Pay-to-Include Search and Directories
Are they worth the money?

Web-Kare has always had a very simple policy regarding "pay-to-include" search engines and directories. We pay for search engines or directories that have proven that inclusion in them will improve rankings at the major search engines. At the time of this writing, the "major" search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Also, at the time of this writing, there are only two programs that we would even consider paying for inclusion: Yahoo's SiteMatch and MSN's Small Business Directory. Many will argue that inclusion in these two directories may not be necessary, either. We mostly agree, but feel that we want to give our clients the best possible chances of exposure and expedite the indexing of their site.

We have not advocated, nor paid for inclusion at Yahoo's directory at $299/year since they changed to the annual fee. We have not seen an improvement in sites listed in that directory previous to the new pricing policy and have heard many others say that being included has had little or no effect on their site's rankings.

We used to pay for inclusion at Ask Jeeves, but did not see enough return on the investment to renew our listings with them. Allowing our listings to expire at Ask Jeeves has had no impact on overall rankings for our clients' sites.

We do however, on rare occasion, suggest that our clients consider paid inclusion in some very specific online directories. These directories are not expected to bring tons of traffic to our clients' sites, but inclusion has either proven to boost rankings at Google or traffic that comes from these other sites are so extremely targeted they have a high probability of becoming a sale. These are typically so specific to an industry, that it is worth our clients' sites being included simply for the quality of traffic even if it does not boost rankings. (Note that I said "on rare occasion" -- there are not a lot of directories that are worth the money to be included. Some directories start at thousands of dollars per year, others a mere $50 one-time. The return on investment is always foremost in our decision process.)

Web-kare does, however, submit our clients' sites to as many free online directories and search engines as possible providing they are not "blacklisted." Blacklisted means that the search engine or directory is considered a "SPAM" or a "Link Farm" by one or more of the big three instead of a quality directory. While it is not always possible to determine the status of any search engine or directory, we make every effort to avoid these poor quality search vehicles because getting a link in them can penalize rankings at some search engines, particularly Google.

Sometimes our clients question why we might post their site to an international search engine, particularly if they do not service an international market. The point is not to build site traffic from the obscure international search vehicle, but instead to raise the link popularity of the site. An international search engine experiences traffic from more than the one country or continent that it appears to service. In fact, we avoid international search engines that limit their exposure to only one geographical area. Sometimes a client may feel that he does not service an international market simply because he does not consider Canada international or he may have forgotten that many U.S. companies have offices overseas.

In the US market more than 90% of search is conducted at one of the three major search engines: Yahoo, Google and MSN. All three of these search engines have international coverage as well. If you submit your site to Yahoo, don't be surprised to see it appear at yahoo.hk or google.ca. Thus a good link popularity abroad should equate to a better link popularity score within the US also.

Of course, no landscape changes faster than that of the Internet. Today's search hero's can quickly get tossed aside and replaced by the next new and better search. That's why Internet marketing companies like Web-Kare are constantly keeping their eyes on the Web and researching new search products.

In Previous Issues...

Number Crunching: Getting a handle on your Internet Marketing Program
click here

Conversion Tracking- Do those numbers give the whole picture?
click here

Content Managed Sites
The Pros & Cons of Doing it Yourself
click here

Getting Noticed - is your important criteria being seen?
click here

Power Of The Press
click here

Principled Profit
Marketing that puts people first
click here

Web Site Insurance
click here

Managing Internet Media
click here

The WWWWW & H of your Web Site
click here

Sponsored Placement or Pay-For-Inclusion which is right for you?
click here

The 8 Second Decision!
click here

Guerrilla Marketing vs Panther Marketing
click here

The Art & Science of Search Engine Optimization
click here

The Cost of Internet Marketing
click here

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