The Search Engine Showdown by Courtney Heard

The Search Engine Showdown by Courtney Heard

f you're anything like me, you have a favourite search engine and you're loyal to it. You never use any others (which made this research difficult for yours truly), insist yours is the be-all and end-all and you even go so far as to deny any shortcomings it may have. But is your search engine truly the best? Inspired by a great article at the BBC News (BBC News: Search Wars), we decided to compare the major search engines. Here's what we found.

We chose the search term "real estate fiji" because it's a competitive industry and geographically specific. We also searched with the same phrase, misspelled to see if the search engine would suggest the correct spelling.

Google

Initially loading the search page for Google is lightning fast.
The look is clean and easy to understand.
Search time was 0.15 seconds.
The search yielded 1,190,000 results.
All results on the first page were relevant.
Spellcheck was available.

Yahoo!

Initially loading the search page for Yahoo! is a little bit slower than Google, but still fast.
Search time was 0.18 seconds.
The search yielded 711,000 results.
It is difficult to tell the sponsored links from the actual web results.
All results on the first page were relevant, however one of them directed you to another set of results for your search at DMOZ.org.
Spellcheck was available.

AskJeeves

Initially loading the search page for AskJeeves is fast.
Search time was not posted and was much slower than Google & Yahoo!.
The search yielded 63,100 results.
Sponsored links take up the whole screen. You have to scroll down to see the web results.
All first page results were relevant.
Spellcheck was available.

A9.com

Initially loading the search page for A9 is fast.
Search time was not posted but was average.
The search yielded 209,000 results.
All the results on the first page were relevant.
There were image results alongside the text results. This could be helpful.
Spellcheck was available.

MSN

Initially loading the search page for MSN is fast.
Search time was not posted but was average.
The search yielded 112,607 results.
All except one of the results were relevant. This result pointed to Philippines real estate. Also, one the results directed you to DMOZ, where a second search for your keywords is performed.
Spellcheck was available.

Alexa

Initially loading the search page for Alexa was fast.
Search time was not posted but was somewhat slow.
The search yielded 208,000 results.
It was difficult to tell the sponsored results from the web results.
Some results included screen shots.
The look was kind of disorganized.
Spellcheck was available.

AltaVista

Initially loading the search page for AltaVista is fast.
Search time was not posted but was a sliver slower than Google.
The search yielded 736,000 results.
The sponsored results take up almost the entire screen. You have to scroll to get to the good stuff.
The results are all relevant, though one redirects you to DMOZ, where a second search for your keywords is performed.
Spellcheck was available.

Lycos

Initially loading the search page for Lycos is fast.
Search time was not posted but was rather slow.
The search yielded 114,356 results.
The sponsored results take up almost the entire screen. Once again, you have to scroll to get to the good stuff.
All the results are relevant although 2 of them redirect you to DMOZ.org.
Spellcheck was available.

Excite

Initially loading the search page for Excite is slow.
Search time was not posted but was rather slow.
The search yielded 114,356 results.
All the results on the first page were relevant.
The look of the site was clean.
Spellcheck was available.

HotBot

Initially loading the search page for HotBot is fast.
Search time was not posted but was fast.
The search yielded 114,389 results.
The sponsored results take up almost the entire screen. Once again, you have to scroll to get to the good stuff.
All the results are relevant although 1 of them redirects you to DMOZ.org.
Spellcheck was available.

AllTheWeb

Initially loading the search page for AllTheWeb is fast.
Search time was not posted, but was fast.
The search yielded 679,000 results.
It is difficult to tell the sponsored results from the web results.
An offensive content filter was available.
All the results are relevant although 1 of them redirects you to DMOZ.org.
Spellcheck was not available.

Looksmart

Initially loading the search page for Looksmart is fast.
Search time was not posted but was rather slow.
The search yielded 300 results.
There were 3 completely irrelevant results on the first page.
The look of the site was clean.
Spellcheck was not available.

