All right, everybody give me a collective sigh as the pure, virgin territory of net searching is forever sullied by the greedy profit driven motives of the major search portals. Imagine! These companies actually want to make money. The nerve!
In the past, I have maintained a precarious middle ground on the question of whether search engines should charge for listings. While I believe wholeheartedly in their right to make money for providing a valuable service, I don't like to see revenue models that impact the relevancy or thoroughness of the service's search results.

The fact is, however, that almost every directory and search engine has introduced a pay to play policy. If search engines play an important part in your online marketing program (as they should) the time has come to set some budget aside to ensure the effectiveness and timeliness of your listings. This week in NetProfit, I'll recap your paid submission options and give you my opinion on the best use of your hard earned advertising dollars. I'll also look at how paid submissions will affect the Search Engine Optimization industry.

Can I Get Away without Paying?

Up until very recently, I would have said that it was possible to have an effective search engine positioning campaign without paying a cent. Through submissions to AltaVista, Google, Inktomi, Open Directory and Go, it was possible to cover enough of the Web's major search portals to allow you the option of ignoring the paid submission alternatives. Inktomi's recent announcement of it's guaranteed indexing charge, while not having a major impact on it's own, was enough to tip the scales in favor of looking at paid submissions.

Today, while it's still possible to have an reasonably effective positioning program without paid submissions, I believe the holes that result from missing major search portals such as Yahoo, Looksmart and Inktomi will definitely hurt your online presence in the long run. And while most of the paid submission options offer a free alternative, experience has shown us that your chances of getting a free listing are very slim. Here's your options, divided into the "Must Haves" and The "Nice to Haves".

The Must Haves

Yahoo - You can't ignore Yahoo. Depending on which reports you look at, Yahoo generates anywhere from 25% to 55% of all search engine traffic. We believe the real number is around 30%. Regardless, you can't have a hole that big in your online presence. Budget for the $199 Business Express Submission.

GoTo - As we mentioned in last week's NetProfit, Goto has done an excellent job increasing awareness for the top 3 listings for keyword phrases. The jury is still out on whether people will click on these "sponsored links", but I would definitely budget some "mad money" to try some relevant keywords and see what your click-through rate is.

Inktomi - I admit it. I've changed my mind (somewhat) on Inktomi's paid spidering guarantee charge. On a previous NetProfit I said that it wasn't worth the money to pay for the guarantee for every page on your site. I still believe that, but I do think it's worth the money to ensure that at least your index page is continually spidered. I still have some big ethical reservations about Inktomi's move and believe it will hurt them in the long run, but a little insurance in this case won't cost you too much. A single page will run $20 per year.

The Nice To Haves

Looksmart - Looksmart has been very aggressive in making sure their directory results are featured on major search portals such as AltaVista, MSN, iWon and Excite. Earlier this year they did an end run around Open Directory by signing alliances with Excite, MSN, AltaVista to provide directory results. Open Directory was providing these results free of charge. Looksmart offered to split a share of any $199 business express submissions fees that came through the respective site. Predictably, money talked and Open Directory found themselves out in the cold. While we haven't seen enough search engine traffic generated from Looksmart to justify moving them into the "Must Have" category, they are aggressively moving to capture some of Yahoo's market share.

Depending on which one of Looksmart's partners you choose to use for your express submission, you might also expedite your inclusion in their search index. For instance, AltaVista automatically includes a URL submission to their index with your Business Express submission.

NBCi (Snap) - NBCi's directory has followed in the footsteps of Yahoo and Looksmart and now offers a paid "Promotion" program. NBCi operates a little differently in that you can submit a site free of charge by becoming a member. The submission will then reside in the "Members Submitted" portion of the site. Then, if you want to be promoted into the much higher profile "Top Sites" directory, you pay a one time fee of $99 (to be increased to $199 on February 15) to be reviewed. If the editor decides that your site is worthy, you'll be bumped up. To be honest, there doesn't seem to be too stringent guidelines governing what constitutes a "Top Site". I suspect if you pay your money and your site is even marginally professional, you'll be accepted. To date, NBCi has not generated impressive search traffic. I would consider NBCi to be a marginal search portal contender.

Go Network - The Go Network also recently introduced at $199 Premium Service Submission. Let me start by saying that we're not really sure what you get for your money here. The details on the site are very sketchy and our repeated calls to Go to try to clear it up have been ignored. The main question is whether paying the $199 will guarantee a site review by a Go Guide editor? For the purpose of this column, we're assuming that it does.

With Disney's revamp of the site, site entries in Go Guides are given much higher prominence. Go's URL submission form indicates that your $199 guarantees a 48 hour review by a Go Guide editor. Your ranking in this high profile section will depend on how many stars you receive and the alphabetical ranking of your site title. Go's package also includes a weekly spidering guarantee.

I have several problems with Go's new package. First of all, Go Guide editors are, in large part, volunteers. I think it's a little cheesy for Go to be charging money to offer a service that is volunteer driven. How long will it be before Open Directory takes a similar tact? Secondly, the site seems to have been in a state of flux since the redesign. Search results are often inconsistent. Finally, Go's traffic has also been steadily declining over the past two years. Like NBCi, I would rank Go as a marginal contender for your paid submission budget.

What's The Future of SEO?

Search engine optimization is still a fairly new industry. A lot of questions have been asked about whether the appearance of paid submissions will mark the end of optimization companies. I don't believe so, for the following reasons:

First of all, none of these submission options, with the exception of Goto, guarantees placement. You still need optimization of your site to lift you from the ranks of the ignored to those all-important top 10 or 20 spots. This becomes even more important when you're paying money to even be considered by the index.

Almost all of the paid directory submissions guarantee a review, not an inclusion. At $199 a pop, this is not a process you want to learn by trial and error. A little experience could save you a lot of money here.

It's still vitally important to have an effective keyword analysis. Before you ever start directory or search engine submissions, you must have a very clear idea of what your optimum keywords are. We'll be talking more about picking keywords in next week's NetProfit.

At the bottom line, I believe it's more important than ever to use a reputable Search Engine Optimization firm. It used to be that submissions were free so you could afford the odd mistake. That's not the case any longer.