The other day, I received an e-mail from one of our search engine positioning clients. The client had only been with us for a month or two and was still fairly new to the arcane science (art?) of positioning. Their comments made it obvious that they thought our industry had suddenly been rendered obsolete by recent changes with the search engines.
Here is what they wrote:

Due to recent changes in the business practices of the top search engines your services do not make sense for us any longer.
As you know, goto.com merged with AOL, Netscape, and Earthlink a few months ago.

More recently Lycos, Altavista, NBCI, along with a few others joined goto. This has given us control over our exposure through pay per click. In addition to this, yahoo and looksmart are pay to be reviewed for placement.

Searching for Answers

Obviously, recent announcements from Goto regarding strategic partnerships have been confusing to many people. While it is true that Goto search results are now featured on the engines mentioned, we're still a long way from the time when you can guarantee wide spread search results simply by the amount you're willing to pay. And, for reasons I'll get into near the end of this column, I hope we never reach that destination.

GoTo Goes With Everything!

Can you pay for a top spot on Goto? Yes, absolutely. Goto's search engine gives top billing for a keyword to whoever is willing to pay the most for that privilege. Other than some basic screening, Goto doesn't factor in quality or relevance of the sites into which are ranked best. It simply comes down to budget. Goto's theory is that only relevant sites will be willing to pay to rank for their specific search terms.

So, when it comes to Goto, our client was right. He can control his rankings on this engine through bidding on the keywords he wants to be listed for. According to the reports we run for our clients, Goto generates about 5% of all search engine traffic. Depending on how much you would have to bid to be included in the top ten for your intended keyword, this may be a worthwhile online advertising investment.

The 75% Solution

It's when we delve into your total search engine visibility that the theory of controlling placements through paying for clicks starts to unravel a bit. According to Goto's own press kit, Goto search results reach 75% of the Net through partnerships with AOL, Netscape, Lycos, Altavista and others. So, all you have to do is pay for the top spots on Goto and you should be covered on all these other search portals, right? Wrong.

Take a look at AltaVista, still one of the Net's most popular search portals. Yes, Goto search results are shown for keyword searches, along with AltaVista's own search results. But only the top 3 spots are shown, and they're right at the bottom of the page of search results, under the heading "Sponsored Listings".

On AOL Search, you get the same 3 listings, this time at the top of the page with the title "Sponsored Links". No description appears for these listings.

With Lycos, the top 3 are again on the top of the page billed as "Featured Listings". Then, partway down the page, there's another two jammed into the search results. Lycos results pages are a masterpiece of confusion, combining search results from Goto, Direct Hit, Open Directory and heaven knows what else.

So, while Goto has done an outstanding job increasing the exposure their top three listings for each keyword phrase receive, it would be a drastic mistake to assume that your positioning strategy can begin and end here. For one thing, web users have shown a pronounced antipathy towards sponsor links in the past.

A Page from the Book of AltaVista and MSN

Both AltaVista and MSN have tried introducing paid sponsor links in the past. Both programs were summarily dropped as dismal failures after recording abysmal click through rates.

Goto's recent partnerships are still far too new to have produced any reliable numbers showing how often these "featured listings" are clicked on as compared to the traditional results. My guess is that they will fall far short. And that could mean you're being ignored on several of the Net's top search engines, not just one.

Yahoo and Looksmart: Directory Roulette

Now, back to our skeptical client. Again, he's right when he points out that both Yahoo and Looksmart have a paid business express submission that guarantees review of the site. All you have to do is pay your money and you're in, right? Oh, if only our jobs were that easy!

Submissions to these directories are not a simple slap and dash procedure. For one thing, if you're laying out cash, you want to make sure your site has what it takes to be included in the directory. Paying $200 and getting a "Thanks but No Thanks" answer from a Yahoo editor will leave you with a pretty hollow feeling.

Secondly, crafting the successful Yahoo submission is somewhat akin to juggling 3 chainsaws while riding a unicycle. You have to be absolutely certain what your most popular keyword combinations are and know exactly where those keywords are to be placed in your title and description in order to come up a winner in the Yahoo jackpot. You have to carefully submit to the right categories. And you have to word everything in such a way that the editor doesn't take it upon himself to edit your carefully constructed verbiage with a hatchet.

If I had to recommend one place to seek professional positioning assistance, it would be in handling this all important Yahoo (and Looksmart) submission.

Will Searchers Continue to Go To Goto?

The biggest question in all this is whether web searchers want to use a search tool where top rankings are determined solely by the amount paid by the advertiser. I, for one, have never used Goto and I never will. I want a search tool that does the best job possible searching the entire content of the web and bringing back the sites most relevant to my search. I don't want to find the sites with the biggest advertising budget.

I have never actually talked to anyone who uses Goto as his or her main search site. They must be out there. As we said, even without the strategic partnerships, Goto does produce 5% of all search engine traffic. To be honest, I've been surprised that Goto has managed to capture this much of the market. Obviously, someone is using the site.

I do believe that, given the choice, most web searchers will choose what appears to be a unpaid, unbiased search result over one that appears to be a sponsored link. For this reason, I think it would be a real mistake to trust your entire search engine marketing program to Goto and their strategic partner program.

That said, Goto has substantially increased the value you're getting by bidding for those top 3 spots. If you can grab one of these top three spots for your keyword choices for a reasonable amount, by all means do so. It's probably one of the best pay-per-click bargains around. Just don't stop there and think you're covered.