Forum Moderators: open
1. How long after I submit my web site to looksmart will it take to get into MSN search results.
2. How is the rank for a particular keyword determined. Is it based on a Looksmart algo or is it based on a "human decision".
Many thanks to anyone who responds.
The looksmart rankings that go into MSN are pretty wierd from my experience!?
Regarding your 2nd question, it's determined by LS's algo, but the human editors determine your title and description. I've been told by a sales rep at LS that the pay per click rate does NOT factor into the algo (though I'm still sceptical). In case you didn't know, LS sells phrases at various PPC rates depending on the particular vertical. In the past, they've also sold phrases at various rates to different customers in the same vertical.
The T&D factor heavily into how you rank for a particular phrase. Focus on 3+ word phrases as they're less likely to be swamped by overture listings. MSN will display overture listings for the top 25K search terms, and after that, they show LS listings and then inktomi.
So if you're located in Wyoming, and you sell blue widgets, the phrase wyoming blue widgets will likely get you a top listing in MSN, assuming that phrase is contained in your T&D.
BTW -- Welcome to Webmasterworld...
"MSN will display overture listings for the top 25K search terms, and after that, they show LS listings and then inktomi."
I don't understand. 25K? Everytime I try a search only the first 4 listings of a page are Overture.
Thanks, joe
MSN only ever shows 3 listings from Overture on the page, but they only use one portion of all the keywords in Overture's database - the 25k referred to above. Therefore Looksmart listings will regularly appear at the top of the page.
And to clarify, MSN search splits like this:
Featured Sites (generally 3 max) - MSN advertising and MSN internal links.
Sponsored sites (3 max) - Overture
Web Directory (as many sites as are relevant to the search term) - Looksmart
Web Pages - Inktomi
And please don't refer to Looksmart as a web directory! That is an insult to the likes of the ODP. Looksmart is a categorized PPC engine.
Looksmart is a categorized PPC engine.
Yes and no. There are thousands of people who submit thousands of quality sites with quality descriptions to well organized categories within Zeal/Looksmart.
Stone me if you want, but I think the Zeal/Looksmart Directory is one of the better ones out there.
Zeal is fine - a good example of a directory - but I am not sure that Looksmart deserves the same praise simply by proximity/affiliation.
