Newsletter Article

August 2001

Marketing Your Business Online

By D. Graham Tweedy, DGT Internet Marketing

In the last edition of our newsletter we reviewed a number of technical essentials that are needed to make your website a good candidate for internet marketing. We listed such items as good html coding, development and placement of Meta tags, graphics optimization, and much more. If you missed the edition please email us and we will forward it to you.

In this issue we wish to alert our readers to some of the changes in the search engine and directory environment that is completely altering the way we do things. Some complain that the "free internet" is gone. Yes! And good, as the clutter that has dominated searches will begin to disappear and leave room for those that are serious about the Net and have gone to some effort and expense to create a professional Internet presence.

Just an aside before we jump in. Every day we get an email that tells us for $30 or so you can be submitted to 3500 search engines and directories. You will get what you pay for. It is similar to throwing whatever at a wall and hope some of it sticks. Further, who cares about 3500 destinations when only approximately 10 count. These sites are after your permission to send your email address to 3500 other sites so they can send you more junk email.

Lets look at some of the changes and list the must submissions that one must accomplish to have any chance of being found when someone types in your keywords at their favorite search engine or directory.

One more thing before we start. Did you know that it is estimated that there are 1 to 2+ billion web pages on the net? That the typical search engine catalogs about 17% of them? That approximately 80% of persons looking for information on the Net find it using search engines and directories? Knowing these simple facts makes us aware that we better do this search engine thing correctly.

As the face of Internet searching changes more and more of the portals, destination sites such as AOL and MSN, and directories, such as Yahoo, are using data from a select group of sources. There is great advantage to this as we can focus on doing a good job submitting to these rather than have to accommodate the vagaries of 50 targets.

Below is a list of the "must" submissions as we see it. We have not given you full details as it would make this article too long and you would not read it all. Please contact us for more complete information.

LookSmart
LookSmart powers MSN, Excite, AltaVista, iWon, CNN.com, and 370 other ISPs. They charge a fee of $299 for a 2 day submission and guarantee that your site will be reviewed. They charge $149 for an 8 week turnaround.

Inktomi
Inktomi search results are utilized by AOL, MSN, HotBot, NBCi, iWon, Anzwers.com and a number of others. Inktomi's fee is $30. This fee also covers the re-indexing of your site every 48 hours for a year.

Yahoo!
While Yahoo! doesn't power other search services, it is the largest single portal in its own right. The Yahoo! fee is $199. If you can get listed this is probably the best bargain as research shows that Yahoo! is still the most popular destination site on the net.

The Open Directory Project (ODP)
The ODP is a volunteer-run directory that powers a number of search engines, directories, and portals, including Netscape, Lycos, and HotBot. ODP does not charge for their services which is the same for the rest of the sites in this list.

Google Google is a powerful search engine in its own right, and its data helps power Netscape, Yahoo! search and other high-traffic sites.

DirectHit/AskJeeves
Direct Hit is used at the following search engine and portal sites. AT&T WorldNet, Lycos, MSN, Hotbot, Go2net, Bomis.com, SOL, Apple Computer, About.com, InfoSpace, ICQ(AOL), SimpleSearch, BET.com, Punto, Catcha.com, NetFlip, and SuperCyberSearch.

All the web(fast search)
Both of the above help power searches on popular portals.

Northern Light
This engine provides some unique search features and attracts a unique group of searchers.

We are convinced that this is the minimal approach to Internet marketing that the serious Internet group must use. There is much more to marketing opportunities on the net - this is but a start. Next time we will continue to expand our topic, Marketing Your Business Online.