Switzerland - Schweiz - Suisse - Svizzera

3 search engines, 5 directories

[rencke]

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Switzerland - Schweiz - Suisse - Svizzera
Fact sheet [odci.gov]
Domain(s): ch
Online population: 2,4 million (33,1%) (1Q/2001)
Native language(s): German (64%), French (19%), Italian (1%), Romansch (1%) Other (9%)
Understanding of English: High
Hosts in domain: 262.500 (April 2001)
Pages in domain 5,25 million (April 2001, all languages)
Local presence required for domain registration: No
Multiple domains allowed: Yes
Professional help: See bottom of page

Known general search engines:

Altavista [altavista.ch]
Language interface: German, French, Italian 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: ?

Blu Win [search.bluewindow.ch]
Language interface: German, French, Italian, English Traffic volume: ? Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? Search technology: Altavista main index 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: Reported to generate good traffic for sites in AltaVista main index.

Lycos [ch.lycos.de]
Language interface: German, French, Italian 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:

AllesKlar [allesklar.ch]
Language interface: German Traffic volume: ? Local language(s) required: Yes Local domain(s) only: No No. of categories allowed per site: 1[/color Search technology: [color=#CE0000]? Meta description used in search replies: ?
Things that help ranking: Local language: Mandatory Local domain: No Keyword in URL: ? Keyword in title: Yes, seems to be the most important Keyword in description: ? Keyword in meta keywords: ? Keyword in header: ? Keyword in 1st paragraph: ? Other: Every site has location info associatoed (zip code, city etc.) Rank efter title.

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: ?

Search.ch [search.ch]
Language interface: German, French, Italian, English 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.ch]
Language interface: German, French, Italian 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: ?

Webindex [webindex.net]
Language interface: German 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: ?

Yoodle [yoodle.ch]
Language interface: German, French, English 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:

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Updated 24 April, 2001

Edited by: rencke

[wisser]

Hi rencke,

please move "Alles klar" to the directory section.

The following applies to all Alles Klar sites (.de .at .ch):

Language interface: German
Traffic volume: ?
Local language(s) required: Yes
Local domain(s) only: No
No. of categories allowed per site: 1
Search method: ?
Things that help ranking:
Local language: - (All sites listed are in locale language so it can't help.
Local domain: No
Keyword in URL: ?
Keyword in title: Seems to be most important
Keyword in description: ?
Other: Every site has locale information (zip code, city, etc.) associated. These informations rank directly after title.

Regards,

Ulli

[rencke]

Switzerland has now been updated. Thanks ulli.

[rencke]

Switzerland has been updated with the new tri-lingual Altavista Switzerland. Any facts known about this engine?

[rencke]

The main entry has now been updated with information supplied by msgraph here:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[rencke]

On January 22, Skirril posted this message here
[webmasterworld.com...]
----------------------------------------------

Ok, here's the thing for switzerland:
www.lycos.ch is just a localised version of lycos germany, as far as I can judge.

www.search11.ch
www.search.ch
www.bluewin.ch
are swiss portal sites, personally I get the equal number of referrals from both search.ch and bluewin.ch

Bluewin uses Altavista techology, it seems.

[go.sunrise.ch...]
german version of a portal site powered by looksmart it seems.

[rencke]

The Switzerland discussion has been updated with new statistics reflecting the recent growth in Internet usage. 33% of the population is now online.

[oLeon]

Search.ch is a portal, okay, but where get it its backup results from? I can´t find it.

[rencke]

Nor can I. Not Fast, I just checked. Keyword in url is BIG BIG BIG and that rings a bell. I have seen that somewhere. One of the major German engines??? The index is very big.

[oLeon]

Do you mean Fireball? No, i don´t think so, but I´d assume, that search.ch has its own crawler-software.

It might be a good idea to add Swiss-search [swiss-search.com], it´s the same as Austria-search, both have Inktomi as worldwide-engine (database). I don´t know any numbers about swiss-search.

[oLeon]

Did anybodey notice, that the submit at Altavista Schweiz ends on AV.com...?!

[rencke]

Seems they have decided to end auto-submission in Europe, by using the special procedure at altavista.com. Oh well, I guess it was in the cards.

[Vadian]

search.ch is a full-grown, standalone SE, featuring ODP.

Bluewin does not use AV-technology, but is AV, shown under the Bluewin header.

swisssearch.com hardly generates any traffic at all, nor does swissonline.ch.

