In the olden days of the net, circa 1997-1999, we small
business types used to have a fighting chance to get our
site listed in the major search engines. Well the year 2001
has now arrived, and with it has come the end of our
fighting chance.
Many of the major search engines and directories have
recently abandoned their fair business practices in favor
of a more profitable (for them) strategy. This does not bode
well for you if you do not have a few thousand dollars of
disposable income lying around to try to get listed. You
now are encouraged (in the case of Yahoo, required) to
pay upwards of $199 to receive a guaranteed site review.
Please understand that word, review. This by no means,
guarantees you a listing, simply a review and possible
inclusion.
The search engines claim that they are doing this in a
concerted effort to fight spam and to maintain a clean
engine that brings up relevant sites for relevant search
terms and phrases. If that was truly the case, then I would
have no problem with it. Due to the proliferation of doorway
pages, keyword stuffing, signpost pages, hallways and all
manner of tricks developed over the years by intrepid
marketers, search engines have become somewhat stuffed with
junk.
However, these companies are not doing this in some noble
cleansing effort, instead they are adopting a strategy
strictly based on bottom line thinking. They are trying to
make a buck. Now, believe me I am as capitalistic as the
next man, but I am also a small businessman who seeks to
make out by doing as much low and no cost advertising/
promotion as I can. If I create a relevant webpage and work
hard doing keyword research, should I not be granted a
listing in the search engines for free? Doesn't that benefit
the search engine user more than me paying to be listed?
Lets come off the soapbox for a second and consider the
facts:
1. Looksmart, who provides results for MSN, Excite,
AltaVista, IWon and others was the first company to really
promote the "guaranteed site review" concept in late 1999.
They guarantee that within 2 business days after receiving
payment you will be notified if your site is included in
their directory and also in the results of the above search
engines.
You will also be notified if your site is not included and
told why. You will then be out the 200 dollars regardless
of whether or not your site is included.
2. Yahoo has always offered a guaranteed site review for
$200 (this used to be one of the many "Yahoo Secrets" that
many marketers would learn, and stick in a manual which they
could then sell to others for between 20-50 dollars). It
used to be OPTIONAL. Now, EVERY commercial site has to pay
this fee if they wish to be reviewed (again reviewed,
not necessarily included).
3. GO.com (the engine formerly known as Infoseek) also has a
submission service for $199.00. They also have a free
submission service, which to quote their website:
'This option is free of charge, but does not guarantee either
inclusion or spidering.'
4. Even little galaxy.com charges $99.00 to be listed in
their slightly less important and less widely used search
engine.
Am I really against these pay to be listed services? No, not
necessarily. What I am against is the charade that these
companies are perpetrating that claims this is done for our
greater good. Well, thanks but couldn't we be charging a
more reasonable fee then?
I am not suggesting ten dollars or even 20 dollars. How
about $29.95, $39.95, even $50? Wouldnt this more reasonable
price insure a more relevant search engine?
The small businessman on a budget will be the one to suffer
from this change. And the ones who benefit will be the
corporations who consider these costs to be equivalent to
buying a bar of soap.
Many of the other search engines are banding together to
receive their results from Yahoo/Go/LookSmart/Google and
they will all begin charging a fee (if they do not already).
So with 5-10 major search engines charging you $200 you are
looking at a total cost of $1,000 - $2,000. This is
unfortunate for the small businessman trying to keep their
costs down.
So what do we do as an alternative?
1. Continue to use doorway pages, metatag creation,
strategic keyword placement and submission to engines that
still use spidering and accept free submissions.
2. Consider paying for one of these services to see if your
site gets listed and brings you the traffic and sales that
justify the cost. I recommend Looksmart only because they
supply results to so many other engines and directories.
3. Consider a pay per click strategy on engines such as
goto.com and searchcactus and several others. This is an
intelligent way to spend your money, bidding on search terms
and recieving a GUARANTEED placement because you paid for
it.
As the internet evolves and more and more people become a
part of it, an up to date search engine strategy that does
not break your bank will keep you ahead of the game!
About the Author
Marc Goldman, Goldbar Enterprises
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