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One day, my site will appear in regular search, but not advanced search... the next day it will appear in advanced but not regular search... for 10 minutes the day after that, it will appear in both...
I've given up on Lycos. I've emailed their support team repeatedly about the disappearing/reappearing act my site keeps pulling, and their replies make me think their thumbs are up their you-know-whats... they have no idea what I'm talking about.
I doubt they understand their own indexing/ranking system... how the hell can I figure it out?
I use AlltheWeb as a backup for Google, simply because I get different (but still good) results, and both engines have simple, clean, non-portal interfaces.
I don't use Lycos for anything anymore.
Main results come from Open Directory (if applicable)...so make sure your site is listed in DMOZ...
Secondary results come from Fast
Some results from Direct Hit
Sponsored Results from GoTo
Perform keyword searches and find out where the results are coming from for your category so you will know where to concentrate your efforts.
That's about the best advice there is for Lycos. As stated you have GoTo, DirectHit, Lycos spamming their own index and DMOZ listings before you even get to the Fast results.
As for GoTo the same rules apply as elsewhere, will the ROI be acceptable, if so go for it.
DirectHit is just time, they are so slow to update.
Have a close look at the where Lycos are pulling from when they drop their particular brand of spam, you *may* be able to place something there.
DMOZ, again Lycos are very slow to update.
Fast, currently quick and easy. As 2_much say's run some searches, see what will pull directly from Fast and there will be a good range of keywords to target, none of them killer traffic drivers but they add up!
A quick example:
Cell Phones [lycos.com], the Fast results are buried so look at related keywords/phrases while waiting for your DirectHit/Dmoz strategy to pay off, cellphone dealers [lycos.com] etc etc.
>the Lycos KITI keyword programme?
Can't say I have, if you go for yanton I would be very interested in the results. ;)
Macguru, I agree that those results are not great. Having said that when there are so few pages containing a term they will tend to throw everything they have at the SERP's.