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Optimizing for Vortals
by David Dimas
Vortals, otherwise known as vertical portals, are industry-
topic, or region-specific gateways to online information. Unlike
regular Search Engines and directories, vortals focus on a
specific area, and thus generally have more information than
such general interest directories such as Yahoo! and LookSmart.
Vortals are poised to become a third area of Search Engine
optimization, along with spidering Search Engines and human-
edited directories. They're already generating traffic to many
Web sites. According to a Forrester Research study, vertical
portals and well-affiliated sites will capture 57% of online
ad spending by 2004.
A NEW MARKETING PLAN
Before optimizing for vortals, you need to understand how they
are created. Vortals come in two flavors: human-edited and
automatically generated. Human-edited vortals are compiled by
people knowledgeable in a certain area. These vortals are
usually comprehensive and high in quality, but they are
also high in costs.
On the other hand, a company that wants to build vortals can
purchase software that streamlines the process with the use of
special algorithms and editorial tools. Quiver.com is one
company that provides vortal development solutions. "Quiver
technology automates the process of building deep directories
without much human power needed. It's Yahoo-like with one or
two people," says Scott Potter, Quiver's CEO.
OPTIMIZING FOR VORTALS
Just as you need to adopt different strategies when optimizing
for directories or Search Engines, you need different strategies
when optimizing for different types of vortals. Human-edited
vortals usually look for the same qualities that Yahoo does when
evaluating a site: good design, quality content and an
appropriate category. Before you even consider submitting
your site to vortals, you should ensure that it's high-quality.
Vortals generated with the help of automated software are usually
of a lower quality than their human-edited counterparts. However,
such vortals are cheaper to create and maintain, an important
factor for online businesses.
Software packages exist that generate links for vortals using a
completely automated process. Such programs usually crawl the Web
looking for a specific "theme" on various pages. Once a Web site
exhibiting this theme is discovered, that Web site will be added
to the vortal.
SUBMITTING TO VORTALS
When it comes to vortals, the chances that you will be found
without submitting decrease significantly. Thus, you should
make vortals a part of your submission campaign.
Once you find vortals in your industry you should figure out
how you can be listed. If a vortal accepts only paid submissions
don't forget to evaluate cost, membership requirements and site
demographics before signing up.
Once you've decided to submit to a vortal, the process is very
similar to Search Engine and directory submissions. You will
need to find an appropriate category and provide your site's
URL and a brief description. Try to get listed in a few vortals
in your industry to see if the generated traffic is worth
more effort.
SOURCE: searchengines.com/vortals.html
Reproduced with permission from David Dimas,
WebPositionAdvisor.com. To subscribe: send an email with JOIN
in the subject to: join-searchenginenews@webpositionadvisor.com
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