How this applies to Directory and Organic Search listings

Understanding search engines and how they work is an integral part of doing search engine marketing. Different engines have different site structures. Some search engines display these paid ads along with their organic search in such a way that the end user has no idea that he/she is clicking on a paid listing.

There are three other ways that listings from sources other than internal databases are used:

1. Primary Organic Search Results
2. Secondary Organic Search Results
3. Directory Search Results

A good example is Google. Google supplies Ask.com with their paid listings. Ask.com supplies Lycos, HotBot and Dogpile with their primary search results, and Ask supplies Snap.com with their secondary search results.

Lets take a look at the rest.

Google

• Gets directory results from DMOZ.
• Furnishes primary search results to Alexa, Netscape, Dogpile, AOL and Go.com.

Yahoo

• Gets paid results from Yahoo Search Marketing.
• Furnishes primary search results to Alta Vista, Alltheweb and Dogpile.

MSN Live and MSN

• Provides paid listings via MSN AdCenter to Microsoft sites.
• Furnishes Dogpile with primary results.

LookSmart

• Furnishes Dogpile with primary results.

Snap.com

• Gets secondary search results from Ask.com.

Lycos

• Gets directory listings from DMOZ.
• Gets paid results from Google.
• Gets primary results from Ask.com.

AOL

• Gets paid and primary results from Google.
• Gets directory listings from DMOZ.

Go

• Gets paid and primary listings from Google.

Alta Vista

• Gets directory listings from DMOZ.
• Gets paid results from Yahoo Search Marketing.
• Gets primary results from Yahoo.

Netscape

• Gets directory listings from DMOZ.
• Gets paid and primary results from Google.

Ask

• Gets paid results from Google.
• Furnishes primary results to Lycos, Dogpile and Hotbot.
• Furnishes secondary search results to Snap.com.

HotBot

• Gets directory listings from DMOZ.
• Gets paid results from Google.
• Gets primary search results from Ask.com.

Dogpile

• Gets paid results from Yahoo.
• Gets primary search results from LookSmart, MSN, Yahoo, Google, and Ask.

Alexa

• Gets directory results from DMOZ.
• Gets paid and primary results from Google.

AllTheWeb

• Gets paid results from Yahoo Search Marketing.
• Gets primary search results from Yahoo.

So at the end of the day, to maximize your website potential, you need to be on the top of organic listings as well as paid listings.

Personally I have tested this theory several times, and with very large companies, and each time the result is the same: a major difference in traffic running a paid campaign alongside top rankings on the organic side.

Gary R. Beal (a.k.a. GaryTheScubaGuy) is the Head of Search and Head of SEO and PPC Training at Stickyeyes.

(taken from http://www.seochat.com)