NFIB

Top Engines
04/ 15/ 2002

Thousands of search engines exist, though only about 15 are critical to generating hits, says Danny Sullivan, who has tracked search engines for years for his Search Engine Watch Web site.

The first and most important place to be listed is Yahoo! It is the most popular and oldest major search engine. Sullivan also recommends submitting to LookSmart because it provides ranking for several other engines, including MSN Search and Excite. Submitting your site is free, but you can pay these two companies $199 each to make sure your site is reviewed in a timely manner. If you have money left over, Sullivan says spend it on smaller search engines like GoTo that allow companies to pay to be ranked higher in search results. Companies like SubmitIt! will send your site to up to 400 search engines for $59 per year.

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How visitors find Web sites

81 % Search engines
59% Link from another site
56% Word of mouth
48% Television
41% Guessed the URL
20% Online advertising
19% Radio
10% Direct Mail

Source: Direct Marketing Association survey

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This article originally appeared in the January/February 2001 issue of MyBusiness Magazine, NFIB's member magazine.

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