I sell services to UK residents therefore I would like to ensure that
my promotion efforts are targeted at search engines and directories
that have a significant UK audience. I think that even if I managed to
rank well in MSN.com I may not necessarily benefit significantly in
way of sales, as I would imagine that the users are predominantly
Americans searching for products in the US.

Therefore my question is: -

Could you please list the top ten search engines/directories to target
in the UK and the most effective way to get listed in each. I have no
challenge with paying for listings if this results in faster inclusion
or the site being re-indexed more frequently.

Hello anonymous2-ga:

Here is a possible answer to your first part. Please let me know if I am on
the right track. I will also like to know how should I go with the second
part of the question. I am providing you a possible solution for a review.
Let me know if that's how you want it. I will complete the answer and post
it, if you are satisfied. Meanwhile, I will keep the question open to other
researchers as they might have a better solution.

ANSWER IST PART

Let me assume that the bottomline to your question is that you need to 
get more targeted traffic. I agree with you that your listing in certain 
search engines might not drive a lot of traffic or might not drive 
targeted traffic, because you need a website which specifically target 
UK web searchers.

There are two types of search engines and directories that we need to review
in compiling an answer to your question. First, there are local versions of 
famous search engines such as Yahoo (UK & Ireland), Google UK, Altavista UK
etc. Secondly, there are reigonal search engines that specifically target the
reigonal audience of a perticular country.

The problem that arises here is that the local versions of famous search 
engines might get a lot of traffic from around the world but they are not
tailroad to meet the requirement of the local markets. On the other hand, 
most reigonal search engines do drive a targeted traffic but they are not 
well known to web searchers.

It was exactly this kind of problem that I encountered while compiling a 
useful list for you. Therefore I had to rely on some hard statistics in 
order to come with the best list possible. How did I do that? First, I 
gathered the names of some well known UK search engines and directories 
that are known to be famous among the local population. I did that by getting
the statistcs from their individual websites and by relying on articles that
compared the UK based search engines. Infact, each article had different 
views but I included only those search engines and directories that were 
listed more frequently and got reviews from most of them.

Whereas, the other famous search engines were concerned, I tried to look for
the reputable studies by a firm to track the search engines that get the 
most amount of traffic from the UK. Hence, the top search engines used by 
just the UK population. Good that I was able to get such a study conducted
by Neilson/ Net Ratings in 2002. It simply made my job easier.

I will provide you the relevant sources but here is my top 10 search engines
and directories for UK. The list takes into account the famous UK search
engines and directories and other popular reigonal versions of 'big shot' 
search engines that get a lot of traffic from UK audience. I will than 
answer the second part of your question on how to get an effective listings.

MY TOP 10

Reigonal

Splut
UK Plus
Mirago 
UK Index
Abacho UK
Search UK
msn.co.uk
yahoo.co.uk
google.co.uk
freeserve.com

Now here is why did I choose these. It is well known that Mirago, Splut and
Abacho are top reigonal UK search engines whike UK Plus, UK Index and Search
UK are top Uk directories. The reason for choosing Yahoo.co.uk and msn.co.uk 
is becuase they were rated 3rd and 4th respectively for the amount of traffic
in Neilson/ Net Ratings. Similarly, Google/Google.co.uk was simply rated the
best website. Definitely, we cannot argue about the traffic that Google gets.
Lastly,Freeserve is thaught to be one of the most popular in UK.  A recent
Kellysearch study revealed it to be the top search engine for the amount of
traffic. Although I doubt that but in Neilson/Net Ratings it is number 10,
which isn't bad.

ANSWER SECOND PART (NOT TO SURE ABOUT HTIS PART. PLEASE REVIEW AND SUGGEST).

SPLUT
The best way to put your website upfront is pay per click. Although, all of 
listings are free but the results are sorted in the following order.
1. Pay per click websites
2. Websites that have links to Splut (you just need to place a link on your
website to Splut)
3. Alphabatically.
More Information: 
http://www.splut.com/improve.htm

UK PLUS
The best way to put your website on top is by paying its partner espotting.com
through their pay per click program. This way your website will be in the 
featured listing that shows above the rest.
More Information:
http://www.ukplus.com/html/help.asp?page_name=help

Mirago
Again, the paid inclusion program can bebefit your website by putting it on 
the featured list. 
More Information:
http://www.mirago.com/com/inclusion.asp

UK Index
Like UK plus, the featured listings on this website are drived through 
espotting.com. Otherwise the listings are free of cost.

AND SO ON.............................................

RESOURCES

NEILSON RATINGS OF UK SEARCH ENGINES
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_021223_uk.pdf

VERY USEFUL DISCUSSION FORUM ON UK SEARCH ENGINES
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum7/

TOP UK SEARCH ENGINES & DIRECTORIES
http://www.websearchworkshop.co.uk/uksearch.htm
PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN TOP UK SEARCH ENGINES & DIRECTORIES
http://www.websearchworkshop.co.uk/ukpartners.htm
UK Search Engines
http://www.philb.com/ukengine.htm
EUROPEAN SEARCH ENGINES
http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/LITA/LITA_Resources_and_Services/Tool_Kit_for_the_Expert_Web_Searcher/Tool_Kit_for_the_Expert_Web_Searcher.htm
AND
http://www.netmasters.co.uk/european_search_engines/page52.shtml
SEARCH ENGINE WATCH
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2164931
SEARCH ENGINE RATINGS FRIM REVIEWERS
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/internet/internet_site_features_discussion/_selected/19580/
INTERNATIONAL SEARCH ENGINES
http://www.allsearchengines.com/foreign.html
UK SEARCH ENGINES
http://www.cf.ac.uk/infos/information/electronic/search/searching.html#uk
ONE OF THE BEST WEBSITES FOR UK PROMOTION
http://www.websearchworkshop.co.uk/

Hello anonymous2,

In addition to the excellent information given by leader-ga, you might
find the following options useful :


1) Espotting UK :
   They power over 1 billion searches each month. You pay per click, and your
   site will be listed in top positions across UK websites in their network.
   http://www.espotting.com/

2) Overture UK :
   The same company that dominates the U.S. market has a UK offering as
   well. It is also pay per click, and their listings appear on AskJeeves UK,
   Yahoo UK and other large, local (UK) search engines.
   http://www.content.overture.com/d/home/?mkt=uk


These two alone are probably the best way to get instant (few days),
and large amounts of traffic to your site, while gaining more targeted
UK visitors.

SgtCory

Thanks Leader GA,


where the initial results listed are overture or espotting is useful.
However what i am really looking for is how to get in the unpaid
listings. IE MSN UK apparently gets some of its listings from
looksmart and i can pay looksmart for a review. I know i can use
adwords to get listed on Google.co.uk and the rest is down to the
Googlebot finding a link to your site and liking your site.

I suppose what i am looking for is a listing of the various methods
whether its PPC,paid review, or straightforward submission to get into
the UKS major search engines and directories. Hopefully this would
include URL,s and any other info you thought appropriate.

Re