While companies such as Google and Yahoo! cite "relevance" to the consumer as paramount to Internet searches, each is adjusting its search results functions to stimulate Website operators to choose the surer route of "pay-for-click" or "sponsor" positioning.

There's also another way to get or stay on top - "paid inclusion."

Popular thinking in search engines up to now has been that searches are a service to the public. The public wishes to find information on something they want, and they put a keyword into the search feature such as 'Dallas real estate.' What shows up first are the sponsorship and pay-for-click links. Below that will be the true search results, about 2,860,000 results on Yahoo!. Obviously, there has to be a way to filter those 'Dallas real estate' results.

Knowing no one is going to look at all 2.8 million Web sites, Google chooses to filter its results by literally changing the filters on their algorithms so that periodically the same search perimeters will yield different results.  

A few weeks ago, many Realtors panicked because Google changed its search algorithms, punting many off the precious first-page results. Conspiracy theorists charged that Google shook things up to get those to whom a top 10 result is critical to participate in its pay-for-click or sponsorship positions.

When a search engine changes how results are returned, that's called a dance. A dance can stimulate check-writing by freeloading Website operators, but it can also be used to foil Website placement firms from using or tricking the system into putting irrelevant Websites into its top search results positions.

For firms which don't have hundreds or thousands to spend on pay-for-click or sponsorships, there is little alternative to getting found by consumers unless the sites are optimized by the Webmaster to have the appropriate relevance to the consumer's search perimeters.

'Dallas real estate' should return plenty of Realtors, among other results, but what if those results aren't guaranteed?

Changing Dance Partners

Yahoo! has just announced that it is going to a "paid inclusion" model, which has been part of other search engine business models such as MSN and Ask Jeeves, among others, for some time. Until recently, Yahoo! used Google's search engine technology, but has now substituted its own "index" of billions of Web pages through its search subsidiary Overture.

The new program is called Content Acquisition Program or CAP. The idea is to give commercial Webmasters more control over which pages they want found by consumers, while helping searches remain relevant to consumers' keywords. The commercial side of CAP is called Site Match, where the paid-inclusion programs of Inktomi, Alta Vista and Fast are combined into one algorithymic search engine, which will be operated by Yahoo!'s subsidiary Overture.

The idea is instead of a number of confusing programs through which commercial sites bid to be number one, the ranking process is determined by the consumer's keyword relevancy.

But analysts say that paid inclusion could add as much as $100 million to Yahoo!'s coffers.

While Yahoo! claims that it will list as many sites as it can find, there's no guarantee that anyone's site will be in the index, unless they pay to be in the index.

For a mere $10 to $49 per Web page, and 15 cents to $1 for each click-through, Webmasters can be assured that their Websites will be included in the results even if there is no guarantee of first, second, or even 100th page placement.

According to real estate search engine expert Jordan Glogau, the click-through rate for real estate will be 30 cents.

Published: March 4, 2004

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