Belgium - Belgique - Belgie

6 search engines, 7 directories

[rencke]

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Belgium - Belgique - Belgie
Fact sheet [odci.gov]
Domain(s): be
Online population: 2,7 million (26,4%) (1Q 2001)
Native language(s): Dutch, French, German
Understanding of English: High
Hosts in domain: 315 400 (Jul 2000)
Pages in domain: 2,26 million (Sep 2000, all languages)
Local presence required for domain registration: No
Multiple domains allowed: Max 3
Professional help: See bottom of page

Known general search engines:

Advalvas [advalvas.be]
Language interface: Dutch, French Traffic volume: ? Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? Search technology: Altavista? Meta description used in search replies: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: ? Local domain: ? Keyword in URL: ? Keyword in title: ? Keyword in description: ? Keyword in meta keywords: ? Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: ? Other: ?

Ilse [ilse.be]
Language interface: Flemish Traffic volume: ? 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: ? Keyword in description: ? Keyword in meta keywords: ? Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: ? Other: ?

Lycos Benelux [be.lycos.de]
Language interface: Flemish, French Traffic volume: ? 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: ? Keyword in description: ? Keyword in meta keywords: ? Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: ? Other: ?

Search Belgium [search-belgium.com]
Language interface: English, Flemish, French Traffic volume: ? 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: ? Keyword in description: ? Keyword in meta keywords: ? Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: ? Other: ?

Skynet [skynet.be]
Language interface: Dutch, French, English Traffic volume: ? Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? Search technology: Altavista + Own directory Meta description used in search replies: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: ? Local domain: ? Keyword in URL: ? Keyword in title: ? Keyword in description: ? Keyword in meta keywords: ? Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: ? Other: ?

Voila [be.voila.com]
Language interface: French Traffic volume: ? 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: ? Keyword in description: ? Keyword in meta keywords: ? Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: ? Other: ?

Known general directories:

Clickx! [clickx.be]
Language interface: Dutch 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: Portal

Euregio.net [euregio.net]
Language interface: English, French, German, Flemish 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: ?

Francité [guide.francite.net]
Language interface: French 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: ?

Sharelook [sharelook.be]
Language interface: French 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: ?

Webbel [webbel.be]
Language interface: English, Flemish, French 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: ?

WebWatch [webwatch.be]
Language interface: English, Flemish, French 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: ?

Yucom [yucom.be]
Language interface: Dutch, French 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: Portal

Local people who can help with translations and advise:

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Updated Apr 23, 2001

Edited by: rencke

[NFFC]

Belgium seems a bit quiet rencke, maybe this news will liven things up!

Belgians register 45,000 domain names in 2 weeks [europemedia.net]

[rencke]

That's really interesting. Thanks NFFC. Rules are relaxed and in just two weeks the number of domain registrations double. Reminds me of the situation in Sweden, where overly strict rules caused 60% of all domains to be registered in .com and .nu The rules have been relaxed recently, but too late I think.

[rencke]

Two major search engines (Advalvas and Skynet) and two popular directories have been added to the overview, which has also been updated with new statistics per April.

[Damian]

You may also want to add altavista.be

I'm not sure when they opened, think it was somewhere last month. Good traffic judging by our logs.

[fcu]

as far as i know, their are no search engines for Belgium, except then for regional 'editions' of international search engines as [altavista.be...]

All the 'Belgian' so-said search engines are in fact directories. The most used and well-known are Advalvas, webbel and skynet (webindex). Also the magazine Clickx is working on a larege directory.

[rencke]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld fcu. I hope you will like our "University of Search Engine Optimization".

I checked Advalvas and Skynet yesterday and both work with a spidered index. Advalvas may be using Altavista 3.0 software, and perhaps a part of their index, I am not sure. But it is definitely a search engine. Skynet states that they are using Altavista, but the search replies are different from Altavista's, so there is something special. We usually define a search engine as one that has a spidered index, while directories only search their own index. Skynet is a border case, I admit.

Clicx was added yesterday under "Known directories" above.

[Bobby79]

Hello everybody,

search-belgium is a very small search engine, about 700 visitors a day.

[rencke]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Bobby79. I hope you will like this place which offers more hard info on search engines than any other site on the web.

I checked out Search-Belgium and noticed that they offer their interface in Dutch, French and English. The index appears to be extremely small - is this a new engine just starting up? And is it a search engine or is it a directory? When I checked, I got 9 search replies for a word that gives almost 4 million hits in Google and they were all related to categories in the directory. I could not find any trace of a spidered index.

I also noted lots of different domains - .com, .net, .org, .be and other European domains so it seems that Search-Belgium is prepared to index the whole world.

Do you or anyone else know anything more about Search-Belgium?

[Bobby79]

Search-engine.com is very small, they are active sinds 2 march. I think it's a non-professional site. They offer a directory as well as an index. They index your submitted site in a second, but if you add more url's from the same page they'll get you out of there index. I never got any traffic from them, so i don't give them any attention any more.

I'am a Dutch guy who is trying to get traffic to a site, i'am doing this for 2 months now, and i'am getting in to it. This site is very good if you are looking for specified information.

[NFFC]

Nielsen NetRatings are now reporting on Belgium and Luxembourg.

Initial report [in PDF format] is here [209.249.142.22].

[rencke]

Well spotted NFFC!

