What are some other search engines similar to ebay?

AOL Search Engine Rankings

• I use Overture for a nickle a click on many search words which makes me a sponsor and adds a great deal of traffic to my site through Yahoo, etc. My problem is with AOL since anything you do with them costs a fortune. If you look at my site, www.theeveningstore.com, you will see what I do. My keywords like Prom Dresses, Evening Wear, Evening Gowns, show up so far into AOL search engines that you would die before you find me. Others, less significant sites, appear much higher, even though over the years I have done everything possible on AOL, within their directories, one can do. My question becomes what can I do to raise my rankings on AOL since they have no Overture type, pay per click, of system in place and it seems to me they really only play with the big boys, not small companies like mine. Our traffic, some 3,000 people and 100,000 hits per day ain't bad, but AOL referrals are way down on my list, where Yahoo, Google, are high. I am interested in the keywords I listed above and I am curious to know how I can get listed within the first few pages with them on the AOL search. You do them, I think, so what is involved? I have been going crazy with AOL for many years. I have an Ebay Store, a Yahoo Store, our own store, Overture accounts for the US, Germany, and the UK, but I still rank low within AOL searches. Can you help me, I cannot afford to pay people, who at least call me all the time for my business, that tell me they can get me higher rankings on AOL for 30 cents a click. That could break me. I really appreciate your help? Also I know AOL is coming out with a Local Search pay per click, but that is only in your local area and will not help me nationally or internationally. Many, Many Thanks. Take your time, look me over, and let me know. Barry

• Answer:

  I think you are asking two very interesting and different types of questions. The first issue is the issue of traffic from various websites. You say, "AOL referrals are way down on my list, where Yahoo, Google, are high" and you want to know how to raise your referrals from AOL. The above clarification was correct in many ways. AOL uses Google as its serch engine, so the way to improve your refers in AOL is to have better placement in Google. Now since you say the majority of your traffic comes from Google (and Yahoo, via Google, I suppose) then by logic, if Google serves as AOLs search engine, you assume you be seeing increased AOL search results. However, your plight is similar to many on the internet, including my own. Please consider the following thread on Webmaster world. These are webmasters such as yourself who are comparing their Google, Yahoo and AOL search results. Eight out of the nine respondants also say that their AOL referrs are very small. They offer some very compelling hypothesis as to why this is true. 1. "It all comes down to market share...a lot more peopele use googgle search than AOL search so you get more referals from google than AOL." 2. "I actually think it's more to do with AOLers. They won't leave AOL-Land or they're just used to going into the AOL content." 3. "When you look at Media Metrix and similar ratings on what search engines are getting traffic, AOL is pretty low however, - a lot of users but not many are using search." I also agree with their basic reasoning. My content web site gets similar traffic to you and my referrals are similar...Google and Yahoo lead the way and AOL rounds out the bottom. Webmaster World AOL-Google Discussion http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/6187.htm Having said all that, you do want to know how to improve your placement on AOL and as somone else noted, you can try to do that via Google AdWords™ Here is the link. https://adwords.google.com/select/?hl=en Please note: I do not work for Google, I am an independent contractor, who, by the way, does have a very high opinion of Google search capabilities. Google AdWords advertises itself as, "Google AdWords ads appear on Google and partner sites including AOL". So, you know that if you sign up for Google AdWords, you might get a bit more traffic from AOL, but perhaps not much more, because basically the AOL Google search does not, on average for the vast majority of websites, generate a great deal of traffic. However, if you do sign up for Google AdWords, you know that your search terms will have premium placement on all Google, AOL, EarthLink and other Google AdWord partners. It's basically set up like Overture, so you should be able to get up and running in a few minutes.