ExactSeek Explained (Part 1 - Revised)

ExactSeek Explained (Part 1 - Revised)

By Mel Strocen (c) 2005



This article takes an in-depth look at some of the innovations

introduced at ExactSeek.com (http://www.exactseek.com),

including, most recently, the implementation of a unique paid inclusion program that offers webmasters unprecedented exposure for a fixed, one-time payment.



Search engines basically cater to two audiences - webmasters

and web searchers. Although there is an obvious overlap between

the two groups, the latter dominates in numbers and most search

engines bend over backwards to keep web searchers happy by

continually tweaking search result algorithms. Webmasters, on

the other hand, are more or less left to fend for themselves.



ExactSeek was founded 3 years ago on the premise that webmasters/ site owners are the driving force on the Web - not in numbers,

but in terms of ideas, development, enthusiasm and innovation.

The goal for ExactSeek, then and now, was to build a major

engine that catered to this audience and web searchers more or

less equally. Part 1 of this article deals with ExactSeek's

focus on webmasters.



Free Site Listings



ExactSeek's belief in the importance of the webmaster audience

to search engine growth and traffic resulted in the rapid

introduction of two types of free site listings, each geared

to helping webmasters give their websites maximum exposure

within the search engine.



Here's a short explanation of each:



Standard listings: As the name implies, this site listing

is just a basic website listing in the ExactSeek database,

comprised of Site Name (taken from the Title tag), description

(taken from the Meta Description tag) and Site Link (the website

URL).



These basic listings show up numbered 1 to 10, etc. in

ExactSeek's search result pages. Any webmaster can obtain a

Standard Listing simply by filling out the form at:

http://www.exactseek.com/add.html



Enhanced listings: Not strictly a website listing - really more

of an enhancement to the standard website listing. In brief, an

enhanced listing consists of a small icon residing next to a

website's standard listing which when clicked opens a 150x150

javascript window with additional information about that website.

The cool thing about the enhanced listing is that webmasters can

add up to 800 characters of text or HTML code to the content of

the window, allowing them to:



- Embed audio, video or Flash.

- Include logo, product or service images.

- Include links to secondary site pages.

- Use font enhancements (size, color, style).

- Include more detailed information about their websites.



Simple examples can be seen at:



http://www.exactseek.com/enhanced.html



The two types of listings noted above offer any half way

knowledgeable webmaster a means to maximize site exposure with

minimal effort. Best of all, any site meeting ExactSeek's

submission guidelines is added within 24 hours. No pointless

weeks or months of waiting. In 24 hours, websites are either

indexed or not. If not, the most common reasons are:



1. The site submitted lacked a Title tag. The ExactSeek crawler

ignores sites without Title tags.



2. The site submitted was pornographic or contained illegal

content.



3. The site submitted was dynamically generated and its URL

contained non-standard characters like question marks (?),

ampersands (&), equal signs (=) percent symbols (%) and/or

plus signs (+).



4. The submitting webmaster failed to respond to the submission

verification email message sent out by ExactSeek. Or, as is

becoming more and more common, the webmaster failed to

receive the message due to sp@m and ISP filtering and, thus,

could not confirm submission. Webmasters using AOL, Hotmail

and Yahoo email addresses may soon find it impossible to have

their websites added to any search engine using a

verification system.





The Do-It-Yourself Approach



One of the most irritating things about many search engines

is that it can take weeks or even months for free website

submissions to be indexed. And once sites have been added, it

can take weeks for changes to content and/or tags to be

re-indexed and for webmasters to see if those changes had a

positive effect on site ranking.



ExactSeek opted to put a measure of control back in webmaster

hands by introducing a do-it-yourself approach. Early on, two

simple online tools were made available which allowed webmasters

to quickly check the positioning of any website in the ExactSeek

database for any keyword(s) relevant to that site and then, if

necessary, do something about it.



(a.) Site Ranking Tool

Tracks the top 10,000 site rankings for all keywords in the

ExactSeek database, allowing a webmaster to find his site

ranking for any keyword(s) relevant to his website.



(b.) Web Crawler Tool

Allows webmasters to schedule recrawls of their websites as

often as once per week. Self-scheduled recrawls and instant site

ranking checks provide webmasters with a quick read on which

optimization strategies work and which don't.



Both of the above tools can be found with additional explanation

on the following page:



http://www.exactseek.com/srank.html



Do-It-Yourself - The Next Step



More recently, ExactSeek implemented a simple free membership system that takes the do-it-yourself approach one step further. Any webmaster who has successfully submitted a website to

ExactSeek is automatically a member and can obtain a Member ID

and Password for login purposes by using the appropriate form

at the ExactSeek Member Login page.

(http://www.exactseek.com/member.html)



After logging in, webmasters can access a Member Account Manager

which allows them to edit, enhance, delete and/or recrawl their

site listings as often as they like. Revolutionary? Maybe not,

but a big step away from total reliance on search engine

scheduling.



Part 2 of this article will look at ExactSeek's paid

inclusion program and how it stacks up against pay-per-click

offerings as well as how it differs from the paid inclusion

programs once offered by Inktomi, Ask Jeeves and other engines.



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Mel Strocen is CEO of the Jayde Online Network of websites. The

Jayde network currently consists of 20 websites, including

ExactSeek.com (http://www.exactseek.com), SiteProNews.com

(http://sitepronews.com) and SEO-News.com (http://SEO-News.com)