The News this Month!

1. BIG changes at Yahoo.com!

The long awaited news of who was going to provide the search engine results as backup to the main Yahoo directory has at last broken! The provider is going to continue to be Google with Yahoo retaining the option to use other search providers as it sees fit. However, the way the results are now being shown is VERY different and has had a radical affect on rankings in many areas.

Previously, when a search was done on Yahoo - the first results shown were a list of appropriate categories, sponsored listings from Overture and then up to 20 sites (per page) which had been reviewed by Yahoo editors and were ranked according to the title and description given to the sites by Yahoo and the relative popularity of the site. This method of display is still used at Yahoo UK (although sponsored listings come from Espotting) but is no longer used by the main Yahoo!

Instead, you get listings which in most cases (though not all) are direct replication of the results shown on Google in ranking terms. Pages which have been reviewed by Yahoo editors show their Yahoo title and description plus a red arrow indicating that there are more sites in the category in which that site is listed. Pages which are not in the Yahoo directory show their standard Google title and description.

This means that you can get onto the first page of Yahoo without paying their review fee by being well listed in Google! As can be imagined, people who had good listings in the directory and had paid for a review are not that happy with their listings being usurped by freely spidered pages in Google. However, this is early days and we can't see Yahoo just throwing away revenue - so, we expect to see a major boost in rankings in Google if you are also in the Yahoo directory and perhaps a replacement of the ODP by Yahoo as the Google directory. Regional Yahoos may take an entirely different path - but, as always, we will keep you posted!

For further details on how to submit to directories such as Yahoo see our free Search Engine Optimisation Guide.

2. Latest Google Update.

The most recent Google update not only had a huge impact on Yahoo (see above) but also introduced a couple of changes to their ranking methods to combat 'Google Bombing' which may have had a few unfortunate side effects. 'Google Bombing' is a trick by which you can create strange results on Google simply by persuading a lot of people to link to a particular site with a particular phrase as the link. For example people may link to a manufacturer's site with the words 'a load of rubbish' so that when this phrase is typed into Google the unfortunate manufacturer has their website appearing. In order to counter this Google seems have have fined tuned the results to ensure that the phrase (or at least part of it) is somewhere on the page being linked to and also decided to penalize certain search terms if it appeared the majority of sites linking to that particular page were using one search phrase. While this has cleared out most of the 'Bombing' results it has had a bad affect on site who have names like The Widget Company with most of the links to them saying the same thing. They have tended to disappear to the second or third pages of Google for these phrases while sites which have one or more of the search phrase words show up at the top. A simple example of this is the Google search for web site promotion Ireland. Several sites which do web site promotion in Ireland have disappeared to the lower results while sites such as the Armagh Observatory, a US Government BSE site and an American personal home page all make it into the top 10!

Google have asked people to send them examples of slightly awry results and we expect to see these problems resolved in the next update.

3. Positiontech Launches FAST PFI!

A new partner has emerged for FAST/AllTheWeb paid inclusion. Positiontech, which is a major inclusion portal for Inktomi and Trusted Feed partner to FAST, AltaVista and Ask Jeeves - started the program at the beginning of October. Previously, the route into FAST was via Lycos. Positiontech make it an easier process than the somewhat cumbersome Lycos process and are noted for their excellent support and attention to customer service. They are slightly more expensive than Lycos, but we have been told the prices will be the same within the next few weeks.

4. TopDog winding down - Search Engine Commando relaunched!

For the many people who want to keep track of their positions on search engines (especially if they were located outside the US), TopDog has been a solid and reliable tool which built up an excellent reputation. Unfortunately, some of the original team who worked with TopDog split up about a year ago - and while the product remains supported, it has been superseded by a brand-new product Search Engine Commando.

Having tried the product we were impressed by the very natural and easy to use interface, the comprehensive range of important world-wide and regional search facilities covered and the reporting facilities.

As with all reporting tools, be aware that Google strictly forbids the use of automated tools querying their database. With both AOL and Yahoo now showing Google results, we advise using these engines to check your Google positions if you are running automated reports.

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 $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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