Wisenut Search Engine Optimization Strategy

Created in 1999 by the co-founder and former chief technology officer of mySimon, and Yeogirl Yun, WiseNut was officially launched on September 5, 2001. A division of LookSmart, WiseNut claims to index 1,500,000,000 pages, and has a very simple front page interface, comparable to Google’s.

WiseNut uses a relevancy ranking system for its searches. This relevancy algorithm measures both the relative importance of the web pages it finds and the relevance of the pages within a search. WiseNut also factors in the number of links to the website, the value of the website, and the page that they’re coming from, which should all be factors in any search engine optimization strategy. This technology seems very similar to the one employed at the search engine Teoma.

WiseNut utilizes LookSmart’s submission packages, which include a free service package called Zeal for non-commercial sites, and pay-for-inclusion for commercial sites. With pay-for-inclusion, customers set their own cost-per-click ceiling— the CPC is offered at a flat rate of $0.15. According to LookSmart, “Max CPC determines placement priority, including how high in search results you’ll appear. In order to provide your listings with the best possible placement on certain partner sites, our systems will take into account several factors when setting the amount to bid on that partner site including: your listing’s CTR, Max CPC, competitive listings, partner type and your business category. The amount bid will always be at or below the Max CPC.”

One neat feature of WiseNut is the “Sneak-A-Peek” feature, which opens a framed window 1″ tall within the search result, letting you see a live image (as opposed to cached) of any website within the search results.

At present, WiseNut does not appear to receive or supply data to or from any other engines. Although it is possible that some data is shared with LookSmart, its parent company.