Italy - Italia

9 search engines, 11 directories

[rencke]

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Italy - Italia
Fact sheet [odci.gov]
Domain(s): it
Online population: 16,8 million (23,3%) (2Q/2001)
Native language(s): Italian, German, French, Slovene
Understanding of English: ?
Hosts in domain: 949.100 (April 2001)
Pages in domain: 8,74 mill (April 2001, all languages)
Pages in language: 9,78 mill (April 2001, all domains)
Local presence required for domain registration: Yes
Multiple domains allowed: No
Professional help: See bottom of page

Known general search engines:

AltaVista Italia [it.altavista.com]
Language interface: 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: ?

Arianna [arianna.iol.it]
Language interface: Italian Traffic volume: 26 mill pageviews/month Local language(s) required: Yes Local domain(s) only: No Search technology: Own + world results provided by Direct Hit Meta description used in search replies: No
Things that help ranking: Local language: Mandatory Local domain: Yes Keyword in URL: Yes Keyword in title: Yes Keyword in description: No Keyword in meta keywords: No Keyword in header: Yes Keyword in 1st paragraph: Yes Other: Registration abt 30 days. Spider checks indexed pages once a week. Doaes not read meta tags, but checks for keyword relevance anywhere on page. MetaRobots tag not read, only robots.txt. Database of abt 4,5 million pages in Italian - just about 100% of total.

Excite [excite.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

Italian WebSPACE [italianwebspace.com]
Language interface: 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: ?

Jumpy [jumpy.it]
Language interface: Italian Traffic volume: ? Local language(s) required: ? Local domain(s) only: ? Search technology: Google 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: Uses Google's global index. Very popular due to connection with Italy's Channel 5, showing docu soap 'Big Brother' online

Katalogo [katalogo.kataweb.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

Lycos Italia [lycos.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

TecnoSeek [tecnoseek.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

Voila [it.voila.com]
Language interface: 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:

ABC-Italia [abcitaly.com]
Language interface: 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: ?

CVZ [cavarzano.com]
Language interface: 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: ?

Iltrovatore [iltrovatore.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

Ischianet Search [ischianet.com]
Language interface: 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: ?

Multisoft [search.multisoft.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

Ragnoitaliano [ragno.plugit.net]
Language interface: 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: ?

Sharelook [sharelook.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

Shinyseek! [shinyseek.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

superEva [supereva.it]
Language interface: 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: ?

Virgilio [virgilio.it]
Language interface: Italian Traffic volume: 25 million page views per month Local language(s) required: Yes Local domain(s) only: No Search technology: Own Meta description used in search replies: Yes
Things that help ranking: Local language: Yes, mandatory Local domain: No Keyword in URL: No Keyword in title: Yes Keyword in description: Yes Keyword in meta keywords: No Keyword in header: No Keyword in 1st paragraph: No Other: Sites are reviewed and accepted by human editors after submission (approx delay 60 days). Virgilio has its own directory of approx. 100,000 italian sites, but uses ODP (Open Directory Project) data for its world wide directory of non-italian language sites and offers Google search for web pages

Yahoo Italy [it.yahoo.com]
Language interface: 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: ?

Local people who can help with translations and advise:

Ettore Peyrot at [e-mail] translates English, French, Spanish and Russian into Italian and does SEO for the Italian market.

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.

The easy way to post a reply: Copy from above, click button, paste and change.

Updated 13 June, 2001

(edited by: rencke on 4:09 pm (gmt) on June 13, 2001

[ettore]

re:Janas

Thank you Jan, Janas well deserves a new entry in the list.

Tiscali was founded in 1998 following the liberalisation of the Italian telecommunications market, and was initially established as a regional telephone operator and Internet Service Provider in Sardinia, before expanding its operations throughout Italy. In March 1999, through the launch of Italy's first free internet access service, Tiscali made a significant contribution to the development of the Italian internet market and established itself as a first mover.

Tiscali has evolved from being a national telecommunications operator, into an integrated pan-European company with a presence in all the major European countries.

The recent merge with WorldOnline will surely affect both the quality and the quantity of services offered. At present, www.worldonline.com redirects to www.tiscali.com, the international Tiscali site.

Janas is at present used for most local versions of Tiscali/WOL sites, but other SE are still used in some others (Nomade for the French version, Looksmart for Netherlands, etc.). I am sure they will consolidate around Janas sooner or later. Let's remember that Tiscali is pursuing sort of an "AOL-like pan-European strategy", offering paid and free ISP and community services (along with mobile telecommunications), and thus building up a widespread web community. I wouldn't therefore be surprised to see Janas becoming a major European SE.

