RefreshClassifieds

Over the past few weeks Google has been re-evaluating how to they rank different web directories, specifically those that are being used exclusively to get high search engine rank. For years its been a common strategy to get your web site listed into as many web directories as possible and use the combined inbound links to increase your page rank. Google appears to be changing the rules on this a little and we have the following recommendations for evaluating web directories:

1. Quality of the Companies and Links

What are the quality of the Companies and Links in the directory like? Do they all resolve? Be wary of sites that have a lot of links to companies with ad specific landing pages or under review just don’t really appear to be legitimate businesses.

2. Fee Process

Is there a fee to submit? If the fee is setup exclusively to ensure search engine ranking or covers multiple directory sites be wary. The fee should be structure should be setup such that you are paying for someone to review your company and ensure it is legitimate. If you are paying for anything else as part of the submission, like inbound links etc.. be concerned.

3. Rejection Process

Mos legitimate directories will have a rejection process and a process to mediate rejection. If the directory you a submitting to guarantees acceptance or offers assurance about increased page rank, we recommend moving on to another service.

With these quick steps you should be able to find legitimate Web Directories that can help both your business and your search engine ranking.

Finditt.com is offering free directory listings for Sushi and Japanese restaurants its directory/search engine. In Canada the Yellowpages Group has repeatedly indicated that the Sushi category is a high use, high value category for consumers. For many directories the restaurant listings are sold at a discount to encourage a high level of content for the consumer to use while other less frequent categories carry a higher advertising rate. It would appear that Finditt.com is using the Sushi category to build usage for its website usage.

Local.com, one of the leading search engines in the US focused on the hyper local market purchased the PremierGuide business directory sites.  As more and more companies chase the hyper local market we expect to see more consolidation between Directories, Search and Classifieds.  These 3 services are expected to become the pillars of the hyper local experience with local events, news and entertainment hanging off of them.

One of the interesting aspects of the Local.com approach is their patent on the local search.  We see this is as a strong barrier to enter for competitors but business process patents have always been difficult to uphold.

The deal is reported at $2M for PremierGuide which had revenues of approximately $800K in the last 12 month period and $300 in operating costs.  The deal does seem very sweet for Local.com and well aligned with their business direction.  Its expected the PremierGuide technology and products will combined into the LocalConnect product line over the next few months.

Google has officially launched their Print Adwords for Newspapers today.  The service has been in beta for just under a year with a limited selection of Newspapers and advertisers.   While the service is not directly available for Classifieds, advertisers can purchase display advertising in the classified section.  Here’s the Google description:

Classifieds
Classifieds are short notices usually for offered services, business listings, items for sale, or ‘wanted’ ads. Classified ads generally appear in ads-only sections, grouped with other ads with similar content. Typically text-based, classified ads can consist of as little as the product or service’s title and a phone number. Google Print Ads does not currently accept classified ads, FSIs, or circulars – only run of press (ROP) ads.

I think the most interesting line is “Google Print Ads does not currently accept classified ads”. A little foreshadowing I think…

Most websites today depend on search engine traffic and monitoring your search engine strategy can be a complicated process. For classified sites it can be even more difficult since they cover a wide variety of merchandise and search keywords. There are 5 basic steps you can take to ensure you’re aware of your search engine status:

1. Focus your effort

Depending on your geographic region its also important to understand the dominate search site. For example Google in Canada has nearly 60% of all search engine traffic so your focus for a Canadian Classified site should be on Google. You can use your sites traffic logs as an indicator but a better strategy would be to find a broader outlook that covers many web sites in your region.

2. Search for Items

One easy way to measure your Classified site is to search for items typically found in your ads. This will give you an accurate measure of how the search site is seeing your ad content. If you’re site doesn’t rank highly on the search results, you have work to do. One common mistake is to search for your company name and assuming everything is good with your strategy. This not an accurate test as most companies will rank high for the name but this won’t help you for users that don’t your company.

3. Links are your friends

A good way to think of links as a vote for your site. The most votes you have the higher your regard with most search sites. You can monitor the number of links your have with most major search engines.

4. Indexed Pages

Content is king with search sites and one of the easy ways to measure your search success is the number of pages captured or indexed by the search site. You can measure pages indexed against the number of Classified ads or the number of pages your site contains. When doing this comparison besure to include dynamically generator pages like search result pages.

5. Invite the spiders

Classified sites are in a continual change as new ads are added and removed. It you to be that you had to wait for the search spiders to visit your site, Today most search sites provide the ability to submit an XML sitemap showing all the webpages you want the spiders to visit. The XML sitemap can also contain the priority of pages that you want the spiders to visit. The Google sitemap interface also provides a number of tools to monitor your site, see error messages from the spiders and how often they are visiting your site.

Downunder in Australia, Google and the Trading Post are being accused of deceptive advertising over sponsored search listings involving 2 automotive dealer names. In would appear that Trading Post purchased ads using competitive automotive dealer names. When consumers clicked on the ads then redirected users to the Trading Post where a variety of automotive classified ads could be found. Most of the action has focused on Google but it would appear that Trading Post is equality as culpable.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wants Google to provide better distinction between paid advertising and organic search. This would set an interesting president for Google which has been relatively free to dictate how their run their paid search advertising programs.

In Canada they seem to allow anyone to purchase ads for competitive keywords, including Trademarks but the actual ad creative cannot contain any Trademarks that you don’t own. Even then the system is often abused and Google is slow to resolve abuse from smaller companies use Trademarks in their advertising.