Big Fish and Search Engines

By Susanne Svette, IdeaStar Search Engine Specialist

As you may know, Google is the Big Momma of search engines. When people are looking for information on the Internet, most turn to Google for the most relevant results. But other search engines do exist.

So if your Web site is not ranking well in Google, perhaps you should try one of the others. After all, some people say it is better to be a big fish in a small pond, than a small fish in a big pond.

The other major search engines are Yahoo, MSN, and Ask. Some of the criteria is the same, but you should still optimize your site according to Google rules, including incoming links, content, metatags and titles.

What's the difference? Yahoo and MSN allow a longer and more specific title tag, and both allow submission. While Google will eventually pick up your site on its own, you can submit your URL to Yahoo for $299 per year, encouraging a quicker listing. MSN listings are free, but if you would like help in posting, they charge a minimal fee.

You may also want to consider your audience when posting your Web site in a search engine. Google draws the most technically literate crowd. Yahoo tends to draw searchers from its e-mail subscribers. And MSN draws a less Internet savvy group who are drawn there mostly for the news. As for Ask, it has been undergoing a lot of changes lately, so I'm not sure what their focus will evolve into.

Still, many people use all four search engines. So build your site for Google, and submit it to the other search engines. Even if Google is getting 60 percent of the searches, that still leaves 40 percent going to the other three.

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