The big change in the search engine market in Australia over the last few years is that more and more of the major search engines have started to charge for top listings. Although they may provide a free way of being included, most want you to now pay for the very top listings.

So who are the major search engines in Australia? Here are the top ones, in a very rough order of popularity:

1. Google
2. NineMSN
3. Yahoo
4. Altavista
5. Web Wombat

There are many others, but these are the top 5. Let's take a very brief look at each of them.

1. Google - the great thing about Google is that they made a decision along time ago to be the best provider of free search results across the world. Many people prefer to receive search results that are untainted by bidding or payment. Google has it's own very powerful program that searches for web sites and adds them to their database, so you normally don't need to do anything to be listed. You also have the option of taking out a paid advertisement (down the right hand side of their results screen). These are called Google Adwords and start at 1 cent per click.
   
   
2. NineMSN - the free search results on NineMSN are currently provided by MSN, but the top paid results are provided by Yahoo (go figure). When you do a search, the top 3 results are normally "Sponsored Results". These are businesses who have signed up for the "Pay Per Click" service through Yahoo (previously known as Overture).
   
   
3. Yahoo - when you do a search on Yahoo Australia, the first three results are normally called "Sponsor Results". These are results that are provided by their pay per click program. Therefore to be included in these results you need to be listed with their pay per click service, and be in the top 3 bidders for that term. Bids normally start at 10 cents per click.
   
   The results underneath the sponsored results are provided by Yahoo's own database. There is a good chance that your site can be shown in these results even if you haven't paid to be there.
   
   
4. Altavista - Altavista works very similar to Yahoo, which isn't surprising, because Yahoo actually owns Altavista. The top 3 results in Altavista are normally from Yahoo's pay per click results. The results lower down are from Yahoo's database, which you can be included in by either paying to be included, or through a free submission process.
   
   
5. Web Wombat - this used to be a good, free, Australian search engine. It still is a good Australian search engine, but is no longer free. You now need to pay a small yearly fee to be included. It works independently of any of the above major engines.

In summary, although there are a number of major Australian search engines that can bring you traffic, you only need to worry about submitting your site to a few databases, and then they will feed your site into a number of other search engines. If you ensure that your site is showing up in Google, Yahoo, and NineMSN, that will get you exposure to the majority of Australian Internet users.

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Disclaimer: This page is designed to provide information only and is not a substitute for advice that is specific to your business. Before acting on any of the information above it is important you seek further advice from a professional who has taken into consideration the nature and circumstances of your business.

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