S.E.'s or Directories?

[namniboose]

Can someone tell me if Aesop and QuestFinder are search engines or directories? (no success in getting this info out of them).

The National Directory has robots which spider your site. I thought only search engines did that?

Also, is 'What's Nu' an FFA site?

Thanks for help!
Confused from Catatonia

[Marcia]

Dear Confused,

Aesop calls themselves a search engine and so does Questfinder, so I guess we can take their word for it, in the absence of any contrary evidence. ;)

The reason directories would spider is to check for dead links, which they do.

I don't know about What's Nu, but probably the best source of finding directories and resources for linking is to go through categories at ODP, probably the most important place to be listed. I bet there are a lot of specialized directories to be listed in, not specifically your business, but where opportunities for cross-interest would be possible.

Marcia
Catatonic in California

[namniboose]

Hi Marcia,
aka Catatonic of California

I know that the National Directory takes its results from the Open Directory but its 'add URL' page makes it look like a search engine. Should I submit monthly to it?Or is it purely a directory?

And do you know if Aesop takes monthly submissions? (when I tried to re-submit it told me I couldn't because I had already submitted).

Thanks,
Getting Less Confused

[Marcia]

I would not worry too much over National Directory. Yes, they're using ODP results, but on their add URL page, there's submit form in the middle of the page surrounded by one to submit to 1,500 search engines and another to 50,000 search engines. Neither is plausible or advisable, which makes me wonder why they are all on that page. Makes me go hmmmm.

I'd just let them find me through ODP and forego submitting there. I don't believe I've ever seen mention of them bringing any traffic, and I'm just a little paranoid about turning email harvesters loose. Not saying it would, mind you, but I'd rather stay with the known search engines and directories and any possible links from content-rich relevant web sites that don't have any suspicious or blatant hype.

Just mho, but I believe that the best way to continue to promote a site is to do continued keyword research and content development, to help a site be found under more and more relevant keyword phrases. Concentrating on the major search engines to improve rankings, as well as increasing the number of search terms found under, seems the simplest way to increase traffic. The basics really do work when they're applied.

If Aesop didn't take the submission, I'd forget it. And do_not put their meta tag on your page. I haven't heard about them generating traffic either, it's not worth concerning yourself over. Besides, the "really" good search engines go out looking for sites to index because they want to increase the size of their database.

If it's a *lot* of search engines you'd like to be found on, check out the FAST forum here and see how many partners they've got. They're world-wide, and their database is used by more search venues than you can count, globally. One good, well-reputed search engine with a wide reach is worth more than a 100 small ones with limited scope or usefulness.

Added:
Specialized topical directories are a different story. It would pay to hunt some of those down to list with, to attract people with special interests that are related to what you're offering.

Also, what I mean by content development is researching the important related topics with good keywords, writing a bit of text and adding pages to the site targeted to ranking for the particular phrase.

[namniboose]

Thanks for the advice. I sometimes lose sight of the forest by looking too closely at the trees! And the trees can be very annoying!