There are literally thousands of search engines and directories; SearchEngineGuide.com has a list of over 3,000 topical search engines, portals and directories. But the biggest and most important to you as a search engine marketer are the ones you’ve heard of: Google, Yahoo!, Lycos, LookSmart, AltaVista and the like.

In search engine marketing, it is not so important to decide which ones to submit to or try to get ranked high on. You want to hit all the major ones and any specialized ones for your field (especially if you’re in business-to-business marketing).

One important thing to do when doing search marketing–and it’s half the endeavor’s fun–is to stay on top of the ever-shifting relationships among the various players in the field.

It’s important to do this to assure that your listings are in good stead with the search provider and that you know where your sponsored ads are being distributed. Search engines provide search results (or “power”) for many sites. Overture, the leader in paid listings, and others distribute (or, syndicate) their sponsored ads to other sites. In short, these companies compete with each other but are also in bed with each other.

For example, Google and Ask Jeeves reached a three-year deal beginning in September in which Ask Jeeves will carry the paid advertising from Google. That raised eyebrows because Ask Jeeve’s search technology, Teoma, is meant to compete with Google’s.

And Google won the contract from Overture to supply AOL Search’s paid links and is now also powering AOL Search’s crawler-based results, formerly handled by Inktomi.

“One moment someone is partnering with Google, the next minute it’s with LookSmart,” says Polly Bickel, online marketing manager at gift site RedEnvelope.com. “Just because you have a Google CPM buy it doesn’t mean you have a Google AdSelect buy or that your keywords are going to show up on AOL’s listings, which are powered by Google. It’s very complex.”

Indeed, according to the New York Times, portal Yahoo! is said to be searching for a new search partner, because its current one, Google, has its own site looking more like a portal. Google’s contract to provide Yahoo!’s search results was up in late September and all eyes are on whether the portal king might go with Google rival Inktomi instead.

In having someone in-house head up your search marketing agenda, staying on top of the players should be part of the task.

There are literally thousands of search engines and directories; SearchEngineGuide.com has a list of over 3,000 topical search engines, portals and directories. But the biggest and most important to you as a search engine marketer are the ones you