Syzlak’s SEM

Since i’m too busy to post new content, here’s a throwback from the blogger days…

Understanding Search Engines
Many people will tell you that a 2nd or 3rd tier SE is just as good as a 1st tier engine, except it’s missing the “big name advertisers,” has cheaper traffic, fewer visits, etc. In reality, the idea behind the tiers is more directly related to the distribution networks and partners, than it is their revenue, advertisers or efficiency. To some degree, many people will tell you that MSN & ASK are in reality 2nd tier engines, due to their limited distribution networks (ASK only delivers results to Lycos, HotBot and iwon Search, whereas MSN delivers to HotBot only). Google delivers search results and paid results to 6 major 2nd tier engines, including ASK.com. Yahoo delivers to 2 major 2nd tier engines (alltheweb and AltaVista).

Common Concerns
So why does this matter? Well, after all these well known SEs we have the 3rd tier. Here lies everyone else, from LookSmart to Miva, Enhance to ABCSearch. These SEs are the ones that make audacious claims such as:

>Our search engine will increase your traffic by 200%
>Our conversion rate is 20% higher than Google Adwords
>Our cost-per-click across the board is 25% lower than Adwords

While, some of these engines do offer a cheaper source of traffic than Google or Yahoo, often times the traffic is not as relevant as the 1st tier engines. This concept is what makes these engines truly 3rd tier – they don’t have the same network as Google or Yahoo. As Google and Yahoo (even MSN) have taken the main distribution sites away from other SEs, 3rd tier engines are left with affiliate sites, poorly organized local search and an odd collection of SEs that don’t even qualify for 3rd tier. Those who have been maintaining high traffic quality are definitely not providing high traffic volume and great reach in search network distribution.

The final issue of concern that I’d like to bring into the conversation is that of click fraud (or if we’d like a happier term click abundance). Many times these 3rd tier engines do offer a cheaper CPC, do increase traffic by 200% and do provide results right away. The problem is, that sometimes all 3 of these things happen in a short amount of time, as a SEW member found out when attempting to run ads on Kanoodle.

Recently, 3rd tier engines have been trying desparately to clean up possible click fraud. For example, Enhance recently beefed up their ability to protect the advertiser from false clicks. Hopefully, we’ll see more engines expanding their technology to achieve similar goals.

Personal Experience
From my own experiences, I have a rather mixed perception on 3rd tier engine effectiveness. I have had campaigns nearly destroyed by unqualified (spam) traffic that was directly traced back to 3rd tier engines (the most frequent offenders were LookSmart and Mamma). However, I’ve also had some limited low-impact success from up and coming SEs, Miva and Enhance.

Recommendation
When kept at a low volume, 3rd tier engines offer a great source for supplemental traffic, if one is trying to grow a campaign or brand. However, if a campaign is focused on specific metrics, 3rd tier engines carry the adept ability to disrupt progress for a campaign. In light of all of these concerns, I don’t think one should avoid 3rd tier engines, but remain skeptical.

More References:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum85/537.htm