What are the factors to allow for when submitting to LookSmart thru Zeal?

[Marina]

Hi,

I successfully passed Zeal exam at first attempt and can submit there too (it's contagious, isn't it? ;) ). So, now I know how to compose my description and title for Zeal (the sites I am going to submit are completely non-commercial). But my distant aim in view are of course LookSmart and thus MSN, Excite, AltaVista, and others. What do I have to consider when making a description to have good ranking in search results for my keyphrase in LookSmart (keyword density, word prominence etc in the description)?

[ihelpyou]

You want try and get your most important phrase at the beginning of the description.

Remember, your page should be optimized first before being submitted.

[Hope]

Remember that you need to be conservative when you submit the sites to Zeal. Another editor needs to approve the submission. This editor will edit the description if it is too heavy on keywords or looks bad.

[ihelpyou]

Good points! The need to be objective is key.

Another key is to start off with a statement:

Firm offers keyword phrase here blah blah etc etc. "This word" needs to be an action word like "get", "browse", "view".. and so on.

First sentence should be an objective statement. Next sentence should start out with an "action verb" or call to action.

...... Firm offers video photography scanning and printing. View the catalog for pricing and shipping times.

See what I mean?

[Marina]

Thanks, Hope and Doug.
And the use of imperative mode in the second phrase agrees with the general sales & marketing idea of instructing a prospect of her/his further actions... That's great! :)

[ihelpyou]

Correct. :)

LOL. I believe Looksmart should hire me. naw, I'd want waaay too much money.

[Perfection]

I just got my 7th page listed (from the same site) via Zeal, and so far I'm 7 for 7 in terms if getting the exact title and description I submitted. Most of these 7 sites now show up 1 for their main keyword in Looksmart and MSN, while the rest show up #2 or #3 for their main keyword, as well as top 10 for a whole list of other pretty good keywords. MSN is where you will end up getting the most traffic, Excite and Altavista's directory traffic hardly even exists.

[ihelpyou]

Great job perfection! Unfortunately, I do not have any noncommercial to speak of. :( .... well, this one but already in there.

[markymark]

Doug - that's the best summary of the Looksmart/Zeal review process I've read.

I knew I would learn something if I stuck round here long enough ;)

[Perfection]

I only have this one noncommercial site, but this whole Zeal submission thing is really making me want to make more and more noncommercial sites. :)

[ihelpyou]

LOL. Trust me Mark, you would not believe how much I have learned from members here including YOU. :)

If you look at every LS description the editors give a site, this is always the case. The key is to always start the second sentence with "action". If you do this, the chances of LS changing what you submit is greatly decreased.

[ihelpyou]

I think this is important. Let us list the "action words" that every LS submission should use as the VERY start of the second sentence of a description.

get
view
browse
signup

List them. More?

find
explore
shop

[MsSearch]

Good tip Doug...

How about some of these? Research, Learn about, Locate...

Marina...i wouldn't worry too much about Excite (:( ) or AltaVista but use Looksmart to get into MSN. Looksmart is not a big source of traffic (for my sites at least) but I do use the directory to get into MSN and others but MSN supplies me the most traffic from the Looksmart network.

As for keyword density, proximity, etc...I don't usually count these as long as my content is well written and contains my keywords throughout. I always found that varying keyword density throughout a site provided better results. Some search engines (and maybe this isn't true anymore) see the same keyword density across all pages of a site and then is seen as 'cookie-cutter' pages...I focus on Content, Title, and Links and once indexed or accepted, everything begins to fall into place with listings and results.

[ihelpyou]

Yep!

There are many more. ???

[markymark]

Another action verb (particularly for the multimedia types);

download

[ihelpyou]

Good verb!

That word is also part of a few keyword phrases:

software download, etc

[markymark]

Doug, don't tell everyone.