Walmart.com and eBay expand paid inclusion contracts with Inktomi
Showing up in search listings is key to online marketing success, and some paid inclusion programs are offering retailers a way to connect web shoppers more directly with relevant content while stopping short of actually paying for specific placement in search results. Walmart.com and eBay.com this week announced they will expand existing agreements for paid inclusion to cover more content with search engine provider Inktomi under Inktomi’s year-old Index Connect program.
Index Connect, a pay-for-performance program geared at larger web sites and web content providers, launched in March 2001. The program ensures that spiders crawling web sites for search results will recognize and grab content, such as updated or deep web content for products, that may fall outside the search pathways of the traditional web crawler, to improve overall results for the site.
Retailers and content providers don’t have to pay to be included in Inktomi’s search engine, but Index Connect clients get Inktomi’s help on links and formatting that ensures that deeper or more targeted content is readily picked up in searches. Essentially, it’s a search optimization program within a paid inclusion program.
Index Connect e-commerce and content site clients pay performance-based fees based on traffic to the targeted areas of their sites that are covered by the Index Connect program. Under the program, for example, an e-commerce site could publish updated inventory information to allow users to be directed to the exact page of a product they seek. Inktomi portal partners facilitating the transactions share in that revenue, while providing their users with a deeper and more frequently updated offering of content.
Inktomi recently announced it has signed more than 1,000 large content provider clients for the Index Connect program. Smaller e-commerce sites and publishers get similar service under Inktomi’s annual fee-based Search Submit program. “Inktomi pioneered the paid inclusion model, striking direct interaction between content providers and the search engine to improve the overall quality of the index without compromising the integrity of search results,” says Vishal Makhijani, vice president and general manager of Web Search at Inktomi. “Inktomi is dedicated to delivering the best search technology to our portal partners while introducing innovative business models that support their continued success.”
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