Sure, it's something to consider/watch very closely, and be prepared to have something new to discuss in other SEO threads around, too.

Full text twice in post. Deleted one occurrence. - rencke

(edited by: rencke on 7:35 am (gmt) on June 14, 2001

[wolfy]

re:agerhart

If you pass from Florence and want to know some tips let me know.

p.s. have a nice vacation in our beautiful country!!!

[wolfy]

Re: Rencke ,Agerhart

<Only 38% of the Italians understand English.>

that's right but depends on the cities you're going to visit ( in Rome, Florence, Venice and quite all middle towns you should find someone speaking English, well Italianized English )

<Have you learned the necessary phrases yet? Here are two: Sono amerikano (I am American). Scusi, dove il una cabinetto? (Excuse me, where is the toilet?) The possible answers are: a destra (to the right, a sinistra (to the left) or al fondo (straight ahead). >

Here is the right spelling :

Sono americano

Scusi dov'è il gabinetto

a destra ( was right )

a sinistra ( was right too )

in fondo

bye
wolfy

[Eric_Jarvis]

the essential phrase I found was

"me dispiace, sono Inglese, parlo Italiano solo uno poco"

which may not be spot on but always bought me time to think :)

[angiolo]

From a famous newspaper (LaRepubblica).

Boom for Internet.

In the month of May more than 8 millions people (in Italy) connected to the net: + 6,48 % compared to April.

63 % Men
37 % Women

The time spent in the month of May:

Men: about 8 hours
Women: about 4h 30'

Preferred sites:

- News
- Institutional & Governative sites

[cyberax]

I would just like to clarify the points made at the top of this page regarding multiple domains and the local presence requirement for Italian domains.

All EU citizens and companies are able to register an Italian domain name, not just those native of Italy.

As for multiple domains; individuals may register 1 .it domain, whereas businesses (that is companies and VAT registered traders) may register as many Italian domains as they like.

When you register an .it name you will need to supply either:

1. your National Insurance (or Social Security) number if you an individual, or

2. your Company Number if you are a limited company, or

3. your VAT (or IVA) number if you are a VAT registered trader.

If you would like any further information on Italian domains then let me know.

[msgraph]

Since yesterday I'm just starting to get some hits from my Google listings on search.supereva.it.

All English-lang. searches and the hits are small so they might turn out pretty well for Italia language searches.

Did they just add Google as their source or has it been like this for some time?

[angiolo]

>Did they just add Google as their source or has it been like this for some time>

They habe been using Google since the beginning.

[heini]

Figures from Nielsen / Netratings
world internet access [eratings.com]
and
hot-of-the-net-July [nielsennetratings.com]

Italy:

Online population: 18,697,197

active users: 8,321,314

online time/month 5:48

online shopping:
10% % of adults (+16) browsing for products online
3% adults purchasing online

[rencke]

Good stuff, heini. So: The Italian online population keeps growing rapidly. I am curious about one thing. Perhaps one of our Italian members can answer it:

I understand that there is a substantial cultural difference between the heavily industrialized north and the more agriculturally oriented south, with the dividing line running somewhere south of Firenze. Would it be a reasonable guess, that this extends to the Internet as well? I.e. northern Italy has about the same percentage online as e.g. Germany, while southern Italy is more like Spain or Portugal.

The per capita income is much higher in the north than in the south, so from an e-marketing point of view, one should really be looking at two distinctly different geographical markets - one with a population of X with perhaps 35% being online and one with a population of Y with perhaps 12% online.

Any thoughts on this anyone?

[Eric_Jarvis]

my experience is limited, but I would have thought that a simple North South divide doesn't really tell the whole story for Italy...it seems to be a very diverse country

you may as well separate the UK into Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Northern England and Southern England...or France into Paris and the rest

[angiolo]

> I would have thought that a simple North South divide doesn't really tell the whole story for Italy...>

I agree with Eric_Jarvis.

Unfortunately I have no figures; I think that in Rome a lot of people are online: there is the biggest Internet-cafè in Italy too.

There is an Italian Region, in the South, called Puglia (or Apulia): we call Puglia the "Lombardia" of the South.
(Lombardia is the richest region of north Italy)

In South Italy, that is not so rich, there are skilled web marketer doing a good job for small companies: they are used to get the most for the less.

[namniboose]

Il Trovatore needs a local domain

[heini]

Thanks, namniboose, will update overview accordingly.
Obtaining a local domain seems to be possible for all EU webmasters. Perhaps we should look into dot.coms in italian language - is this an alternative for targeting Italy ?

