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There are not problems with the sites themselves, some free submits are showing that have been in there for quite a while. It's just the Ink paid pages.
I haven't noticed any change but then I haven't kept a precise record of the AOL traffic.
I do tend to design my pages for non-competitive or mildly competitive keyword phrases. Maybe that's why they haven't seemed to have taken a dive.
I went to search.aol and looked at "how to submit a site" it says it uses dmoz.org..
I also went to inktomi and I couldn't find a way to submit my site.
How does inktomi work and how does aol, hotbot etc. play into this?
Thanks!
Weren't we all! And there never stops being questions, netqus.
Inktomi is a search "tool" or search engine entity,so to speak, with a database with data and an algorithm, but they don't function as an independent entity as a search engine.
Rather, there are a lot of partner sites that use the Inktomi data, applying their own twist to the algorithm and in some cases combining the results with those from different sources. i.e., AOL is Ink and OP. But not all of the partner sites have the capability to take submissions.
MSN has a submit page that's impossible to find; the one most generally used is HotBot.com for free submission to the Inktomi database. Then theoretically when pages are added to the Ink database they're available to all the partner sites, each of which operates on its own update schedule and adding a bit of their own criteria in the scoring.
That is just theory, though. The general concensus now is that while it appears Ink is taking free submits, the pages are not actually added. It's become necessary to pay to get pages in. Even though the Ink spider still does visit unpaid sites, you'd be hard put to find anyone that had any pages added without having to pay.
There was a time pages were being added by being found through a link from a site already in Ink, but there is no evidence of that still happening.
You can submit through Hotbot, but you'll pretty much have to count on paying to actually be included. Within the limits of my personal experience, if a site will have appreciable traffic from AOL or MSN it can be worth every penny if the pages are well optimized and do well. There's a strategy to it though, depending on whether the page will be buried under loads of LookSmart listings at MSN. Choosing the right keywords is very important, as is checking the results for each search phrase being considered.
A number of different companies accept Ink paid submissions. I've been very pleased, having used a couple of them. This past week I submitted some additional pages from a site, and within 2-3 days they appeared at MSN and AOL both (unusual to be that quick with both) and there's not a complaint in the world, doing nicely, so it was money well spent. Inktomi is easier to optimize for than Google in a way, and the 48 hour respidering gives frequent opportunity to do some tweaking where necessary. Being added and seeing the inclusion show up that quickly is not always the case, though. Whether it's worth doing depends on the search terms, the site and the optimization.
Give HotBot a try for submitting free, just in case; it can't hurt. But read through the Inktomi forum here for background, especially on how to optimize for Inktomi.
More than likely you will get into one of the INK dbs doing this but that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.
There are no loops hole in INK and never really were. Not GOO, not hotbot, - none.
I think - but don't know for sure that INK is still picking up non-commercial pages for the main db. But if you have something commercial and don't want to pay count on being on the bottom of the barrel.
-s-
>picking up non-commercial pages
I wonder how they can tell, if there aren't any indications of ordering or prices on a given page. But I'll submit a couple of old, strictly non-commercial sites to see. No mistaking those.
