If you’ve spent much time searching, you have probably noticed that the search engines are not displaying one set of homogeneous results. Most search engines take the "chef’s salad" approach, displaying a mix of robot results, directory listings, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Your site is probably already represented by most of the types of results we’re about to discuss. Knowing what each type looks like and where they come from is the first step in being able to influence your own listings in a positive way. You learned about robot results earlier; here are the other types of results that are available to searchers.
Directories
Unlike those robot search engines, directory listings are often compiled by humans. Whether these humans are editors who work for the search engines or the site owners themselves who write and submit their own listings, it is often easy to tell the difference between a directory and a robot search result. Take a look at this robot-generated listing from Google. It’s called a snippet—text slurped directly from the web page and spat out into the search results page.
Directories aren’t likely to come out and find you the way robots will; site owners need to submit to them manually. Sometimes you can purchase a listing, sometimes they’re free, and sometimes you pay for the "privilege" of having your submittal reviewed whether your site is included or not. While it’s a little extra work to achieve directory listings, at least you can be relatively certain that your submittal will be reviewed by somebody and your site will have a fair chance of getting in. This is different from the robots, which do not guarantee review or inclusion.
Pay-Per-Click
No matter how blurred the line between unpaid and paid search gets in the search engine results, you, as the SEO expert, will always know the difference. That’s because, while it’s possible to get listed in robot search engines, meta search engines, and even directories without actually doing anything, you (or someone you delegate) will have to actively implement and carefully manage any pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for your own site. And, of course, there’s that little matter of the checkbook too.
Here’s how PPC Works: You open an account with a PPC engine. You decide which search terms you want your site to be seen for, and you write your own listing (or often, several different listings) to correspond with your chosen terms. Every time a searcher clicks on your listing, you pay the PPC engine a fee. You control the amount you want to spend for each click (your bid), and this is a major factor in the placement of your listing.
PPC is the SEO marketing venue over which you have the most control. It offers you a chance to micro-manage your website marketing by being able to target specific messages to specific terms, and even specific geographical locations. It gives you the opportunity to change your message on a whim, and it provides some of the most conclusive tracking around. Therefore, while PPC is by no means a requirement for good SEO, it’s an Eternally Attractive Option to have available to you.
Site Feeds
Site feeds have been around for years in one form or another, but their methodology is still morphing. Available in various forms, they are Eternally Helpful for large or frequently updated sites. Just as you may use a feed to be notified of your favorite blog or news topic, the search engines use site feeds to sit back and receive information from websites without sending spiders out to constantly gather, gather, gather. Feeds work well for regularly edited websites such as blogs and news sites (feeding the content of their daily posts) and online sellers (feeding up-to-the-minute commercial information such as product descriptions and prices). You may also have heard of trusted feed or paid inclusion programs where search engines allow certain "trusted"—and, usually, paying—websites to send the engines regular updates. Generally these types of listings get thrown into the mix with robot-gathered sites and have to fend for themselves, with no special status in the ranking algorithms.
Meta Search Engines
Some people are comparison shoppers, flitting from store to store to review all the merchandise before making a decision. For people who like to compare search results,meta search engines make it easy to review listings from different search engines in one screen—no flitting from site to site necessary. Simply put, meta search engines compile and display results from several search engines and rank them according to their own algorithms. You can’t use SEO to improve your presence on meta search engines directly; if a meta search engine like Mamma.com or Dogpile.com is using Google results, the way to do better on the meta search engine is to do better on Google.
