Clarifying Fast PFI

What do you get, where do you appear?

[markd]

Hello everyone

As Fast has now taken another Inktomi scalp (Inktomi = MSN?) I would really appreciate some guidance on the Fast/Lycos PFI.

If I submit through Fast for their basic PFI, where are my pages likely to appear: Fast, Lycos and now HotBot?

Will my page appear 'globally', or be filtered according the it's UK, EU or .com domain through the above engines?

Is there domain filtering applicable to the users search and the engines own system. In other words, is there any advantage of paying for a .com URL/page (based on the premise that it will appear in relevant 'local' and worldwide searches) as opposed to a .co.uk which will not stand a chance of being returned against .com's in a global/international search.

Is it a question of paying/submitting pages through a .com domain AND paying for a local URL, for example through a .co.uk.

I think what I am trying to find out is exactly what you potentially get for your money and what the best strategy is for a site dependant on its domain and it's target audience. A lot of my clients are UK based (often with both .co.uk and .com domains) but target international audiences.

Finally, I do have some pages non-PFI in Fast. If I pay for limited number of PFI pages from the same domains is there any evidence that the non-PFI's will be removed in favour of those which I have paid for? I have experienced this in other similar programs.

Thanks in advance.

[heini]

Mark, Fast PFI is at the moment offered through Lycos.
It will one of these days also be available through PositionTech.

Wherever you submit - the pages you pay for go into the Fast index.
The Fast index is available to all Fast portal partners.
Fast's portal partners of course generate traffic, not ATW.

How and where your pages appear at those partners is entirely up to them.

Example: You pay for english pages. At Lycos Germany you only appear in the worldwide search option, not in the default german language search.
At Hotbot Germany OTOH defaiult search is worldwide.

In your case it's probably more a case of targeting US/UK users. Check out Fast's partners there and see how they work.

Bottomline: PFI gets your pages into Fast's index. How that index is used is up to Fast's partners worldwide.

Here's a fairly complete list of all Fast outlets
[webmasterworld.com...]

[markd]

Thanks Heini

Have you any views on non-PFI pages being removed form Fast's database if the same domain pays for a few pages?

[Rumbas]

We've had a few threads about PFI engines removing free pages once the owner put a few paid on in their db. Maybe it was just a few quirks when their programmes launched back then.

I'm fairly sure that Fast will not throw out your free pages if you sign up.

It would not be wise of them.

[markd]

So, assuming Fast partners have different algo's would it be a legitimate strategy to have pages with similar content, optimised for their major partners all in the Fast PFI?

And the above approach using a .com and a .co.uk mirror domain?

[heini]

>different algos
Fast partners don't apply different algos, they just apply filters.
A french Fast partner usually will default to results in French, and optianl searches for www. The latter would return serps identical to ATW, the first the same serps as ATW set to results from French.

[markd]

Thanks Heini

So does this mean that on www searches a .co.uk domain would be regarded as 'local' and be at a disadvantage to a .com which would be regarded as 'international/global'?