A Guide To LookListings:
Questions:
Who Are LookSmart's Users?
Why Would I Want To Be Listed On LookSmart?
Is It Worth The Money To Become Listed On LookSmart?
How Can I Create An Effective LookSmart Campaign?
Who Are LookSmart's Users?
LookSmart estimates that they have 69 million users per day. LookSmart's results are used by affiliated top portals and ISPs, including Microsoft's MSN, About.com, AltaVista, InfoSpace, Time Warner, and RoadRunner.
In LookSmart's search results, you will first see the paid advertisements, and then you will see the directory category listings. If there are no direct matches in the LookSmart database, then the results default to Inktomi results.
Why Would I Want To Be Listed On LookSmart?
A LookSmart listing can spur many of the search engine spiders to crawl to your site. Users claim that they don't even have to submit anywhere else (including Inktomi) once sites are listed in LookSmart. This is certainly something to think about.
Unrelated links to your site are only minimally helpful to achieve high search engine rankings. They may have worked in the past, but from my understanding of how the engines currently rank sites, unrelated links won't have much effect on rankings these days. What DOES seem to boost rankings in many search engines is having a good ranking in the major directories.
LookSmart cares that its Directory has good sites in it that will be helpful to its visitors.
LookSmart results are placed above Inktomi results on MSN. So if you're hoping to get a higher position on the page you will want to go with LookSmart.
No preference is given to one company over another inside the LookSmart directory. If you are a small company that has to compete in bidding wars on the other PPC search engines, then this might be a good place for you to advertise.
If your company's name starts with a "z" you might be out of luck on large listing categories.
LookSmart has an editorial policy that does not accept porn, hate, or spam pages.
Is It Worth The Money To Become Listed On LookSmart?
LookSmart is a closed directory, meaning you must pay to be included in the directory. There is a $49.00 set-up fee and a minimum $45.00 refundable account deposit for new customers. There is a fixed price of $0.15 per click, so you do not have to worry about bidding for a position. Anyone serious about having a presence on the Internet must be found in the top directories.
How Can I Create An Effective LookSmart Campaign?
LookSmart does not rely on Meta Tags, keyword density, etc. LookSmart is a human edited directory.
Make sure you have no broken links on your site. This includes broken image links. Xenu is a free link checker that will analyze your site for broken links.
LookSmart is concerned with giving their users information they need. By making sure your website is rich with content, your listings and results with LookSmart will be good. If your site has little information or content, you run this risk of being very poorly listed on LookSmart.
If you have a large amount of graphic content that causes your web page to load slowly, you may have a chance of getting dropped from the directory.
Selecting Keywords:
1. Do select product-specific, targeted keywords and phrases that are directly related to the products, services, or content available on your website. For example, if your site is for a luxury resort and spa in Miami Beach, keywords like "spa" and "Miami Beach resort" are more targeted than "hotel" and "Florida." "Audi S4 Quattro" is a more targeted keyword phrase than "car." The more targeted and specific your keywords are, the more helpful they will be in generating traffic to your site.
2. Do use keyword phrases when appropriate. Suggesting keyword phrases of two or three words can increase your site's search relevancy. For example, if your site sells camping gear, the keyword phrase "sleeping bags" is more targeted than using "sleeping" and "bags" as individual keywords. Keyword phrases on LookSmart are limited to three words in length.
3. Do use alternate spellings and acronyms. Some users may misspell product names, brand names, or other keywords when doing searches. By including alternate versions of commonly misspelled words in your relevancy keywords, you can increase the likelihood that those users will find your listing.
4. Do consider using geographic references as appropriate. The use of geographically targeted keywords can increase search relevancy for your listing. Examples: "Dentist in Seattle" is more targeted than "dentist;" and "coffee from Kona" is more targeted than "coffee."
5. Do use all 10 keywords or phrases per listing. Each specific keyword or phrase you suggest will increase your site's relevancy and the chances of driving targeted traffic to your site.
6. Don't choose superlatives as your keywords. Remember that your potential customers are searching for specific products and services, not for words such as "best" or "cheapest."
7. Don't include punctuation marks in your keywords or phrases. These will not improve your relevancy and the search algorithm will ignore them.
8. Don't infringe on the trademarks or copyrights of other businesses. Do not choose a company name unless you are that company and do not select brand names that you are not authorized to sell.
9. Don't include keywords that are pornographic, violent, or hateful in nature. Keywords that are pornographic or sexually explicit, or those that promote hate, violence, or illegal activities, will not be accepted.
10. Don't repeat keywords. Repeating keywords more than once will not improve the placement or search relevancy of your listing.
Suggested keywords are subject to verification by LookSmart editors, so make sure to select keywords that are relevant to your business. LookSmart does not guarantee that your listing will show up in search results for your selected keywords, nor does it guarantee priority placement.
LookSmart places importance on keywords in URLs as well, so if you are a payphone merchant a URL of www.payphone-marketplace.com might work well for you on LookSmart.
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 revise it.
Good optimization means your rankings will get better over time. Your hits will increase, and your ROI will increase.
Submitting to LookSmart:
LookSmart gives you two different listing options. The Small Business Option requires a $49.00 setup fee and $15.00 per month minimum. The Large Business Option has a minimum charge of $2500 per month.
After you have chosen to submit your site you will be asked to submit your relevancy keywords. You must keep the keywords that you choose to be relevant to your site or they will be disapproved. You also must choose the category that you wish to be in, but you may also leave that decision up to the editor that will review your site.
After you have completed the two steps above you will create a username and password.
Once your account has been created you will want to go into the account management center and add any other URLs or relevancy keywords that you think you will need.
Next give your credit card information, which will activate the account. A new account can take up to five business days to become active.
If your site is a not for profit, you may choose to be listed on the Zeal directory which powers much of LookSmart. This is a free service for non-profit companies.
Posted by austin at November 8, 2002 04:16 PM