Search Engines: Different Types, Different Strategies
By : Nidhi Gupta
There are four basic types of Search Engines:
- Free Search Engines
- Pay-For-Inclusion Search Engines
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Engines
- Directories
Because each type does things a little differently, you need to adapt your strategy to take advantage of their differences.
Free Search Engines
You can submit your pages to these engines free, but be careful. You must make sure not to over-submit (submit too often) or you’ll be banned and never get listed.
Always check to see if your site is listed before submitting it.
Pay-For-Inclusion Search Engines
With this type of Search Engine, you pay to have your web site listed in their database. Pay-for-inclusion Search Engines (and the paid section of free engines) are a quick way to get listed in some major databases — for a price, literally. The cost varies from engine to engine.
The advantages are threefold:
- Faster inclusion into the Search Engine’s index.
- Repeated, regular spiderings.
- Guaranteed continuous inclusion.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Engines
Pay-per-click Search Engines allow you to bid for keyword placement. For example, if one of your pages focuses on the topic of “fashion models,” you can bid for the #1 (or any other number) placement on the first page of search results. You only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad.
There’s a catch, of course. The most popular keywords have become quite expensive at Overture.com (the first and biggest PPC engine) and are rising at the others.
Directories
Directories are different from Search Engines in that they do not spider pages. Humans review each submission, visit each site, and decide what gets in.
Search engines and directories provide search results for each other. If a search turns up nothing in the directory’s database of sites, it will show the search results from one of the spidered engines. All the directories use one of the major engines.
The reverse is also true. Most Search Engines also provide directory results, in addition to their own search results. All of them use one of the “Big 3″ — Yahoo!, Open Directory, or LookSmart.
Adapt Or Disappear
The difference between the types of Search Engines requires that you adapt your strategy to take maximum advantage of each engine.
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