Getting listed with the search engines

It should come as no surprise to you, that you need to get your site listed with the major search engines to drive traffic to your site. The search engines are like online yellow pages and the number one source for locating information when you don't already know a web site's address. But which ones do you submit to and how do you get listed?

The Big Three
The most utilized search engines are Yahoo, Google, and MSN. Even AOL with it's million of subscribers does not come close to the number of searches conducted at any of these three. So these three are top priority. So, how do you get listed?

Yahoo
For a commercial site, you will need to agree to pay Yahoo $299/year to get listed using your credit card. You go to Yahoo.com, find the most appropriate category for your site, and then click on "suggest a site" at the top or bottom of the page. From there, simply follow the online instructions. Be sure to read their terms and conditions. Paying for inclusion does not guarantee inclusion or better placement and your fee is not refundable.

Google
Google, at this writing, one of the last remaining search engines accepting free submission. However, they have kind of buried their submission form, hoping that people will overlook it, I think. Anyway, simply go to www.google.com and click on "Jobs, Press, Cool Stuff...." From the next page click on "Submitting Your Site" and follow the instructions. While there are no fees to submit to Google, be sure to check out the "Webmaster Info" area to ensure your site meets their specifications. Submitting to Google will also get your site listed at AOL and Iwon.com.

MSN
There are 2 ways to get listed at MSN: via the LookSmart directory or via the Inktomi database. The LookSmart directory, while producing the first set of results, is the most expensive. At this time, LookSmart is charging a $49 setup fee, plus 15 cents for each visitor they claim to send you. (Note I said "claim" because, at the moment LookSmart is also counting Inktomi results shown at their site as billable clicks.)

Inktomi is $39.95/year for the first URL and $25/year for each additional page you want them to index. They will index every 48 hours. You need only submit your home page (or a site map page, if you have image maps or dynamic navigation), their spider will index the site by following the links. Submitting to Inktomi will not only place you at MSN, but also at LookSmart, AltaVista, Lycos, and a host of other search engines.

Other Search Engines to Consider...
DMOZ (The Open Directory Project) shares its database with many of the search engines, and they are still free, but it can take a long time to get listed since they use volunteer editors and some categories don't even have editors.

You may find a way to get listed in the FAST database (alltheweb.com), which also feeds data results to Lycos, but I'm not sure how long the free submission is going to last. At the Lycos site, they are charging a fee to get your site listed into the FAST database.

AltaVista is accepting free submissions, but it can take quite awhile before your site is listed. Pay-to-include fees are a bit steep here, starting at $49/page for 6 months.

By following these steps, your site will be in the major search engines, but may or may not rank well within these search engines. That is an entirely different topic best saved for another day. There are entire books written on how to improve your site's search engine placement. But if your site isn't even listed, you have very little chance of getting found unless you spend big dollars on offline advertising.

Whenever you are at a search engine, look for the little "add your URL," or "Suggest a site," or "Submit a site" link to see if you can get your site listed. Generally these links are at the very top or bottom of a page, you may have to look hard to find them.