No Comments Written by Robert on August 12, 2008 – 6:30 pm

Comparison shopping engines have become one of the most popular places for Web users to compare prices and shop for products online. These engines specialize in giving consumers all the information they need to make thrifty purchases from online merchants. Shopping.com, PriceGrabber, Shopzilla, and Shogging.com are all favorite destinations for Internet shoppers, and if your site offers a product, be sure to get it listed on one or more of the leading comparison engines.

Keep in mind that getting your products listed on the leading comparison shopping engines is not free. You must pay a percentage of any sales referred, or a cost-per-click, for every user sent to your Web site by each comparison engine. Although a few comparison engines list products for free, including Become.com and Google Product Search (formerly Froogle.com), the vast majority of comparison engines charge you to list your products.

Ask.com was originally known as Ask Jeeves and allowed users to get answers to everyday questions phrased in natural, everyday language. In other words, the phrase “Who is the president of the United States?” would return results that answered that question.

The need for this oversimplified search engine diminished as everyday users became more Web savvy and comfortable with the way that search engines like Google and Yahoo worked. In February of 2006, the Jeeves character was discontinued and the engine rebranded as Ask.com.

In June of 2007, Ask relaunched again with a more simplified interface and a more customized results page depending on the type of search being conducted. Users searching for music are now presented with a listing of tracks by an artist that can be listened to directly from the Ask results.

Shopping Engines Drive Traffic

Similarly, users searching for a particular city are given weather results and maps alongside the standard search-engine results. Ask continues to pick up steam and is now the fourth most-used search engine on the Web. A good strategy for optimizing your Ask.com ranking is to try to include as many different forms of content as possible on your site.

When a keyword is searched for on Ask.com, the user is presented with multiple forms of media relating to that term. Include an image, video, news article, and blog post along with your regular content and you may be able to appear in multiple sections of the Ask.com results. Going after as much real estate on the Ask.com search engine results page, or SERP, as possible is sure to lead to more traffic for your Web site.

Another area of the Ask.com search engine results page follows the examples of Google, Yahoo, and MSN by displaying sponsored results that are paid for on a cost-per-click basis. These sponsored results appear above and below the natural search listings and allow you the opportunity to appear in even more places on the Ask results page. There are several reasons to advertise on Ask.com.

Because Ask is trying to break into the market, the cost is significantly lower on average than Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Moreover, many search marketing experts and experienced PPC advertisers suggest that the quality of traffic on Ask is superior to other leading search engines.

However, keep in mind that Ask PPC advertising may not be a good fit for your particular business. Test the service before you reallocate a significant amount of money away from your other search marketing efforts. Although Ask.com is still part of the Google Search Network and therefore displays AdWords advertising on its site, you should do your advertising directly through the Ask.com platform.

As the traffic to Ask.com increases, it is possible that Ask will break its ties with Google. As many advertisers have seen with AdWords, having a history with the platform allows advertisers to be one-up on the competition. Now is the time to get a head start and begin to build that history with Ask.com.