Czech Republic - Ceska Republika

2 search engines, 4 directories

[rencke]

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Czech Republic - Ceska Republika
Fact sheet [odci.gov]
Domain(s): cz
Online population: 2 million, 19,4% (1q/2001)
Native language(s): Czech
Understanding of English: High
Hosts in domain: 161.300 (Apr 2001)
Pages in language: 3.18 mill (Apr 2001, all domains)
Pages in domain: 4.5 mill (Apr 2001, all languages)
Local presence required for domain registration: No
Multiple domains allowed: Yes
Professional help: See bottom of page

Known general search engines:

MSN Atlas [msn.atlas.cz]
Language interface: Czech Traffic volume: #3 Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? Search technology: ? Meta description used in search replies: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: ? Local domain: ? Keyword in URL: Yes Keyword in title: Yes Keyword in description: Yes Keyword in meta keywords: Yes. BIG! Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: Yes, all text Other: Keyword in ALT-tags help. Index time 2-3 days. Human editors.

Najdi [najdi.to]
Language interface: Czech Traffic volume: #4 Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? Search technology: ? Meta description used in search replies: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: ? Local domain: ? Keyword in URL: ? Keyword in title: Yes Keyword in description: Yes Keyword in meta keywords: Yes Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: ? Other: Keywords in ALT tags important. Human editors for index. "Prefers metatag LANG="en" to "cz". No full text indexing. Index time 5-20 days. Owned by #1 Czech ISP.

Known general directories:

Centrum [centrum.cz]
Language interface: Czech Traffic volume: ? Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? No. of categories allowed per site: ? Search method: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: ? Local domain: ? Keyword in URL: ? Keyword in title: Yes Keyword in description: ? Other: No human editors. Index time 4 days.

Seznamn [seznam.cz]
Language interface: Czech Traffic volume: #1 Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? No. of categories allowed per site: ? Search method: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: ? Local domain: ? Keyword in URL: No Keyword in title: Yes Keyword in description: Yes Other: Human editors. Index time 5-10 days. Relies heavily on keyword density.

Redbox [redbox.cz]
Language interface: Czech Traffic volume: ? Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? No. of categories allowed per site: ? Search method: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: ? Local domain: ? Keyword in URL: Yes Keyword in title: ? Keyword in description: ? Other: Using Google for web searches.

Sherlock: Closed down

Quick [quick.cz]
Language interface: Czech Traffic volume: ? Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? No. of categories allowed per site: ? Search method: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: ? Local domain: ? Keyword in URL: ? Keyword in title: ? Keyword in description: ? Other: ?

Local people who can help with translations and advise:

This area will be updated with e-mail and/or web addresses to translators and SEO specialists, who have posted a reply in this discussion. Please state your name, web and/or e-mail address, languages to/from and what you can help out with. Prices and promotional stuff will be edited out.

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Updated 24 Apr, 2001

Edited by: rencke

[NFFC]

Picked this one up as a referrer:

[redbox.cz]

The default search shows only .cz domains. Keyword in the URL seems very important for placement.

The "fulltext" search uses Google.

[rencke]

Thanks NFFC. I will make a new entry for Redbox, which looks like a pretyy ambitious portal featuring a directory and two types of searches. I tried the world search and noticed something interesting - they seem to be accessing a Google DB that is only half of the current size. Wonder if they have their own copy and haven't updated yet with Googles summer and autumn spidering? Interesting, never seen that before.

[rencke]

The main entry above has been updated with Redbox.

[backus]

Yep, Sherlock collapsed...it is no more...
Zmije...bought by Czech Telecom, now a redirect to Quick.cz...

[backus]

It came as a surprise to all when MSN came along and bought out Atlas.cz. One because Atlas was doing quite well on its own, and two after the failure of AltaVista.cz and Yahoo.cz, both those domains being sold off dirt Cheap.

Ivo Lukacovic, described as the Czech Bill Gates, started Seznam.cz in 1996, now part owned by Spray, it is the number 1 search engine for the Czech Republic.

Since MSN's takeover of Atlas, their state of things have gone from good to terrible. Now ignored, MSN suffers heavy competition from Centrum.cz (owned by Czech Telecom) and Najdi.to (Find.it) which is owned by Video On-Line, the Czech Republic's number one Internet provider.

So there you have the top 4 SEs for the Czech Republic:
1. Seznam
2. Centrum
3. MSN Atlas
4. Najdi.to

These are the details: ----Seznam----
Type: Directory
Index time: 5-10 days
Reads from: Title and Description (not Meta)
Uses Meta?: No
<NOFRAMES>?: Yes
Keywords: relies heavily on keyword density
Human editors: yes

----Centrum----
Type: Directory
Index time: 4 days
Reads from: Title
Uses Meta?: No
<NOFRAMES>?: Yes
Keywords: In the title
Human editors: no

----MSN Atlas----
Type: Directory & Engine
Index time: 2-3 days
Reads from: URL, Title Tags, Meta Tags
Uses Meta?: Yes, heavily
<NOFRAMES>?: Yes
Keywords: In text and "alt" tags
Human editors: Yes, part-time students, nights, weekends, summer

----Najdi.to----
Type: Engine
Index time: 5-20 days
Reads from: Title tags, Meta tags
Uses Meta?: Yes
<NOFRAMES>?: Yes
Keywords: In text, title, "alt" tags
Human editors: Yes
Other Info: Has abandoned the fulltext robot completely. Prefers to see LANG="en" instead of "cz". Their own people are not sure how the engine works, so it is hit and miss I'm afraid.