Jayde

Initially loading the search page for Jayde is somewhat slow.
Search time was not posted but was average.
The search yielded 60,424 results.
There were quite a few irrelevant results.
The look of the site was clean.
Spellcheck was not available.

So, what's the conclusion? My favorite search engine is the best. All hail Google! ... Alright, alright, some of the others are pretty cool, too.
About the Author
Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, an Internet Marketing and SEO company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney's articles are available at www.abalone.ca/resources/

Do Not Build A Website Until You Have Researched Your Keywords by Kusuma Widjaja

Do Not Build A Website Until You Have Researched Your Keywords by Kusuma Widjaja

Imagine that you have a $25,000 marketing budget for
your online weight loss herbal supplement business.
Should you invest it in trying to build a site to rank #1
in Google for "weight loss?" NO.

What would be the point? To get tons of traffic? Maybe.
But people searching on "weight loss" could be looking
for everything from weight loss diet books... to weight loss
prescription drugs... to scientific studies on weight loss
in middle aged men... to weight loss as a symptom of a rare
blood disease. Do you really care about getting ALL those
untargeted visitors to your site? Are they ALL good prospects
for your supplements? NO.

So before you spend one single penny - or one minute -building
your web site, find out what the low competition search
phrases are for your particular product. It doesn't matter
whether you are an affiliate selling someone else's product,
or marketing your own proprietary supplements. Do your keyword
research BEFORE, not after you've built your site.

Avoid setting an impossible goal, such as being #1 in Google
for a general term like "weight loss." Isn't it wiser -
and easier on you - to invest $1,000 building a site filled
with specialized pages, each of which revolves around ONE highly
targeted keyword like "over 40 woman's herbal weight loss"?

As Sean Burns explains in his book, Rankings Revealed,
think about the business goals of your site. Strive to be
successful with 50 highly focused pages, each of which ranks
high for a single phrase. Don't build 200 pages that are trying
to push you to the top for a general term that won't bring
you much real business anyway.

Keyword research and targeted pages are a smarter
investment than hundreds of doorway pages that may get
banned tomorrow. With the techniques we teach at
DominateSearchEngines.com. You can
build key word-targeted pages that are actually useful
to your visitors. But you have to know which keywords
to focus on FIRST.

There are many free and low-cost tools
for finding low competition search phrases.
Visit http://www.content.overture.eom/d/USm/ac/index.1html
and click "Search Term Suggestion Tool". But whatever tool
you choose, go for search terms that are highly specific,
relevant to your product, and have less competition than
the generic terms.

Pinpoint targeting and low competition means higher rankings
- with less investment of time, effort, and money.

You must also be sure that your targeted search term is
included in the right places in the HTML. It should appear in
your Title, Description, your HI, H2, your first line of text,
once or twice in each paragraph, once in bold, once in italic,
and in some of your links. Don't know what I'm talking about?
It's time to learn - just like you have to learn to use
a saw, screws, nails, drill and glue to build a bookshelf.

Let's review that again - Here are the places your targeted
keyword needs to be placed if you ever want a chance at
#1 ranking:

The Title of the page
The Description META tag
The Keyword META tag In your headline - Use the or
tag
Your first line of text Once or Twice in each paragraph
Once in bold
Once in italics
And, finally, in some links...

Amazingly, many people disdain these simple rules as trying
to "trick" the search engines. But they are wrong.
Including your targeted search term in the right places
is actually being POLITE to the search engines.
It helps the spider decide whether your site is relevant
for a given search.

If your page is about "Atkins diet meal plans for women,"
wouldn't it be logical for those words to be in your Title,
your Description, your Headlines, your links, and your text?
The only reason they wouldn't be is if your site is about
something else! That's how the spiders think. So should you.
Be smarter than your competitors. Simplify your site's HTML
and use it well.

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About the Author
Kusuma Widjaja is President of Yahoo Cyber Technology, CV., based in Surabaya. He has over 2 years experience in Internet Marketing Arena, Custom Web Site Design and Graphic Design Services. For more information go to http://www.whycity.net or you can reach us at +62-8315-838474.