When it comes to pay per click search engines, GoTo.com is the clear
leader. Over the years, GoTo has established relationships with many
of the top search engines and directories, including Dogpile,
Netscape, Hotbot, MSN, Compuserve, NBCI, American Online, Lycos,
AltaVista and CNET.
So what does all of this mean to you and how do you use these
relationships to your benefit? If you bid on keywords/phrases
with GoTo and are listed in one of the top three positions, your
site will also show up on the above engines when someone performs
a search for one of your keyphrases. For example: Suppose you've
snatched up "London vacations" as a keyphrase in one of GoTo's
top three positions. If an AltaVista user types the phrase
"London vacations" in the search box, the results page will
have your site listed at the very top. You'll have similar
results at the other search engines that are powered with GoTo
listings. A nice way to get a top listing, don't you think?
According to GoTo, the top three bids which they call
"Premium Listings" get more than twice the number of searches
as a regular listing. Let's take a look at just where your
site will appear on the various search engines /directories
when you secure a premium listing.
AltaVista: To show up on AltaVista's search results page you
need to be in the top six bid positions at GoTo. These bids
will appearing as "partner listings" on AltaVista's search
results page, with the top three bids showing up at the top
of the listings and an additional three appearing at the very
bottom of the search results page.
America Online: American Online boasts over 2.3 million members.
To show up here you'll need to have one of the top three bid
positions at GoTo. The links are labeled as "Sponsored Links"
at the top of their results page before other search options
are listed.
Lycos: The top three listings from GoTo appear under the heading
"Featured Listings," before Lycos' own search results. There
is also a link labeled "More Featured Listings" that leads you
to a full page of GoTo results in bid order. Two more GoTo
listings show up in the first ten results under what Lycos
refers to as "Web Sites" section.
Netscape: Owned by America Online, they also display GoTo's
listings under what's called "Partner Search Results" but
only the top two bid positions are shown.
HotBot: The top three GoTo bids show up on HotBot's search
results page under the title "Featured Listings."
MSN: After performing a search on MSN, the results page
has a link that says "Get the Top 10 Most Popular Sites for [
the keyphrase you searched]". When you click through, the first three
listings you'll see are the top three bids from Goto for that
keyword or phrase.
CompuServe: If you're in the top ten at GoTo.com, you'll show
up in searches at CompuServe. All of their search results appear
to be supplied by GoTo and are labeled as "Premium Web Pages."
CNET: If you perform a search on CNET you'll see GoTo.com's
top three listings for that particular word/phrase appearing in
the right hand column in a box titled "Goto.com Search Partners."
NBCI: NBCi appears to be pulling the top 15 GoTo search results
to be displayed on their results page. By clicking "more results"
at the bottom of the page, additional GoTo listings are displayed.
DogPile: The first ten results from GoTo.com are displayed
on DogPile's search results page. Below those you'll see
LookSmart's results followed by Sprinks listings.
As you can see, positioning yourself in the top three positions
with GoTo can get you some major exposure on many of the most
popular search engines and directories online today. If you've
been hesitant about opening your own GoTo account you may
want to reconsider after seeing how widespread their reach is.
Remember, with GoTo you're not paying for impressions - only for
actual click throughs, and the traffic you'll receive is highly
targeted. More bang for your buck, so to speak.
By partnering with GoTo and obtaining a "premium listing," you
too can be listed at the top of the search engines and isn't
that what everyone wants?
About the Author
Merle http://www.EzineAdAuction.com
"Where some of the BEST Deals in Ezine Advertising are Made"
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