LookSmart is a global leader in Internet search and categorisation, operating a database of three million URLs organised into 300,000 categories. Its influence is far reaching, yet a succession of recent changes to its paid inclusion program has left the directory misunderstood and widely criticised. In order to understand these changes, LookSmart's future direction and the impact of these changes to website marketing, we must first understand a bit about the structure of LookSmart itself, and it's relationships with a string of strategic partners.

LookSmart was the first major player to introduce paid inclusion, and as a result developed an early skew towards the corporate sector of the web. Measures were taken during 2001 to counteract this through the integration of Zeal's community based website directory <http://www.zeal.com>, which doubled the number of non-commercial sites within the LookSmart database overnight - and continues to feed non-commercial content into the directory. This gave website marketers the opportunity to submit content to LookSmart for free. Becoming a Zealot involves a few online tests, but means that you can edit your own non-commercial listings that will be distributed throughout the LookSmart Network.

Of course most people interested in search engine marketing are looking to promote corporate sites with a mind to increasing sales. In a bid to keep up with rapidly expanding International crawler based search engines, and the directory Yahoo! - which stole an early lead in the search market - LookSmart struck a strategic partnership with BT (British Telecommunications), to create BTLookSmart. This is where the story gets complicated. If you're based in North America, or your primary marketing is North America, then you'll want to deal with LookSmart themselves <http://www.looksmart.com>.

If you're based in or are targeting the UK, France or the Asia-Pacific region, then you deal with BTLookSmart <http://www.btlooksmart.com>. Both use the same database, but deal with the data in slightly different ways. More significantly, both deal with website submissions in a dramatically different manner - at least for now.

LookSmart.com

LookSmart commercial search listings enable businesses to reach 77%, or nearly four out of five U.S. Internet users. Results are fed through top portals and ISPs including MSN, AltaVista, Netscape, Inktomi, Prodigy, Juno, CNN, Road Runner, Cox Interactive Media, InfoSpace (Go2Net, Dogpile, MetaCrawler) and Ask Jeeves. The company have recently changed the listings process from one of Pay-for-Inclusion to Pay-per-Click in the shape of LookListings.

LookListings is a Pay-per-Click product similar to that used by Overture, and was initially designed for large companies that have a monthly minimum budget of $2,500. In April LookSmart introduced LookListings Small Business, which replaced the company's previous Pay-for-Inclusion offering. Although similar, the key differences between the Overture and LookListings system is that the cost of a click-through is fixed on LookListings, whereas Overture use a bidding system to determine cost, and also that just one URL per company is allowed. The service incurs a one off set-up fee of $49, and a $150 minimum click-through balance - although this is refundable, and each click-through will cost you a flat $0.15. I won't bore you with the finer details of LookListings here, but would recommend taking a look at http://listings.looksmart.com/help/faq.jhtml for more information.

The obvious benefit to LookSmart of Pay-per-Click is that it produces a continuous revenue stream, and locks the customer (that's us!) into a relationship with the company. The one time listing fee charged prior to April was ideal for search engine marketing purposes, where a relatively modest one time fee secured a listing, and only an occasional email was required to make any necessary amendments.

LookSmart first signalled its intention to develop a long term financial relationship with customers through the introduction of a fee to amend URL's, descriptions and titles. It then made the leap to Pay-per-Click.

This long-term financial relationship is what has angered many SEO experts. A small typical website that receives 30 visitors per day from LookSmart will be paying $1,638 per year, compared to the one off fee of $299 prior to April. If the website owner in question cannot stump up this figure, then they only receive the click-throughs they can afford - so their 30 visitors may become 5 per day. Of course LookSmart can rightly argue that if a click-through converts to a sale then the £0.15 fee pays for itself. Others would argue that due to the nature of Internet search behaviour, and the number of passive searchers, this argument doesn't stack up.

Whatever your angle, LookSmart and Pay-per-Click are here to stay. Internet search providers have been forced to maximise revenues from recurrent fees - as we have seen through Yahoo!'s introduction of an annual $299 fee - so it wasn't entirely unexpected that such a move would occur at LookSmart. It's also worth considering that there is currently one way around LookSmart's LookListings, and that's BTLookSmart.

BTLookSmart

BTLookSmart operate LookSmart portals in the UK, France and Asia-Pacific regions. If your target market consists of any of these areas, then you can use the BTLookSmart site submission process. This is good news because the submission process employed is exactly the same as the LookSmart main site pre April 2002. A one time fee of 149GBP or 159EUR will get your site reviewed within 5 days, and included in the searchable database within 4 weeks.

Once the site is listed an email to the usually helpful editors will be enough to make any required changes within a day or two. Bear in mind that LookSmart editors have a maximum of 145 characters (including spaces) to work with for the description, although they can fit in additional keywords in a hidden field. If you suggest a description that is within the character limit they will usually use it unamended. The hidden keyword field can be useful for spelling variations, such as in words that can be spelt using both an "s" and "z", just suggest them in your mail.

How long BTLookSmart will hold off Pay-per-Click is hotly debated. They didn't follow LookSmart's lead in introducing fees for listing amendments, which may suggest less of an emphasis on exploiting long term customer relationships within their current business model. Also, BTLookSmart have less of a grip on the UK search market, contributing to 60% of UK searches compared to 77% in the US, and, although still an impressive figure, perhaps they will work to increase this before rocking the boat through the introduction of Pay-per-Click.

On balance, LookSmart is still an essential website directory to be listed in. It has a strong network of partners and its influence is almost impossible to avoid when searching the web. A good listing for a particular keyword on LookSmart will guarantee a good position on MSN, which is fast becoming the premium search site in many of the countries in which it operates.

Despite the increased costs of Pay-per-Click, LookSmart is still an attractive proposition when compared to the likes of Lycos and AltaVista. Better still, use BTLookSmart to gain a listing and avoid the ongoing charges while you still can. LookSmart has its critics, but one thing is certain - LookSmart have always been instrumental in driving the search engine industry be it in a positive or negative direction. LookSmart is fundamental to the industry - as demonstrated by its recent acquisition of WiseNut - and looks set to be for the foreseeable future.