out of a sinking pit right now!

[Dave Hawley]

I don't think being listed in any directory is a problem, the problems can come when they insist on a link back.

Anyone ever get decent traffic from a directory? If so which ones?

[Necron9]

The Streets Network has been sending quite a bit of traffic to our Australian clients.

They run a city portal network that has a business directory.

It does cost to join in Australia - but judging by results it is worth the expense.

It is still free to list if in USA.

[Aussies-Online]

Hi guys! Long time no see.

Well... Aussies-Online is still there. Almost 6 years now.

I have done very little to it in the last 2 years. I have simply run out of ideas and don't have the motivation to work the whole evening on something which provides me with nothing.

After being hosted in the US for 5 years, I decided to move the site in Australia last January as the hosting services here are now priced reasonnably.

As a result, I lost half of my traffic overnight and I have not recovered it. This do not really surprise me as the majority of users still use a web search rather than an Australian search. As a result of being hosted in Australia, I suddenly became listed under Australia and lost that extra traffic as a result.

I have also noticed that Google is continually down grading Aussies-Online despite the fact that I have not made any major change to it.

IMHO The Internet does not work for businesses and it will take another 10 years before it does. We have to wait for the kids of the past decade to become the consumers of tomorrow. The only people who will ever understand the Internet will be those who have grown up with it.

[Necron9]

IMHO The Internet does not work for businesses and it will take another 10 years before it does.

That's a pretty bleak outlook :(

We know the net is working wonders for our clients - and getting them heaps more business and enquiries.

Just because something is not working out doesn't mean it doesn't work - it means one needs to looks at what is wrong and work to fix it...

How much traffic does www.aussies-online.com get these days? Google will slowly derank pages that are not updated regularly... fresh targeted content = higher rankings in many cases.

Add at least 1 new link / day to the site and watch your traffic increase over time...

I notice you are not running Google AdSense on your site... I would highly recommend you apply and add the Google ads to your pages... if you do over 1000 pages / month you can expect to earn an extra $15-$25 per 1000 pages... just guestimates based on many others running AdWords...

We even have a hosting client who does bellydancing and their site tops 1000 pages / day... we suggested they look at Adwords and they were accepted... they now get a $300+ USD cheque every month as a total bonus!

[Aussies-Online]

Originally posted by Necron9
[B]That's a pretty bleak outlook :(

We know the net is working wonders for our clients - and getting them heaps more business and enquiries.

I am sure that it works for the IT people as it is their business to make it work. However, just because you know how to optimize a website and get that website some decent traffic does not mean that the business owning the website will make some money out of that traffic.

Fact one:
Large companies have a budget to pay someone to design and optimize their website. Those companies would not have a problem coming up with $50.000 to have a website designed for them.

Fact two:
The large majority of businesses are small businesses. Those people can barely come up with $1000 and don't have any spare money to have the website optimized and maintained on a regular base. I have been talking to small businesses all around Australia and I know that for a fact. Even if they do have $5000 to spend, they won't because they are not convinced that they will make money on the Internet.

Fact three:
The large majority of users "over 35 years old" still prefer to use the phone book to find a business rather than using the Internet. The main reason for this is that they don't understand the benefits of using the Internet.

Which is why I made the comment that it will take another 10 years.


I notice you are not running Google AdSense on your site... I would highly recommend you apply and add the Google ads to your pages...

I did apply for it when it first came out and Google told me that my website did not qualify for it.

That said, I do find those Google ads far too large and ugly. I don't think I would like to see them on my website.

[Necron9]

I see where you are coming from ... but judging from the results we get for our clients I can't agree... people 35+ do use the net... a LOT - seniors are the biggest spenders online by far...

It all does come down to "knowing what you are doing" - and that is why we are here on these forums reading up on other people's experience and getting advice... there are a lot of crap webmasters who fail their clients - and unfortunately that affects the general view of the net...

I recently put up a website for a pool repair company and within 2 months they had made $20,000+ in pool repair bookings... all directly form their website... and the first booking came within 7 days of the site going online!

They did not spend any money on advertising the new site except my time to built it and put it online and link it in to their local online directory... the search crawlers did the rest.

All of our sites do well for our clients - the old school businesses do risk being overrun by newer / wiser companies and competitors who know how to use the net to improve business performance...

A LOT of our clients - well MOST of them are small businesses and they all get results from the web.

If you aren't making money from your traffic then there is something wrong with the site / the product / the sales cycle etc... and that can all be fixed if one knows what they are doing...

re: AdSense - that's a bummer your site didn't get accepted... though do know it does pay well for a lot of people :(

[Blindsurfer]

Originally posted by Kal
Just a note that AAAMatilda has changed domains and is now called Aussie Seek (http://www.aussieseek.com). Also, I'm going to make this thread sticky so people have faster access to the list and can add more as they come across them.

Hi Kal and thanks for that. Seasons Greetings to you and all.

AussieSeek is at

[url removed // Admin]

And Matilda at

[url removed // Admin]

Here comes 2006!!:cheers: :cheers:

[daves2074]

no sure if its on this list somewhere, but there is also webwombat

[ihelpyou]

bump to get rid of spammer