The News this Month!

1. Google launches guidelines on Choosing an SEO!

Google have once again caused some ripples by publishing guidelines in what potential SEO clients should look for in selecting an SEO. The Google Guidelines are certainly a lot better than their previous somewhat terse message which stated 'be careful an SEO could damage your site.." and do point out some of the unscrupulous tricks which can be used to trap or bamboozle the unwary - as we have pointed out in past issues. However 2 points (in particular) we feel are just plain badly worded and unreasonable!

The first states "..Ask your SEO firm if it reports every spam abuse that it finds to Google using our spam complaint form at http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html. Ethical SEO firms report deceptive sites that violate Google's spam guidelines...". Excuse me, I really don't have the time to check what other sites are doing every time I do a search! Shouldn't Google be employing its' many research staff on working out spam filters to prevent spam sites from cluttering their index? Now, if they paid me - that would be different.

The second says "..For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee. Don't be afraid to request a refund if you are unsatisfied for any reason..". Hmmm. Full and unconditional seems a little unreasonable to me! Does Google give a 'full and unconditional' guarantee on their AdWords? Should I give a refund if the client site gets good traffic but nobody is buying their product? I don't think so.

So, our verdict? Good start but needs some more work. Some interesting alternative views are at http://fantomaster.com/fafngrapevine0.html and http://www.supportforums.org/article138.html - they are certainly good for a chuckle!

2. Bye to BTLookSmart!.

BT are withdrawing from their joint venture with LookSmart which was behind BTLookSmart, the directory which supplies results to MSN UK and BT OpenWorld plus some other UK ISPs. This means that the current company will disappear shortly and its' activities will be taken over by LookSmart US. It will be remembered from our May newsletter. This could cause radical differences to the current way listings are provided to MSN UK in the New Year. It has already been confirmed the BTLookSmart PPC engine BidSmart is to close in January. We'll keep you posted on what may be some more bad news next year!

3. Inktomi changes meta keywords support!

Despite our previous protestations that the keyword tag is dead. Inktomi have revealed that they do use it (as does Teoma) but rate it as one of the least important items they use in ranking a page. In another departure, Inktomi state that keywords should be separated by commas! For years we have been saying this really didn't matter - but if you do care about keywords - then we were wrong!

Full details at http://www.inktomi.com/products/web_search/spampolicyfaq.html

4. Overture to launch UK SEM Accreditation.

MakeMeTop is 1 of only 10 companies in the UK to be accredited as 'ethical' search engine marketing companies by Overture UK. In a press release issued this week, Overture UK stated "Overture, the global leader in Pay-for-Performance search, has today launched a UK SEM Accreditation Programme which aims to encourage best practice and bring transparency to the PPC re-seller marketplace.

The programme has been designed to protect UK businesses against so-called ‘rogue re-sellers’ - companies who exploit a lack of understanding of the search marketplace.

These practices include guaranteeing position on search engines, selling exclusive rights to individual search terms and over-charging customers. Overture’s programme will see a group of ‘best of breed’ SEMs with a history of ethical behaviour, receiving a seal of approval for display on their website. This seal shows that the SEM has agreed to follow a set of best practice guidelines drawn up by Overture to protect against false claims or fraudulent reselling practices. 

The guidelines include transparency on pricing and results and outline best campaign practices such as the use of deep-linking URLs and ensuring search terms appear in both the title and description..".

Other companies to be approved include Ambergreen, Receptional, Neutralize, Scotti Internet Marketing, WSPS and Web Diversity. Our congratulations to all our fellow SEOs who have passed the rigorous Overture vetting procedures.

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 MSN, LookSmart, About, Sprinks, Overture, HotBot, Overture UK, Espotting and several 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 some results on Freeserve, AOL, Yahoo, IWon 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 up to $34 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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