Very important in CH (where not): Google (as in google.ch, but also as the featured SE of sunrise.ch, one of the most visited CH portals).

[rencke]

Thanks, Vadian and welcome to the European forum. Good stuff that will go into the next update. I noticed that Sunrise.ch is not a Google license holder, but just feature the search box on their site. Using it will open Google in a new window.

[Ronan]

Does any one know the top 5 search engines in Switzerland ?

[heini]

Hi Ronan, sorry for the delay. I didn´t find too much concrete info on Swiss searchengines, but from what I know the following MMXI figures meet reality.

BLUEWIN.CH 1,240 Mill. 51.1% > Altavista
MSN.COM 816 Mill. 33.7%
YAHOO.COM 514 Mill. 21.2%
MSN.CH 490 Mill. 20.2%
SEARCH.CH 477 Mill. 19.7% > google

GOOGLE.CH also has good reach.

So Altavista is a must - for how long is another question.

[heini]

Bluewin, Swiss' leading portal switches to Inktomi.
See official announcement [www1.inktomi.com].

[Ove]

Some new numbers

3.41 million online pop

46.82%

/Ove

[Onza]

Search.ch rates referring links high. Together with a clean Keyword Structure on the site, it is a pretty good site to work with. However, I think the shuffle the top sites, so they don't alway have the same ones on top. I keep falling from 1st to 11th and back again with every update. Does anybody know about this?

[heini]

Hello Onza - welcome to WmW

From what I know Search.ch underwent a complete overhaul last summer. Linkpop came into the equation. They use their own technology, right?
Spidering and updating is reported to happen several times per month, with an index of some 10 Mill sites that seems possible.
Perhaps this reshuffling of rankings is connected somehow to those regular updates? Just speculating here.

[heini]

More figures for European online usage shows Switzerland as one of the leading countries: 49% of the population uses the internet as of 2001!
http://www.ejic.org/page4.html [ejic.org]

Only matched by Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

[heini]

Anyone have experience or figures on the online shopping habits in Switzerland? I see an increasing number of qualified swiss traffic and was wondering what payment methods are preferred.
Apparently there's even Swiss PPC [webmasterworld.com] now...

[angiolo]

> what payment methods are preferred

With the Swiss market YOU can choose the preferred payment method.

Payment by Credit Card is the preferred way, but Swiss can pay easily by Postal Money order too.

[sommer]

ok - no mmxi at all - server stats show sth. like that
(but we can discuss about it...)

#1: google.ch

==============

#2: search.ch
#3: msn.ch
#4: altavista.ch

==============

#4: sear.ch (aka bluewin) (feed by inktomi)

[Onza]

I have just talked to the guys from msn.ch and they will be launching a new submit form for their own (!) Directory. Looks like all the first results are from this directory, then Allesklar.de and finally the websearch results.

Good Advice to try to get into the manually updated MSN Directory, it brings me good traffic for the sites I got listed there.

My estimated Swiss Traffic Sources:

Google.ch 55%
Search.ch 25%
MSN.ch 10%
Sear.ch / Bluewin: 10%
Altavista.. ZERO point something :)

Ohh and yes.. häätts da ine eigentlich au schwiizer?

[heini]

Wow, that's interesting, Onza. I take it the msn directory requires a swiss TLD?

[Onza]

Yes, I suppose that's the case. A bit like search.ch.

I couldn't believe it, when they asked me which sites I would suggest, and listed them about 2 hours after I e-mailed them my list with suggestions.

I'll trade the e-mail address.. :)

[Rumbas]

Interesting find Onza.

<side note>
In Denmark they have their own submission procedure [search.msn.perfion.net] as well. Ranging from 250 Euro to around 700. You can choose keywords and additional categories.
</side note>

Could it be something similar they are launching in Switzerland?

[Onza]

I don't know if it will be paid inclusion or not. At the moment however, there is a way to get in for free :)

But considering that it is microsoft I am pretty sure they will try to get some money out of it. Funny enough that it is free now.

I have a client who is the only one listed in his area, so he is laughing of course!

[Sinner_G]

My estimated Swiss Traffic Sources:

Mine look like that:

Google: 58%
MSN: 36%
AV: 3%
Yahoo: 2%
Lycos: <1%

Rest non-existent. But as search.ch is nowhere to be found, I suspect my ISP's Webtrends doesn't know about it. I would place it in 2nd place.

häätts da ine eigentlich au schwiizer?

Yes, but it doesn't mean i understand that genetical disease some call a language. ;)