The News this Month!

1. Yahoo UK Paid Review now Compulsory!

Yahoo UK has (for some time) been offering an Express Review service to sites in the UK who wished to get their site considered for inclusion in the Yahoo directory in a short (7 days) period of time. However, it was still possible to submit to Yahoo UK for free even if you were a business site. This facility had been withdrawn from Yahoo US some time ago. This was very useful for small UK sites who were lucky enough to get in as sites included in Yahoo UK are also listed in all other English language Yahoos world-wide.

At the beginning of the month, Yahoo UK switched to a compulsory fee for UK business submissions bringing it into line with the main Yahoo. There is some good news though! Yahoo UK is still a one-off fee of £199.00 (including VAT) unlike the Yahoo main site which charges $299.00 initial review fee and then a further $299.00 annual fee - plus the site will still appear in the main Yahoo database. It should be noted though that the fee is still just for a review - there is no guarantee that your site will be included or on any preferred position. That depends on your site and how your Yahoo title and description are worded, your domain name and the category you are placed in. For further details on how to submit to directories such as Yahoo see our free Search Engine Optimisation Guide.

2. a) Google Powers all AOL.

In a surprise move, 4 months ago, AOL decided not to renew its' contract with Inktomi as a supplier of search engine results. This contract with Inktomi was due to expire by September, but at the end of last month the switch to Google was made. Results appear to be fairly similar to straight Google results with the addition of sites which are purchasers of AOL keywords. These can appear in the first page of results and can replace 2 of the Google results which is a little disappointing for sites in Google which have those positions in the 'pure' Google.

2. b) Yahoo extend Google Partnership.

It was anticipated that the AOL roll-out of Google would coincide with the announcement from Yahoo on who would be their search engine provider for back-up results when their contract with Google expired in July. Just to keep us biting our nails it transpired that Yahoo had extended their agreement with Google until September - so we still don't know who is going to be Yahoo's partner. The rumour-mill has Google, Inktomi and FAST as the main contenders with all of them announcing larger indexes in the last few weeks.

Hopefully, this time next month we will all know who has won the race.

3. Another Search Engine Optimisation and Marketing Directory Launched.

Last month we mentioned the launch of the SEO Consultants Directory at SEOConsultants.com. This month it is the turn of SEM List from Internet.com. With the prestige of Internet.com behind it - who also have sites like Search Engine Watch and promote the excellent Search Engine Strategies conferences - the trade expected a definitive listing of companies involved in search engine marketing. Unfortunately, we were disappointed. Anyone who states that they do any form of search engine marketing can be included and although an attempt has been made to identify the services each company offers, this is done is a slightly confusing method. For example, sites are asked to state if they 'cloak'. This method is often (though not always) associated with search engine spamming. However, in this instance, it appears that SEM List means that the company does XML or Trusted Feed programs which are acceptable. Although it clearly states on the site that this is just a list of companies who say they do SEM, most did expect some vetting of applicants to be done. As yet, this has not occurred. Indeed, it appears that the list is pitching advertising to SEOs who wish to appear on the front page of the list. 

This is a very different policy from the SEO Consultants Directory who have the motto of 'quality, and not quantity' and have done their best to check the reputation and ability of applicants. With 139 applicants accepted so far and 209 declined for not meeting the guidelines this directory is setting the standards for becoming the definitive guide to the SEO/SEM industry. They are going to be a hard act for the SEM List to follow!

Other directories and guides to SEOs include:

SEOPros.org (the first free guide with some 250 members), Marketing Sherpa Report (paid, with some 70 sites reviewed).

4. Search Engine Shuffles!

Inktomi announced a major update to their database with an announcement that they now include 2 billion pages. This is a major increase in the DB size and may be a precursor to their bid for the Yahoo contract. It brings them into shouting distance of the Google DB which has been widely praised for having the most content of any SE on the web. Inktomi have stated that they will be updating their index every 14-21 days, which is similar to FAST. This may reduce the impact of Inktomi's paid inclusion programs but we will still be using their PFI plan to ensure that clients are included quickly and are guaranteed to remain in the Inktomi DB.

