The Axandra newsletter archive

13 August 2002

This week you'll learn about LookSmart USA, LookSmart UK, DNS servers and how you can find out which Web sites link to your competitors.

* What is LookSmart?

LookSmart is a Web directory at

• http://www.LookSmart.com (USA)
• http://www.LookSmart.co.uk (UK)

and in other countries. They claim that their US network of partners reaches 77% of Internet users (in the United States).

LookSmart USA provides part of the search results for MSN Search, AltaVista, About.com, Netscape, InfoSpace, CNet and CNN.com.

LookSmart UK reaches 60% of UK Internet users through MSN Search UK, AltaVista UK, Tiscali, UK Plus and BTopenworld.

* How do I get listed on LookSmart?

To add your US site, go to http://looklistings.looksmart.com/

To add your UK site, go to http://submit.looksmart.co.uk/

* What does it cost to be included on LookSmart?

LookSmart USA charges commercial sites in two ways:

1. they charge a fee for setup fee, plus
2. they charge per click-through.

The setup-fee is US$49 (non-refundable), each click-through costs US$0.15 (deducted from a monthly budget that is paid upfront). New customers must make an initial account deposit of at least US$45.

The site submission to LookSmart UK is a one off payment and costs 149 GBP + VAT. UK customers can also pay per click (starting at 60 GBP + VAT): http://bidsmart.looksmart.co.uk/

Non-commercial sites can be submitted at no charge through Zeal.com, which is part of LookSmart: http://www.zeal.com/help_tour.jhtml

* Is my submission guaranteed to get into the LookSmart directory?

No. All site submissions must meet LookSmart's Listing Guidelines.

LookSmart USA Listing Guidelines:
http://listings.looksmart.com/help/guidelines.jhtml

LookSmart UK Listing Guidelines:
http://submit.looksmart.co.uk/submit_guide.asp?isp=BTLSUK

You should read the guidelines carefully because the setup fee is non-refundable. If your site is rejected, you can modify the contents of the submitted Web site and resubmit, or you can resubmit a different Web site.

* How can I confirm that my Web pages are in the LookSmart
directory?

LookSmart provides detailed instructions on how to locate your listing in their directory and in their partner directories: http://listings.looksmart.com/help/find.jhtml

* If I submit my site to the LookSmart UK directory will it be considered for inclusion in the LookSmart USA directory?

Unfortunately, no. The inclusion in one directory doesn't lead to the inclusion in the directory of any other country.

* How do I get a top ranking on LookSmart?

The LookSmart editors have the final say regarding the placement of your site within the LookSmart directory.

As you can see, a listing on LookSmart is rather expensive and you cannot influence the results. It you think that a listing on LookSmart might be worthwhile for your business, be sure to follow their submission instructions precisely so that you don't waste your money.

Is your Web site not getting listed in search engines? Is your Web site listed but it's not getting top rankings? In our series we tell you the 19 common mistakes for low or no ranking and what you can do about it.

Reason #14: Search engines could not resolve your DNS name.

There's a mistake that novice users often do. They register a domain name (for example, www.my-great-site.com), and they immediately submit the Web site URL to the search engines.

Then they wonder why the search engines didn't index their site. The answer is, they weren't able to do it.

It takes approximately 2-4 days until a domain name becomes active. All Internet access providers must update their records (DNS tables) to reflect new site locations. The process of updating DNS tables is called propagation.

Search engines must also update their DNS tables and until then, the new domain name www.my-great-site.com doesn't work.

So when you register a new domain name, you must wait about 48-72 hours until you can submit the domain name to the search engines.

If you're interested in other factors that might prevent your Web site from getting top rankings on search engines, visit our newsletter archive:

http://www.Axandra.com/news/index.htm

Have you ever thought about the Web sites that link to your competitors? Wouldn't it be great if they also linked to your site?

We've just released version 3.5 of our reciprocal links manager for professional webmasters. Finally, it's easy to find out who links to your competitor sites.

ARELIS now offers an easy to use "Find Sites By Competitors" feature: simply enter the URL of your competitor, for example www.my-competitor.com, and ARELIS displays hundreds of Web sites that link to it.

Then you can use ARELIS to contact these sites to convince them to link to your site, too. See a picture of this great feature in action.

In addition, ARELIS provides other ways to find potential link partners. You'll be able to establish many links to your site. These get you targeted traffic, improve your link popularity and enhance your search engine ranking. You'll get more customers and more sales.

Previous ARELIS versions have won several awards. Read what satisfied customers say about ARELIS:

"The software is good at finding relevant sites, quickly. It is obvious that the authors have put a lot of thought and planning into the software. It's no wonder that virtually every software library rates it 5 stars. [...] even a HTML expert couldn't tell if a link directory was created by hand, or a program such as ARELIS."
Michael Wong, Search-Engine-Optimization-Strategies.net

"ARELIS linking software is the best tool on the market for finding and creating reciprocal links. We recommend this Reciprocal Linking Software."
Gene Schallert, BetterSearchEngineMarketing.com

More customer quotes (real names from popular Web sites):
http://www.Axandra.com/arelis/arelis-testimonials.htm

Improve your business, download the free trial version now:
http://www.Axandra.com/arelis/download.htm

• Your Inktomi questions answered
  
  
• Query recent additions to Google
  
  
• Five Google interviews
  
  
• META Description tag for AltaVista
  
  
• Search term position on AllTheWeb/FAST
  
  
  

If you want to publish one of the above articles on your Web site, you're allowed to do so! However, you must not change the contents in any way. Also, you must keep all links and you must add the following two sentences with a link to www.Axandra.com: "Copyright by Axandra.com. Internet marketing and search engine ranking software ."

Please recommend this issue to anyone you know who is interested in search engine facts. It's a good way to stay in touch with your clients, too.

If you're receiving this issue as a forward, and would like to get your own free subscription, visit

http://www.Axandra.com/subscribe.htm


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