Inside Guide to Getting Listed on Infoseek

Give it a spin : Try a search on Infoseek

In Depth Analysis

Infoseek rates as my favourite search engine by far, and it is a real shame that it is slowly losing relevance by letting lucrative deals pass it by.

Infoseek recently introduced a new "technology", E.S.P., which matches 1- and 2-word searches with a pre-defined list of top sites, as rated by Infoseek's review team. In other words, they are trying to push Infoseek slowly away from being a hardcore search engine and transform it into a more Yahoo!-like directory. At the moment, E.S.P. results only appear for the more popular search terms, but Infoseek is gradually expanding the program in a continuing attempt to improve the quality of search results.

Because of this E.S.P. system, you are better off targeting 3-word keyword combinations, which currently do not fall under E.S.P. Infoseek supports META tags, but de-emphasizes their relevance to the point where repeating keywords will actually harm your ranking! Keep your site's title short, make sure you include minimalistic description and keyword tags and add a text title near the top of your page that resembles or matches the title of the page.

If your site is good enough, it is a very good idea to try and gain Select status for your site (see below) which will also increase your chances of being included in the E.S.P. program.

Partnerships: Snap! Online currently partners with Infoseek, but will soon switch to Inktomi. Infoseek will get approximately 12.5% of search traffic from Netscape starting July 1st.

Select sites: The key to ranking well on Infoseek is achieving "Select site status" and being listed in the Infoseek Channels. The Infoseek Channels are given huge prominence on the site, taking up around 40% of the main welcome page. The channels are similar in style to Yahoo!'s directory in that they are filtered by a real person so that only the best sites get listed. Click on some of the Channels and get a feel for the way they are laid out. Each Channel is divided into "Directories"; that is, progressively more focused topics. As you "drill-down" the Directories (i.e. you go deeper and deeper into the Channels), the focus of each Directory will be narrower and narrower until finally you get to a list of sites on a single clearly-defined topic.

To get listed as a Select site, you need to make sure that your site is brimming with original content, that it loads fast and that all links work, etc. In essence, you need a good strong, finished site. The last part is very important: sites under construction need not apply.

Next, you have to find your niche, the right Channel for your site. Head over to Infoseek's main page and enter a search using terms that you feel most closely match the content of your site. Usually, you will see a "Best Bets:" section above the main results, listing one or more topics. Choose the topic that is most relevant to your site, or if there's nothing remotely approaching the subject of your site, try another search using different terms. Try to think laterally and to anticipate what other people might search for. Hopefully, unless your site is on a very obscure subject, you should be able to find a Channel that at least approximates your content. Click on the listing for that channel, and take a look at the first few listings. You may find that some have one or two red "tick" marks next to the site titles; two ticks represents the ultimate key to major traffic from Infoseek. These ticks are given for higher quality sites.

For the next step, let me pass you over to Infoseek themselves:-

Thank you for submitting a site to Infoseek. We do not take Channel submissions requests. However, we do take requests for listings in our directories that are found under each channel.

To have your site considered for inclusion, please email our Directory Managers via: url_review@infoseek.com

With the following information:

1) Your URL
2) The preferred path or area you wish to be included under. For example, Entertainment > Music > Audio
3) A brief description of your site

Thank you for your interest in Infoseek.

Fill in the information exactly as outlined above. Be brief and polite. Try and spell everything correctly. Double-check that you are submitting the correct URL. Keep the description to under 20 words, and remember that this is probably what will be listed for your site, so make sure you include a few keywords -- while making sure it still reads like an English paragraph and not a disjointed list of words.

Worth Noting

AOL uses a mildly modified version of Excite called AOL Netfind. Although they claim to be two different entities, the results they return are so similar it's not worth quibbling about the differences. Excite also owns Magellan (a once-proud directory that has been steadily gathering dust since the takeover) and WebCrawler.