One thing to remember, most search engines will not take a site if they feel the same site is register, so support domains will not work. Also, try to look like you are serving the Czechs, mainly, as the search engines are a little biased.

Hope this helps.

[rencke]

Great info Backus, absolutely great!

I have checked out the engines mentioned (except msn.atlas.cz which appears to be offline) and have some questions:

You have Seznamn as a directory, yet on the site they offer a web search option: "KOMPASen" which turned out to be a part of the Seznamn site. It had a pretty good size spidered index of Czech sites. With that in mind, perhaps Seznamn should be called a search engine instead of a directory? What do you think?

The same appear to be the case for Centrum, which also offers a "Fulltextem" web search from what I believe might be their own spidered index. A search engine rather than directory?

Najdi on the other hand appears to be searching their own and very small directory only, so I would tend to call them a directory. As you point out, they have abandoned fulltext spidering alltogether. (Btw: Why did they select Tonga for domain? Does najdi.to mean anything in Czech?)

I have updated the main entry for the Czech Republic [webmasterworld.com] with your information so far.

The interface language for all three was Czech and I noticed with some amusement that not all of them could support Czech letters such as in "Švédsko". That must make life a bit hard in your country ;)

In the main entry we have also the directories Redbox, featuring Google search, Sherlock and Zmije. Do you know anything about these directories? Also: Submission rules. Can we assume that all of these take only sites in .cz or will they accept dot-coms if they are in the Czech language?

[backus]

They'll all accept .coms in English, but they are cz biased.
Regarding Zmije - now Quick.cz. Sherlock I believe went bankrupt awhile ago. Google is not the real google I don't think.
Najdi = find, to = it.
Seznam is Czech for Directory. E.g. Telefonni seznam = Telephone Directory - It is a directory. 2nd - Centrum prides itself on being called a directory, both of those follow Yahoo...

[rencke]

>They'll all accept .coms in English, but they are cz biased.
More good info. That is really valuable.

Should I make a new separate entry in the Czech overview for KOMPASen? It is certainly a search engine and does reside on the country's #1 site, so it has to be of particular interest to us here.

Re: Redbox. Oh yes, it is the real Google all right, and they use their own version of the index, not the latest though. I would guess it is about 6 months old, judging from its size.

Checked out Quick.cz They too appear to have a spidered index of considerable size based on their own technology. Will they take dot-coms in Czech too?

[backus]

RE: Redbox - sorry, thought you meant www.google.cz
Not sure about Kompas, but as far as I know, nobody really bothers with it...

[NFFC]

Interesting feature from the Prague Tribune on Czech portals/SE's.

Atricle here [prague-tribune.cz]

[rencke]

The Czech overview has now been updated with new statistics per April 2001.

[backus]

Re: translations...

I'm able to translate from English to Czech or vice-versa.

Contact me at [e-mail].

Name: Gary Szendzielarz

[backus]

Rencke - congrats on your thousandth post!

[wolfy]

Hi All!!!
Does anyone know where can I buy a .cz domain ?
I wait for a response.
thanks
byez

[heini]

Hi Wolfy
Exhaustive info on cz domains you´ll find at the czech nic organisation. [nic.cz] in english!
Buying domains you could go to www.domeny.cz

[wolfy]

Hi Heini,
thank you very much I'm going to see those pages.
really fast reply!!

[backus]

A few things you should know about CZ Nic. They, like most other things here, can lose your details of domain ownership with a 1000czk in the pocket. Second, make sure you have the technical update email correct, because someone can come along and over the net change your details, and you may never know about it!

If you need any help (for free :) ), just ask, I speak fluent Czech.

[backus]

In fact, regarding this topic, if anyone at all needs any help, just ask! There are very few Czech based SEO peeps here, so I'll be only too happy to help!

[wolfy]

Thanks again Backus,
I'll surely contact you if I'll need help :)

byez

[backus]

Centrum.cz is now providing a fulltext search service called WebFast. You can visit it here:
[webfast.cz ]

[heini]

Interesting. Two questions:
Is this a new search facility, or just a new domain for the old fulltext search at centrum, [fulltext.centrum.cz...] - results seem identical.

Is it .cz domains and czech language exclusively now? I couldn't find anything else

[backus]

Question 1: Yes, I think it is. I think they realise that Czechs generally are using Google, as it is in Czech when you access it from the Czech Republic, so they want to rival it.

Question 2: I don't think Centrum was ever exclusively .cz domains...not sure.