[ettore]

>>is this an alternative for targeting Italy ?

Sure it is. Dot coms are accepted by all major SEs and directories in Italy, and - as far as I know - all specialized vortals.

[angiolo]

Italian companies and European companies (EEC) as well, can register as many .it dominions as they want.

A single person (Italian or EEC European) that doesn't have a VAT code can only register one .it dominion.

Associations (for example no-profit association like a "fan club") that do not have a fiscal code or a VAT code, can only register one dominion.

See the Italian Registration Authority:

[nic.it...]

[heini]

So folks, you know your way to Italy - .it when from EU, .com from elsewhere.
I´ve been checking figures for Italy lately: msn is always in the top10 for PI and visitors. Any info on that?

Oh, and where is Fast in Italy?

[davide]

Fast powers Inwind, Wind portal.

Wind is the third tlc company in Italy

[heini]

Thanks davide!

any info on inwind.it [inwind.it]?
I see a directory with clickthrough rates given - where does the data come from, how does this clickthrough measurement work?

[angiolo]

>Fast powers Inwind, Wind portal. >

If you choose to relate your search to "Italy" (In Italia) it will display only pages with some Italian content.

If you choose "nel mondo"
(in the world), you have the same main FAST results.

[heini]

A survey [europemedia.net] on European online advertising reports Italy being the most active market with a significant growth in number of campaigns and advertisers between 06/00 and 06/01.
Added to the growth in numbers of internet access from home it appears Italy is one of the most vital online markets in Europe.

[heini]

Not only does the Italian internet population grow, also the number of pages under TLD .it is growing rapidly.
Il Trovatore, who is just test-running a new spider claims to have found 30 million dynamic pages and 16 million static pages.
BTW: Iltrovatore is not only a directory, but also a spidering SE. For worldwide search they act as meta engine using: Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Hotbot, Alltheweb, Dmoz-ODP, Excite, MSN.
For Italy they have their own spider, that crawls dynamic pages also?

[NFFC]

>Not only does the Italian internet population grow, also the number of pages under TLD

More here:

[www1.europemedia.net...]

[wolfy]

I discovered a classification about the most visited sites in Italy in October, it seems Italians like very much portals in fact the first six are portals and in the first 13, 11 are portals too.
If you want to see the table go to [mytech.mondadori.com...]
and click on the little image ( classifica generale ) under the title "CLASSIFICHE IN RETE
I Siti Internet in Italia: chi sono i magnifici 20? "

It's all in Italian but not the numbers :)

bye bye

[charliek]

Hi,

I've been trying to submit my Italian site to Virgilio and can't find the add url page. With my limited Italian, I think I worked out that you have to register to submit a URL. Does anyone know if this is definitely the case? Also if anyone could post the address of the Add URL page...?

Thanks

K

[wolfy]

Hi Charliek,
to submit a site to Virgilio you need to go here
[wmc.virgilio.it...]

you also need to register at virgilio webmaster club on the same page clicking on the button "registrati a WMC", it's a long process and normally they take several months before introducing your web site. Howeever Virgilio displays also results from Google ( up on the right side in a search results there's the link "google" ).

Have luck!!

[charliek]

Thanks for that information Wolfy. Do you know where IOL get their results from or how to submit? I've been looking around the site, but can't seem to find the submit url page - is it Arianna who provide the search results? Or are they one and the same?

Thanks again ;-)

K

[wolfy]

Yes you're right IOL is powered by Arianna. They are the same thing.

Here is the address where you can submit your site

[arianna.iol.it...]

you have even an help page [arianna.iol.it...]

Byez

wolfy

[Mikel]

A couple of corrections to the Virgilio information. I run an english language travel site which has three seperate links in Virgilio (none of which are in ODP), so it's not essential that your site is in Italian.

Secondly, all these links are hidden behind [virgilio.it...] counter scripts so it doesn't look like listings in Virgilio do much for your Google link popularity rating.

Thirdly, I'd agree that getting a good listing here really can do a lot for your site. The page that my links are on was featured quite heavily on the Virgilio home page for a couple of days, and it generated about three/four times more traffic than Google for that time period ( Google is normally my best by quite a way).

[heini]

Hi Mikel welcome to the European forums here at WebmasterWorld

Non italian sites in the italian directory? I'd expect them being the rare exception. Scanning through some cats I didn't find any. There were however some bilingual sites inbetween.
Virgilio features also an international directory - siti mondiali - which utilizes portions of the odp dump.