[thelist] Popular search engines

Janet Green JGreen at desmoinesmetro.com
Wed Feb 20 15:24:00 CST 2002


>>>Is there a list anywhere of the most popular search engines (like a top 5
based on searches made or something).  I'd like to show my boss that getting
a number one spot in some rinky dink European portal search is not the big
woo-hah he claims it is.<<<


Michael, a number one spot in a rinky dink European portal search is absolutely invaluable if that's where your site's visitors will go to look for you :) Point being, don't discredit some of the "minor" search engines just because you as a web surfer haven't heard of them or don't use them. Always keep your site visitor's needs in mind.

Having said that, I just went through my own twice-yearly search engine optimization (SEO) process last week, and my 'net resources tell me that the critical SE's these days are:

Directories: Yahoo and LookSmart
Crawlers: Alta Vista and Inktomi

To this list I added Google (because it feeds Yahoo and because my web traffic report tells me I get a lot of traffic from BOTH Google and Yahoo), and DMOZ (because it feeds AOL and others, and we get a TON of traffic from AOL users).

My advice is to look over your traffic reports and discover what engines people are already using to find you... do a little reading at www.searchenginewatch.com to see what they recommend (don't be surprised to learn that the SE business is leaning toward paid submissions these days)... and compile a short tailored list so you can focus your efforts on optimizing your rankings in the places where it matters to your company. And, don't be afraid to list with that rinky dink European portal if it suits your audience ;)

Best,
Janet


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