LookSmart PPC Search Engine Internet Marketing

Founded in Australia in 1996, LookSmart is the largest professionally edited directory on the Internet. It is also one of the most popular directories because of its partnerships with major search engines like Altavista, MSN, and iWon. LookSmart claims that directly, and through its partners, iteaches up to four out of five search engine users in the U.S.

Unlike fellow directories Yahoo! and The Open Directory Project, LookSmart has partnered with many other companies to provide supplemental results on its site. These partners include Inktomi and FAST. LookSmart uses FAST’s search technology to rank sites within its own directory, and if a user searches LookSmart for an obscure keyword and LookSmart can’t find a match in its directory, Inktomi’s database provides the results. As its popularity has grown, LookSmart has acquired over 300 partners who use it as a resource for providing their own search results. Notwithstanding the fact that LookSmart uses FAST’s search technology for organizing its results, LookSmart’s partners, such as MSN, use their own ranking algorithms and formulas to generatetheir results, even when polling the LookSmart directory for data.

LookSmart uses a combination of pay for inclusion and a Pay-per-Click rate. For $29 (prices may vary), you are guaranteed to have your site reviewed and (if appropriate) placed in LookSmart within 48 hours. From that point on you pay $0.15 per click through. Unlike other ‘pay per click’ programs, this one is based around flat rate pricing, and results are sorted based on optimization levels. When considering search engine optimization strategies, you need to remember that even though you are paying from leads from LookSmart, the better optimized your web page is, the higher you will place within this engine.

The following search engines receive content from LookSmart:

  • Altavista
  • http://www.excite.com
  • http://www.iwon.com
  • MSN

Metamend provides a combination of organic and paid placement options. Our PPC Management services include a complete assessment of your web property’s potential revenue producing capabilities, an evaluation of the current PPC Search Engine Internet Marketing strategies being used, and a deep understanding of your business’s objectives and goals.