Search engines are by far the most common starting point for Internet users in their quest for finding information, products or services. Currently, there are 391 million people online throughout the world. This number is growing larger daily at an unprecedented rate. Internet studies now show that over 85% of the 391 million people online use search engines on a daily basis when they’re surfing the Internet. With this in mind, it is no mystery why search engine optimization has become one of the hottest topics within Internet marketing. With 391 million people online, the amount of daily search engine traffic is staggering. For an individual or company who is thinking of marketing their products or services, the Internet can be a virtually limitless gold mine of potential customers. The larger search engines like Google index over 3 Billion documents. If you ask yourself how many different search engines and directories have you ever used, and list them down, good chances are that the list would not exceed 10. Internet users and your clients are no different. Most Internet users rarely go further than the top 10 search engines and directories to look for products or services you offer. It therefore comes as no surprise that 90% of search traffic is controlled by top-10 search engines and directories. It is imperative that your site is prominently indexed and ranked high in these 10 search engines. The process involves a series of complex process and analysis like market surveys, web log file analysis, html code analysis, defining proper theme/layout, research into keywords, content enrichment, proper website design and strategic search engine submission to ensure the presence on the Internet. Make yourself abreast with the latest search engine news, developments and keenly track the evolution of their algorithms.
90% of search traffic is controlled by top-10 search engines and directories
- Thread starter Maggi
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spectregunner
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That is all and good, but this forum is not about all search engines and directories -- nor about how to maximize one's presence.
It is solely about the ODP and postings about the global universe of search engines and directories, while interesting, is mostly off-topic.
It is solely about the ODP and postings about the global universe of search engines and directories, while interesting, is mostly off-topic.
The post seems off-topic, and it's certainly by no passionate advocate of the ODP concept, but there is a relevance in it.
When we are reviewing directory/forum/classified ads/etc., sites, disappointed webmasters often whine that they're "just like the big guys" and "deserve a listing just for being late and unoriginal".
But we're trying to serve surfers. And -- most of the value is in the biggest aggregators. In general website directories, it's the ODP and Yahoo and I-don't-care's-on-third-place. In hotel reservations, it's probably expedia and hotelnow.spam.spam.spam and two or three others. In auctions, e-bay and ... well, you get the pattern. It's not worth while for advertisers to waste their time and money visiting 100 other sites to pick up another 1% of the visitors; it's not worth while for surfers to visit another 100 sites to see less than 1% of unique content.
So, for these "aggregating" sites, editors quite correctly consider the number of sites already created using the same concept and focus, as a major factor in weighing a site's uniqueness. The twentieth me-too site is worthless, the fiftieth me-too site is worse than worthless -- it's just a stalled semi on the information superhighway.
So if you want to create a site anyone else would care about -- find a niche where you can be one of the top ten. It's not that hard. I don't care how many plumbers there are in Chicago, the second plumber in Podunk, New Jersey is still a good person to know about. I don't care how many people are scanning e-texts of books, if you're the only person working on the complete works of Bulwer-Lytton you're doing something we may be (very briefly) interested in. And, if you're like me, bereft from birth of creative ideas, you can still contribute to society (if that is what you want) by participating in an established top-ten site.
When we are reviewing directory/forum/classified ads/etc., sites, disappointed webmasters often whine that they're "just like the big guys" and "deserve a listing just for being late and unoriginal".
But we're trying to serve surfers. And -- most of the value is in the biggest aggregators. In general website directories, it's the ODP and Yahoo and I-don't-care's-on-third-place. In hotel reservations, it's probably expedia and hotelnow.spam.spam.spam and two or three others. In auctions, e-bay and ... well, you get the pattern. It's not worth while for advertisers to waste their time and money visiting 100 other sites to pick up another 1% of the visitors; it's not worth while for surfers to visit another 100 sites to see less than 1% of unique content.
So, for these "aggregating" sites, editors quite correctly consider the number of sites already created using the same concept and focus, as a major factor in weighing a site's uniqueness. The twentieth me-too site is worthless, the fiftieth me-too site is worse than worthless -- it's just a stalled semi on the information superhighway.
So if you want to create a site anyone else would care about -- find a niche where you can be one of the top ten. It's not that hard. I don't care how many plumbers there are in Chicago, the second plumber in Podunk, New Jersey is still a good person to know about. I don't care how many people are scanning e-texts of books, if you're the only person working on the complete works of Bulwer-Lytton you're doing something we may be (very briefly) interested in. And, if you're like me, bereft from birth of creative ideas, you can still contribute to society (if that is what you want) by participating in an established top-ten site.
I fully understand the position of DMOZ and especially this forum, and for an editor to state that such a thread is off topic for the forum is maybe unaware that the subject of DMOZ is second only to that of Google in other forums. The whole planet talks DMOZ, therefore a thread on 90% of the planet's SE's is highly relevent, because without DMOZ Google would be the same size as Ask.
SmashinYoungMan
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- Mar 8, 2005
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- 68
It sounds like you yearn for the days of old when Tripod and Angelfire websites could be competitive. 
My solution is simply to no longer worry about making the top ten - or even the top one hundred or one thousand. My website has a small, but loyal, following, and I'm fine with that. I've thrown up a few ads and such to help put some extra cash in my pocket for college, but it's nothing I'm dependant on. If someone is trying to make a living on the 'net, I can imagine that the current state of affairs would be rather ulcer-inducing.
If I get listed in the ODP fine, if not I'm not going to sweat it. I don't even fool with general link-building much. Occasionally I'll sit down at the 'puter if I'm in the mood and browse around for a few sites to exchange links with, but that's about it.
My solution is simply to no longer worry about making the top ten - or even the top one hundred or one thousand. My website has a small, but loyal, following, and I'm fine with that. I've thrown up a few ads and such to help put some extra cash in my pocket for college, but it's nothing I'm dependant on. If someone is trying to make a living on the 'net, I can imagine that the current state of affairs would be rather ulcer-inducing.
If I get listed in the ODP fine, if not I'm not going to sweat it. I don't even fool with general link-building much. Occasionally I'll sit down at the 'puter if I'm in the mood and browse around for a few sites to exchange links with, but that's about it.