You can use vertical search engines to boost your Web site traffic and product sales. A vertical, or “specialized,” search engine finds Web sites that deal with a specific topic. Instead of sending crawlers out to the Web, they send crawlers out to a specialized database to return search results.
Users of these search engines are often further along in the purchasing process than users of the general search engines, Greg Sterling, an analyst with the Kelsey Group, told Forbes.com (Jan. 18, 2006). That makes vertical search engines an excellent place to advertise.
LookSmart
LookSmart is an emerging leader in the vertical search engine field and operates more than 180 vertical search engines. As the Internet continues to grow exponentially, the company believes more and more consumers will turn to specialized search engines in order to find exactly what they're looking for.
Reach Your Audience
The good news for you is that advertisements on vertical search engines are still less expensive than those on the broad search engines, and they reach a more targeted segment of the population — one that is ready to buy! Advertisements and listings with vertical search engines can help you generate quality traffic to your Web site.