So, Nielsen/NetRatings' first report on Belgium/Luxemburg shows that 1.639.000 are online and the following ranking for the search engines: (other sites in the top 10 not shown here)

1. MSN.be 887.333 unique audience
3. Yahoo.be 782.605
5. Lycos.be 636.484
6. Tiscali = worldonline.be 450.984 (Fast search used)
7. Altavista.be 439.041
8. Wanadoo 426.909 portal with Echo onboard
10. AOL.be 408.018

A word of caution: The figures are for "properties" rather than sites, and so may reflect a lot of traffic other than search engine usage. Still, this is a very useful information for a country about which not much has been known so far. Searchenginewise, that is.

[Snipper]

I'm a SEO in Belgium and just wanted to give you some updated info about Belgian SE's.

Advalvas:
- 30.000 visitors / day
- Uses directory for local results
- Uses AltaVista for www results
- Will lay off 40 employees (23/8)

Planet Internet:
- 40.000 visitors / day
- Uses Looksmart for Directory results
- Uses Inktomi for www results

Skynet:
- 100.000 visitors / day
- Uses own directory for local results
- Uses AltaVista for www results

Search Belgium:
- 500-1000 visitors /day
- Uses only own directory
- Uses Ms Access as DB...

Ilse.be:
- Copy of the NL site.

Clickx.be:
- 8000 visitor / day
- Uses HotRate (!) as results.

There are no SE which uses a spider to index anymore (advalvas used to do this).

Most of my visitors come through be-nl.Altavista.com or Google.

Google AdWords Ads have a high click through rate for Belgium customers (4.7%) and somewhat lower for NL customers (2.7%)

[rencke]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, snipper. I and my fellow moderators hope you will like this place.

This is great stuff you are bringing! At long last we are getting a firm grip on the search engine scene in Belgium. So - Skynet is the big one, with the others way behind. Would you happen to know how the big international engines are doing in Belgium? Like Google and Altavista for example. The Nielsen/Netratings figures are a bit difficult to interpret, since they list properties rather than sites.

If all Belgian engines have stopped spidering, does that mean that they rely 100% on submissions or do they use the index of other engine, like Skynet - which I understand relies on AltaVista.

The extremely high clickthrough rate for Google would be interesting for the people who are discussing Adwords in the Google forum right now. Why not post that info there too?

[Snipper]

Thanks Rencke.

Sorry for the late reply, but have been quit busy with a new project.

To recap: The Belgian search engine rely 100% on user submissions for the local directory (Belgian) results. While you still have the option to search the World using their secundary search (AV, LS, Ink)

Some new stats:

Active online during last three months (in Millions) - July 2001
------------------------------------
Belgium: 1.5
France: 5.4
Germany: 15.1
Italy: 8.3
Netherlands: 4.5
Spain: 3.9
Sweden: 5.5
UK: 13

Have access to the internet (in Millions) - July 2001
------------------------------------
Belgium: 3.6
France: 11.1
Germany: 27.9
Italy: 18.6
Netherlands: 8.6
Spain: 7.3
Sweden: 5.2
UK: 23.8

Top sites in Belgium - March 2001
---------------------------------
MSN
Belgacom (=Skynet)
Yahoo!
Microsoft
Lycos
Tiscali (uses Fast)
KPN

Top Portal sites - April 2001
(Unique Visitors Daily)
-----------------------------
Skynet: 115.000
Planet Internet: 47.000
Advalvas: 38.000
Yucom: 18.000
VT4: 13.000
Wanadoo: 11.000
Clickx: 7.000
Tiscali + WOL: 5.200

Online Ad Revenues (in Mill. Euros)
-----------------------------------
Belgium: 21.6
Eu: 943

[heini]

Thanks snipper
with skynet, No.1 SE relying on AV, the searchengine scene in Belgium doesn´t look too promising right now. I wonder how they can hold their marketshare with results that are basically not updated since April. My guess - as suggested also by your figures - is that people in Belgique just like the Dutch are rather advanced internet users. I´d expect them to move to Lycos and Tiscali, using Fast db, and also to Google?

[Damian]

Something has changed at skynet some weeks ago.
They still use AV technology it seems but results are very different to be.altavista.com.
I never studied skynet before so I can't tell what the situation was like before. I do know that before this change I received lots of traffic from be.altavista.com and virtually none from skynet. Now both sites send a lot of traffic.

Sites that do well in be.altavista.com also often do well at skynet, but there are large differences. Skynet does not cluster results but that's not all there's to it. Looks like different databases to me, but even that does not explain the differences.
Skynet generally has less results, even while not clustering.

Does anyone know more about the alta - skynet relation / difference ?

BTW. Ilse.be is no copy of ilse.nl and never was as far as I know.
It is a different database. They do offer the option to search in pages from the netherlands nowadays.

[heini]

Thanks Damian
seems like they are applying filters - but what for?

>different databases - never heard about different AV dbs. AV has merged all country dbs into the main db. I guess it´s a question of what their local sites and their partners get out of this main db.

[Damian]

Aside from the different results, I suspect a different database because I have seen this skynet spider come by very often:

195.238.3.198
host: decker.skynet.be
ua: AltaVista Intranet V2.0 www.skynet.be [e-mail]

[Damian]

I'm getting some traffic from alltheweb.be since a few days, just a few hits.
The results are identical to alltheweb.com, but looking at the site and whois, it is not run by Fast I bet.

[heini]

Just researching on Belgium, wondering what has changed over the last months.
Belgium seems to be very well connected, with over 600.000 adsl connections a top online country in Europe.
So what are the top visited/referring SEs and portals today?