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There is so much hype about PR and google SEO - but how does one go about getting up those SERPS for the other engines such as Overture and MSN? Google might be the biggest alone, but I'm sure that it can't defeat by far all of the others put together? I've tried Overture PPC but haven't found it very beneficial.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Mr.'BackUp'

Dani AI

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raised the right question: other engines are separate markets and deserve tailored tactics, not just a copy of a Google campaign. and @Mr.'BackUp pointed out audience differences; the practical response is to measure and treat each engine on its own terms and budget.

On‑page basics matter everywhere: clear, keyword‑focused title tags and H1s, a concise meta description, useful unique content that answers the query, and simple crawlable URLs. Site speed, a straightforward link structure and a sitemap help smaller engines find and index pages faster. Avoid keyword stuffing; relevance and usefulness earn clicks and reduce bounce rates.

Off‑site signals still matter. Prioritize links from closely related sites and resource pages rather than bulk, off‑topic directories. Anchor text should be natural and varied. For paid placements, use tightly targeted landing pages that mirror ad copy and search intent — that often explains why a PPC campaign underperformed: wrong keywords, poor landing relevance, or missing conversion tracking.

Testing and measurement decide where to invest. Run small PPC tests with negative keywords and varied match types to discover profitable long‑tail phrases. Track impressions, CTR, bounce, and cost per conversion; compare engines by ROI, not raw traffic. Common problems to troubleshoot: wrong keyword list, weak call to action, mismatch between ad and landing page, or poor analytics setup.

Quick checklist for immediate steps:

  • Audit search referrals and keyword queries to see real engine demand.
  • Create 1–2 targeted landing pages for MSN/Overture queries.
  • Run micro PPC tests with strict negative keywords and measure CPA.
  • Acquire a handful of relevant, on‑topic links with natural anchor text.
  • Use data to shift budget toward the engine that delivers conversions, not just clicks.

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Member Avatar for seobook

Overture has a good network size, but your techi theme and audience is more likely to search on google than some of the other search sites...its the same reason why I sell a ton more of my ebooks from google than other search engines... the audience appeals to that user experience.

as far as the other search engines teoma / ask jeeves is a clustering engine which means you need links from lots of related websites, but they dont get much search volume and throw tons of ads on top of the ask jeeves search results.

msn and yahoo are the only other two major search engines. keyword rich content and bulk variety keyword rich links even from off topic sites work well for improving your relevancy for them.

Member Avatar for Mr.'BackUp'

I agree. I think for a number of years now, 'search wise' surfers use Google far more. Less savvy searchers would use Yahoo or believe Ask Jeeves would actually answer their 'questions'!

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