~~~High Search Engine Rankings~~~
From: Barbara Sybal, GFX Printing
I don't know if this question has been covered in the past or not, but
it certainly is a burning question I have.
BTW, my site is business-to-business only, i.e., I don't have anything
that the average Jane or Joe Shopper would be interested in.
About a month ago, I went to pay LookSmart for an Express Submission.
I devoured every word on their site to ensure I was submitting
correctly. When I was just about to give them my credit card info,
one sentence had me stop dead in my tracks. It was something to the
effect that the site being submitted is of value to "their consumers."
Consumers? As I said, I'm B2B, so that word stopped me from giving
them $199.
If they used "visitors" or any other word, other than consumers, I
probably would have continued.
I was going to write LookSmart and ask whether they consider B2B for
Express Submission, but I'm sure I would only get a canned response
saying that I should read the guidelines (which I definitely did).
I'm also located in Canada, so am concerned that my site will be
relegated to a regional category, even though my site is relevant to
all of North America.
Would you have any insight into whether or not the directories (any of
them) are considering B2B sites in their main categories ... and if my
location is a factor?
Many thanks!
Barbara Sybal, GFX Printing Services
Printing Has Never Been So Easy ...
Easy in Saving You Time & Money, that is!
Visit http://www.gfxinc.com for full Details
Vox: 905-828-7399
~~~Jill's Response~~~
Barb,
I can see that you are one who likes to analyze things! I'm quite
sure that LookSmart simply means that they want to be sure that your
site is of value to anyone who might be searching using LookSmart.
What they are trying to say is that they don't give a hoot about your
rankings, or if you can be found. They DO care that their Directory
has good sites in it that will be helpful to their visitors.
You are right, however, that they should probably have used the word
"visitors" as opposed to "consumers," to be clearer. But I'm quite
sure that's what they meant. One thing about LookSmart, from what I
have seen, is that they're not too picky about which pages they will
add to their index as long as you pay them their $199 fee. They're
much easier to get into than with Yahoo!'s biz express. They will
even accept some inner pages if you're willing to pay. However, in my
opinion, the value of a LookSmart listing, is not even close to that
of a Yahoo! listing at this time.
Your question regarding the category is another matter. If/when you
submit, choose the category that you WANT to be placed in. If you
don't, you might end up in the regional one. You still might, but at
least you will give them your thoughts on the matter. One of my main
beefs with LookSmart is how they always alter submitted descriptions,
and nearly always for the worst. Even Yahoo! usually leaves my
carefully-crafted descriptions alone; but not LookSmart. At the
Search Engine Strategies conference in Dallas, a LookSmart
representative did tell me that if you're not happy with your listing
after it's in, they will listen to your reasoning and may be willing
to change it. I have not tested whether or not this is true, however.
I believe that their submission guidelines say you can only request a
change if what they gave you is inaccurate. Since most of the
alterations that they make are not usually inaccurate (just lack
keywords), I haven't ever tried changing one with them at this time.
For your situation, if there's a good category that appears to be very
relevant to what you do, then I think you have a good shot at getting
into it. Is your business done locally or on a national level? If
it's national, you should be fine to get into the main categories. But
don't quote me on that because when dealing with these directories,
absolutely NOTHING is a sure thing! They can sometimes be very
arrogant and can do whatever they want if it's within their
guidelines. After all, it is their Directory!
Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
- 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!
