InformationWeek

One way to get good placement is to study Web sites that receive top placement, especially those that do so in competitive businesses with common keywords.

One Web site that's had extraordinary success is Hot Sauce Harry's (www.hotsauceharrys.com). The Dallas hot-sauce company's site consistently comes up in the top five of the top 10 lists on sites such as Lycos and Yahoo. Kevin Harris, son of the husband-and-wife owners, handles the placement on a part-time basis, spending as much as 15 hours a month on the task.

Besides having strong content, Harris says that his best advice is to read the search engine's submission directions and follow them precisely so as not to run afoul of their regulations, which could mean immediate rejection. Harris says it helps to have your keyword in the URL and in the title of the home page. He uses "hot sauce" in the metatags and puts them in bold, bigger fonts, which, he says, provides an added boost.

Persistence pays off, too. In an attempt to keep out spammers, search engines such as AltaVista allow only one page to be submitted daily. "I submit every day," says Harris. This takes lots of time because his site has more than 200 pages of hot sauce lore, collectors' information, gift ideas, and recipes, many of which are updated regularly. Harris, who works as an IS director at a window and door manufacturer in Florida, says he studies competitors to see what they're doing to get their placement.

Another critical element is keeping constant track of placement. Harris uses WebPosition Gold reporting software from FirstPlace Software Inc., which tells him how he ranks using certain keywords and phrases. "If I'm losing position, I may modify a page's content or change keywords," he says.

With Yahoo, LookSmart, MSN Search, and others relying more on human editors, content will become increasingly important; using placement software solely based on algorithms will eventually fall by the wayside.

Another alternative for Webmasters seeking placement is the new crop of search engines that let Web sites pay for position. GoTo.com Inc. auctions keywords and the highest bidders get the best placement. Now two years old, the Pasadena, Calif., company starts bids at 1 cent. Some companies pay more than $5 per click to get the top position for searches on popular keywords such as insurance, long-distance service, and mortgage.

GoTo.com is like the Yellow Pages, says executive chairman Jeffrey Brewer--there are free, one-line listings, but those who want more exposure pay for it. Unpaid results are supplied by search engine Inktomi.

Brewer says the company screens out multiple listings from the same company to prevent domination of a category; it also screens out malicious clicks. Because the site is paid a specified price per click--the amount is noted next to the listing--some rivals may attempt to cost a competitor money by clicking and not buying. GoTo.com's proprietary software looks for patterns to weed these out.

Brewer dismisses critics who say that his service isn't a true, unbiased search engine. Only companies that get quality click-throughs will continue to pay for placement and raise their bids, if necessary, showing that the sites are relevant to consumers, he says. "Also, we're right out front and can't be fooled or manipulated," he says.

Somewhere between pay-for-position and automated search engines are hybrids such as Ask Jeeves, a Web site that draws 6 million unique visitors a month and 4 million questions daily with its plain-language question format. The company has a stringent editorial policy that governs which Web sites it includes. "Our No. 1 issue is relevancy," says Sean Murphy, VP of product management.

Again, good content equals good placement--but with a twist. Among the site's offerings are a variety of ads, banners, mini-banners, and other so-called "relationship" tools that offer advertising opportunities on the page. Advertisers also receive preferred positioning as answer sources when someone asks a question. Relationship costs range from $200 for a small ad to several million dollars to be an anchor on the site, says Murphy, who adds that the site's editorial policy of offering the best answers always prevails, no matter how much a customer pays for advertising. He notes that some corporate customers modify their sites to answer specific questions that they see being asked repeatedly. "It's like having a 24-by-7 focus group," he says.

One of the most worrisome trends for search-engine operators is the growing rejection of search engines by large Web-site operators. Because maintaining a top position is so labor-intensive and competitive, some companies are cutting back on their search-engine expenditures. "Search engines are an important aspect of our overall marketing, but we're moving toward other marketing vehicles, like banner advertising," says Delia Vallejo, online media manger for Ubid Inc., an online auction site in Chicago.

Judith McGarry, VP for strategic partnerships at Drugstore.com Inc. in Bellevue, Wash., agrees. She prefers linking her site to other high-traffic sites such as Amazon.com, where the company maintains a health and beauty section. The name obviously helps draw traffic. "For us, our name is a destination," she says.

Adds Sullivan: "My most important tip to Webmasters is that you can't depend entirely on search engines. You must do other things to draw people to your site."

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