Getting Listed with the Search Engines
AUGUST 2002
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 millios 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
To submit your site, go to yahoo.com and click on "Suggest A Site" at the bottom of the screen. This page will show you all of your options for listing your site with Yahoo. Some are free, some are not - be sure to read all of the terms and conditions if you decide to use a paid option.
Google
Google only accepts free submission and accounts for more than 90% of search traffic. However, they have kind of buried their
submission form.
Go to www.google.com and click on "About Google " From the next page click on "Submit your Content to Google " and follow the instructions. While there are no
fees to submit to Google, be sure to check out the "WebmasterCentral" area to ensure your site meets their specifications.
If you have a site that is difficult for search engines to index, like an e-commerce site, you may want to subscribe to Google's sitemap program (it's free) to insure that your site is fully indexed.
MSN/BING
MSN is now using BING as their search engine and is now offering free submission. Go to www.bing.com and click on "Extras...webmasters" at the top right of the screen. Follow the instructions on the screen to submit your site.
Two Other Directories 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 (dmoz.org).
Industry2Industry.com: The other directory to keep in mind, if you are an industrial or industrial services company, is Industry2Industry.com. Listing in this all industrial directory is free and sites are accepted quickly. It's a good start to begin building your site's page rank.
SUMMARY
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 or a directory that is relevant to your site's content, 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.
