~~~High Search Engine Rankings~~~
[Moderator's Comment: I'm forgoing the usual Q&A today in favor of
discussing my recent experiences with LookSmart's non-commercial
Zeal Directory - Jill]
Hey everyone! The other night I was going over a Web Position report
for our Rank Write site, and noticed that we had some rankings showing
up in LookSmart. If you were with us a few issues ago and read my
LookSmart *rant*,
you would know that, for various reasons, I had no intention of ever
paying them $299 (or any amount) to get my own sites listed with them.
So seeing some high rankings in LS for Rank Write was very strange
indeed! As I investigated further, I found that Rank Write was most
definitely listed in the LookSmart directory, and with a fairly good
description (albeit, probably not the keyphrases I would have chosen).
So, how'd it happen? At first I thought that some LookSmart editor
must have taken pity on us after reading my rant and simply added the
site to try to smooth things over between us. So, I took a quick trip
over to my favorite SEO forum, and posted a quick note about what happened. Come to find
out that someone added the Rank Write site through LookSmart's new
partner, Zeal. Now, I had heard about LookSmart
purchasing Zeal, and also had heard that it would be their way of
finally allowing non-commercial (but not necessarily non-profit) sites
to get into the LookSmart directory. However, I had never looked very
close at how (or if) it worked. Well, I'm here to tell you...it does!
Sites added through Zeal become seamlessly integrated into the
LookSmart results with no way of knowing (that I can tell) that they
were added through Zeal and not LookSmart. They also eventually end
up in LookSmart's partner sites, such as MSN. As of this writing, our
Zeal listing did show up at MSN, however, it did NOT show up at
Excite, AltaVista, or IWon (all of which are supposedly LS partners),
even though it was submitted through Zeal on August 16. It's great to
have been included, but I have to tell you that I have not seen any
significant boost in traffic through MSN or LookSmart to the Rank
Write site since the site was added.
Before you all run out and try adding your non-commercial sites to
Zeal, there are a few things you need to know. Not just *anyone* can
add sites to Zeal/LookSmart. You must first register with them and
then pass their "Member Quiz." If you think the quiz will be some
sort of no-brainer deal where they are really just collecting your
personal information (as I did), then you're wrong. The quiz is
actually 20 tricky questions regarding the proper formatting of
submitted Titles and Descriptions, site selection, and category
management. The good news is that they basically provide you with a
"cheat sheet," available in the form of their "User Guidelines". The bad news is that you
really do need to carefully read through the guidelines in order to
answer most of the questions, and the test will take you a minimum of
20 - 30 minutes (more if you've never submitted to LookSmart before).
However, if like me, you've submitted tons of sites to LookSmart and
already have a feel for how they formulate their descriptions, you
should be able to easily pass the test without too much effort. I'm
proud to say that I got 19 out of the 20 questions correct. (The one
I messed up was near the end and I just took my best guess!)
With the quiz aced, I was now allowed to submit sites. Since Rank
Write was already in, I set out to finally restore my Parentsroom
site's rightful place in LookSmart. I found the most appropriate
category and followed their relatively simple submission procedure,
being careful to use the site's name as the Title and writing the
description so that it perfectly followed their editorial criteria.
Within a few hours, I was notified by email that my site had been
accepted...whoohooo! It showed up immediately at Zeal.com. As of
this afternoon, though, it still hasn't shown up in the regular
LookSmart results. I've been told that this can take a couple of
days, so perhaps it will be there by tomorrow. Once in LookSmart, it
apparently takes about ten days for the sites to show up at MSN.
What I like about this whole "having to pass a quiz thing" is that
they're not letting *just anyone* submit sites to the directory.
(Remember the "Go Guides"?) They are also making it easier on their
senior editors (Zealots), because most submissions should
theoretically be formatted correctly from the start. Yes, it's a pain
in the neck to be approved; however, because of this, LookSmart can be
fairly certain that the high standards of their commercial listings
will continue to be met with their non-commercial listings. Way to
go, LookSmart!
Zeal offers another, even trickier "Zealot Quiz," which you need to
take in order to become a full-fledged Zealot. Just for fun I decided
to take it yesterday after getting such high marks on the first one.
I didn't have much time, nor did I feel like doing any more in-depth
research through their guidelines, so I decided I would just take my
best shot and guess as necessary. I...ummm...got only nine of the 20
questions correct through that method (and while I was at it had nasty
flashbacks to high school)! The Zealot Quiz was extremely difficult
in that it delved deeper into how to properly categorize sites within
the directory. Since that's not something I normally do in a
submission to LookSmart, I didn't have much prior knowledge
about it. It was pretty complicated stuff! But again, this is
a GOOD thing. This shows me that in order to become a full-fledged
Zealot, you have to really study the guidelines and the directory
itself and truly have a strong handle on how they do things. They are
absolutely not going to let any dope like me who refuses to study, to
have that kind of control. Smart people!
There's a lot more to learn about Zeal and its relationship with
LookSmart; I've only touched the surface. It looks like an
interesting place to hang out, and I do plan on spending some more
time over there when I get a chance. If nothing else, I need to exact
my revenge on that Zealot Quiz!
Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
