Lycos, MSN and AltaVista rankings

why should I care?

[flexsez]

Boy am I glad I found this site! Tons of great info.

I have spent the last few weeks tinkering with my website submitting it to Inktomi, FAST and Altavista (all thru paid inclusion).

My listing in MSN thru Inktomi is doing rather well in the rankings and clicks but I have been struggling with getting clicks from AV with a 13 rank for my keyword.

And don't even get me started with Lycos...there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for their search results.

Uh oh! I am rambling. I actually have a question....

Of the paid inclusion spiders, which of them are worth their weight for clicks? I can barely get a click thru from AV where as the INK listing in MSN is doing great.

Should I even bother worrying about AV and Lycos or just concentrate on getting good ranking in google and get my DMOZ listing accepted?

[rfgdxm1]

I've got INCREDIBLE SERPS on msn.com and Lycos for the key words I target. Even the #1 spot at Lycos for the trademark name of a pharmaceutical over the manufacturer. I get quite a few hits from msn.com to my site, but nowhere near as many as Google. Hits from Lycos are way below msn.com, leading me to think that if one were limited in the money that they can throw at search engines, Inktomi is where to put it first. I get very little traffic from Altavista. The fact I'm bottom of page 1 at Altavista for my main keywords may have something to do with that. However, from what I have read from people with great SERPs at Altavista, traffic is minimal. I don't think many people use Altavista today at all.

The problem with PFI is that it likely isn't worth it unless you can get great SERPs. And you have no idea what they will be. I can't figure out Altavista's algo at all based on the SERPs in my keywords. I'd say definitely you should worry most about the DMOZ and your Google ranking.

[ade_uk]

i'm top of altavista for a few of our main keywords - get thousands of visits from google (same keywords but about 2/3/4 pos) compared to around 50 from AV

[flexsez]

Thanks for the feedback.

I have come to the conclusion that I am going to try to
get a top placement at MSN. And then let the DMOZ pick
up my listing and focus on google.

I checked my position @ Altavista this morning and am at the very
top of page 2 (11th position) and don't even get any clicks?

I also think that Lycos is a lost cause. If any of my pages get
picked up I'll consider it dumb luck.

One more quick note: Is the Ask Jeeves/Teoma inclusion worth the $?

[msgraph]

Think of Alta as a bonus. The conversions are really awesome for the small amount of traffic it provides. However, you will need the 1st or 2nd position to really notice anything.

You can do this most of the time without paid inclusion.

[ade_uk]

i pay for inc.. on all the engines as once u add the visitors from all of them its better than nothing!....

i've been in the Teoma as a paid ad for about 2 months and seen a handful of visitors - i wouldnt say it was worth the cost as yet..

[rfgdxm1]

>i'm top of altavista for a few of our main keywords - get thousands of visits from google (same keywords but about 2/3/4 pos) compared to around 50 from AV

What I would have expected. I don't do *that* bad at Altavista (I'm still on page 1), I'd have expected if Altavista was being used a lot I'd see more traffic. I don't think Altavista gets more than a small percent people using it.

[Robert]

Once you look at what the browsers offer visitors for search you have a pretty good idea where people are going to be clicking in from. When they change the choices things will be different.

[onlineleben]

>Should I even bother worrying about AV and Lycos ...

Sure you should. It's always good to have your pages listed in these SE's for the times when user preferences for SE's change again. Also good to have the additional traffic.
It takes some time to get your pages in without the PFI programs, but IMO its worth it.

[flexsez]

Thanks for the input everyone.

My site magically appeared in the Lycos search
results yesterday(I used PFI).

I rank well in Alta and Lycos for my targeted keywords but
MSN gives me about 10x the traffic of Alta and Lycos combined with similar serps....

I had no idea that the refers would vary so greatly between
the engines.