Tiscali, a major European ISP, have taken over the old Excite network of sites in Europe. The first to be rolled-out was Excite UK - which we thought would never be seen again! The database comes from Overture UK first if their are any paid listings (a little like Freeserve) then the FAST results. The directory is ODP. In order for this to succeed, some advertising needs to be done as most people are unaware that Excite UK is alive again - so don't expect large amounts of traffic - yet!

UKPlus which was a directory run by the Daily Mail newspaper group has been purchased by BT LookSmart and is now showing an exact copy of the LookSmart UK database as is on LookSmart UK. Sponsored results come from Espotting, but we would expect that to change to BidSmart as this is owned by LookSmart UK. UKPlus was well known for its idiosyncratic method of listing sites. At least they will now appear in a better format! We have spent a little money submitting sites to UKPlus, but results were not that good. It appears that these listings will be put into LookSmart UK - but we have seen none of ours appear as yet. Still, one less directory to worry about.

5. Which search engines cost what?

With fees changing every month, we are keeping this list updated regularly - so users can see what the latest costs are. As always, not a lot of free submissions out there so don't get taken in by the ever growing list of people offering mass-submissions. They just don't work for any of the main search facilities that drive real traffic.

Here are the main search facilities and the basic costs for faster review/inclusion. You can get discounts for more URLs.

• Yahoo US! - $299 for business and commercial sites (review only and then annual inclusion fee). Top listings available via Overture (US only) and Overture UK (UK only). Only use Yahoo US submission if you can't get in through Yahoo UK!
• Yahoo UK! - £199 for business and commercial sites (review one-off, non-recurring fee). Top listings available via Espotting.
• Inktomi - it powers some or all of the results on AOL US, MSN, iWon, LookSmart, About, Sprinks, Overture, HotBot, Overture UK, Espotting and most UK portals. Costs from $39 per page per year!
• Google - still free - though you can get paid listings via AdWords or AdWords Select if you want to appear in less than 2-3 months! Powers results on Freeserve, AOL UK and BT LookSmart network backup results in the UK.
• ODP - completely free.
• LookSmart - feeds results to AltaVista, Excite (note: Excite is now a meta-engine - not a search engine in its' own right) MSN, iWon, CNN, Time Warner and another 370 ISPs. $49 (plus $150 deposit) then 15 cents per referral and (if you want to appear in the UK) £149 for LS UK. Description changes cost extra. LookSmart UK has just launched their own PPC system to compete with Overture and Espotting called BidSmart.
• AltaVista - still used by a significant number of users from $60 per page per year. Can get to the top by paying Overture. LookSmart for directory.
• FAST - provides results to a number of European searches as well as the widely used Lycos engines now $12 per URL per year.
• MSN - LookSmart for Directory and Overture for top listings plus Inktomi which uses paid inclusion.
• UKPlus - now part of LookSmart UK.
• Overture - provides featured results to many meta-engines, plus AltaVista, Excite, HotBot (US), Lycos (US), MSN and Netscape - plus many other search portals. Pay for placement. Minimum fee £25
• Teoma - powers Ask Jeeves US plus Ask Jeeves UK and is now starting to be sold as an alternative engine database (like Google and Inktomi) - $25.00 per page.

It will become harder and harder to get a free listing if you are a business - but make sure, before you pay the engines, that you understand what you are doing to make sure your pages/site appear high up in the listings! These payments specify rapid inclusion - not high rankings. The site/pages still need to be optimised.

If you have any further questions about the major search engines - why not ask your questions about this or many other subjects on our free information forums?

We also have many resources which are designed to make your optimisation tasks easier. As always, MakeMeTop is here to help get you seen on the web. If you have any queries, comments or feedback on the information contained in this report, please let us know. It must be stated that all comments and ideas listed in this document come from the editor's research and are solely his opinions! For more information and tips on getting top search engine rankings visit Search Engine World, Pandia and Search Engine Watch or read our tips on designing a search engine friendly page. See other news, views and search engine happenings at sites we find useful at Webmaster World, Pandia, Search Engine Watch and Ihelpyou Forums. A free weekly newsletter is available from High Rankings Advisor and is also well worth the read.

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