8 replies to this topic

[Lydia]

Howdy everyone,

Firstly, kudos to Jill for her work and for this forum (if flattery gets us everywhere, maybe Jill might answer this question for me?)

Excuse me if there is already a thread about this somewhere else, but I couldn't find it.

I've heard that having a listing on Looksmart is worth it because, aside of having the results fed to MSN and other sites, it would also increase the site's link popularity, and hence, the site's overall ranking in Google. I've also heard that link popularity is a good reason why to submit to other smaller directories (who are not PPC-based, like JoeAnt, GoGuides, etc). Is that true? When I last checked, JoeAnt and GoGuides had a rather low PR. And if this is true, does it make a difference whether my listings on LookSmart are Sponsored or plain ol' LookListings?

Thanks in advance!

[awall19]

The goal is for price per click listings not to aid in the developement of pagerank. If you look at the pagerank of listings inside looksmart they are not very high.

the search for computer http://www.looksmart...ch?key=computer
had a pagerank of 3

clicking on the home page link computing had a pagerank of 1 so looksmart itself is not a good source of pagerank. traffic from MSN through looksmart can pile up quickly though if you have the right words in your listings (UNTIL JAN 2004)


the other smaller directories may not have high pagerank, but that at least have some and they can aid in getting your site listed quicker in the search engines. on top of submitting to the directories you should try to consider link exchanges with similar sites... or topic specific directories as well...

Edited by awall19, 06 October 2003 - 11:50 PM.

[Jill]

Welcome, Lydia!

Submitting to Directories (not LookSmart, but real directories) is a great way to show that your site is an important site on the Internet.

PPC listings are not the same thing. They are just paid ads and don't say anything other than you can afford to pay for an ad. This may or may not mean something to the search engines, but they don't generally spider PPC ad links, that I know of.

Hope this helps!



Jill

[mrdch]

Hi Lydia,

Welcome to the Forum!

To the best of my knowledge - NO PPC search engine/directory will ever contribute anything to your PR. The reason is simple: To be able to account for each and every click the URL does not point to the site at all - but to an internal script which redirects the browser to the target site/page. A typical example would be:

http;//www.brainfox.com/push/8459/2222/801/ECWntTQEI4sqMjy6WQPnu2eaHG0G9cCwgm6Yw5DJ1/1
(You are not supposed to click on it!)

If you are curious, that URL ends up at http;//www.CashForCDs.com

Some non PPC directories will also have similar 'tracking URLs' - and will not contribute to your PR. However, most of the 'clean' directories (like Gimpsy, Joeant and Goguides) would have at least ONE straight link to your site - which can (and will) increase your PR.

Hope that helps!

MC

[SearchRank]

Hi Lydia,

Besides the fact that Looksmart is a PPC based system that won't give you any PR boost in Google, they will not be supplying search results to MSN after January 2004. See this thread for a discussion on this.

[Lydia]

Thank you, thank you, thank you to awall19, Jill, mrdch and searchrank!

Nice to see that there are kind people in this world, who actually take the time from their schedule to reply. Now it makes more sense!

(PS: See? Flattery did get me something... Jill replied to the posting! )

Cheers,

Lydia

[Jill]

Not to burst your bubble or anything, Lydia, but I reply to pretty much ALL posts here! Of course, flattery is always welcome anyway!

Jill

[Lydia]

That's ok - it's still appreciated!

Thanks,

Lydia

[skiguide]

typically, no, most of the PPC listings (Google, Overture, Looksmart) don't typically factor into link pop. But, I have seen PPC listings for clients, particularly on Sprinks, showing up in Google's cache for pages they appear on, whenever i check backlinks. I don't know how much weight they are actually given, but it has appeared to factor into the linking/keyword text structure to some degree.