Paid directories are basically search engines that charge a fee for you to be included. These types of search engines are almost always "human reviewed" search engines, meaning that every site that is submitted is reviewed by a human instead of a computer, and the human decides if your site should be included in the directory and, if so, where it should go. This raises a new challenge for people who are working on their search engine ranking as the usual rules for "search engine friendly" pages change - this time your page is more likely to be assessed on quality of information, asthetics, and general "usefulness".

There are a number of paid directories, such as Yahoo, who offer a range of paid inclusion options. Yahoo! is one of the biggest and most popular search engines in the world. Therefore being included in Yahoo! will usually increase your coverage.

Pay-Per-Click search engines offer a new type of search engine ranking, where you bid on particular search terms and web sites are ranked according to how much they bid. For example, say you want your web site to show up when people type in "caravan parks", then you enter a bidding price that you will pay each time someone clicks on the link to your site. If you bid, for example, $1.10 per click and that's the highest, you'll rank number one. If not, you'll rank lower.

The advantage of pay-per-click engines is that you can choose what keywords you want to show up for and how much you want to pay. If you want to be number one, simply check what the current highest bid is and bid more - even 1 cent more. You then pay that amount each time someone clicks and visits your site. You then need to transform those clicks into sales to pay for it!

If you want to use pay-per-click engines, some of the most popular ones around are Yahoo (formerly Overture), Google's Adwords program, 7Search, and Miva. With pay-per-click engines, it doesn't matter too much which one you use, as you basically only pay for the traffic you get out of it.

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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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