SUBMITTING TO SEARCH ENGINES

Search engines fall into various categories, with the main ones being automated search engines, and human edited directories.

Where to Submit
Although there are thousands of search engines available, almost all traffic goes through a select few. These are the ones you should concentrate upon. Submitting to these few means your listing will show up all over the web in places such as Yahoo!, AOL and Netscape. Here are the main search engines and directories that will accept free submissions.

Open Directory

Google

Yahoo!

You will have to visit each site and find their submissions page, sometimes called "submit URL". Many require you to type in a security code shown on the screen. This stops people from attempting to use automated submissions software.

Some of these sites such as Open Directory require you to find the appropriate category to which you wish to submit. When you submit from here you will be asked for a title and description. Make sure the information you submit complies with the submission guidelines displayed on the site.

Other crawlers such as Inktomi and Teoma do not have a free submissions service, but will find your site if there are links from other web sites pointing at yours (see increasing link popularity).

Tracking your Submissions
There are some very good pieces of tracking software available, most of which you will have to buy a license for. We favour AgentWebRanking for its ease of use and quality of results.

You should track your results at least on a monthly basis in order to make sure you maintain your listings. Any changes can be spotted quickly and alteration of your site or re-submission can take place.

You may also wish to consider paid-for express links and pay-per-click listings if your budget allows.