There are many Search Engines and Directories, but only a few major ones will bring you most traffic. In this article I will describe how to submit your site to Yahoo, Google and Open Directory
1.) Directories And Indexes
First, I would like to describe the difference between Directory and Index. The directory is a collection of links divided by subjects just like Yahoo Directory at dir.yahoo.com. Let’s say you are interested in Finance. Go to the Business & Economy section and press Finance. You will find a variety of topics listed under Finance.
The index is the number of sites available for search. For example, you go to Yahoo.com and enter “Napoleon” in the search box. Results will show a number of sites related to Napoleon in the Yahoo Index. The same is true for any other search term. There are millions of sites in listed in major Indexes.
2.) How To Submit Your Site To Yahoo Directory
Listing with Yahoo Directory will provide several benefits for your site. First of all, you will get some traffic from Yahoo Directory. However, the number of visitors will depend on the category where your site is listed. There are some highly competitive categories that may not generate much traffic. Also, some search indexes are more likely to include your site if you are listed with Yahoo Directory or Open Directory Project which is discussed later in this article.
You must decide what category your page will be listed under before submitting it to Yahoo Directory. Usually, there is more than one category appropriate for your site. You have to decide which one works best for you based on several factors: relevance, number of competing sites under the category. For example, my site www.yourcareerlinks.com is listed under Business & Economy – Employment And Work – Careers And Jobs – Jobs – Directories.
In order to suggest your site to Yahoo Directory, select your category and click Suggest A Site link located below the upper right corner. If your category is commercial, you can list your site only through Express submission.
Express submission costs $299. Yahoo editors check your site within 7 days. Please read Yahoo instructions carefully. Your payment of $299 doesn’t guarantee automatic inclusion. If they approve it, your site will be listed in Yahoo Directory and you will pay $299 annually to maintain it in the directory.
Yahoo Standard Submission is free for non-commercial sites. Yahoo doesn’t state when your site will be reviewed with free submission. If you have time to wait, you may try this option.
3.) How To Submit Your Site To Yahoo Index
When you go to http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html, the first option is to submit your site for free to Yahoo Search Index. Before you do that, your site must be optimized for Search Engine inclusion with appropriate titles and meta tags. Below you will see what title and meta tags look for this page:
Web Marketing, How To Submit Your Site To Search Engines
Title describes your page in a few words. META name=”DESCRIPTION” is a short outline of what your web page is about. META name=”KEYWORDS” includes keywords relevant to the page. Each page of your site may have different Title and Meta Tags
The purpose of relevant titles and Meta Tags is to help web surfers to identify sites they are looking for through descriptions and keywords. However, it is quite hard to get top Search Engine placement ( which is to get listed among first 20- 30 results ) these days. There are many competitors, rules and criteria are constantly changing and it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain high ranking in the Index.
Chances are that your site is not going to be listed high with Indexes. Therefore, my recommendation is to use free submission options to Yahoo Search Index or any other Search Index for that matter unless you are an expert in Search Engine optimization and ranking. You don’t want to pay to get ranked number 256 or whatever.
4.) How To Submit Your Site To Google
Google is another major Search Engine. They offer two opportunities to market your site. You can submit the site to Google Index for free here. As I stated before, you probably are not going to get high ranking, but you might get some clicks from Google if your site will be listed.
Another option to advertise with Google is through Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Program called Google AdWords. You can read in my article about Pay-Per-Click marketing here.
5.) Open Directory Project
Open Directory Project is a directory of web sites managed by volunteer editors. Inclusion is free, but it has to be approved by editor. There is no time frame as to when your site will be reviewed. If your site is not listed within a few months after you applied, you can submit it again. Open Directory is located at www.dmoz.org. You should find an appropriate category for your site and submit it.
There are other Search Engines out there. Many are based on Yahoo or Google Search. For example, Alta Vista (www.altavista.com ) is now based on the Yahoo Search index. Therefore, if your site is listed with Yahoo Search Index, it is probably listed in Alta Vista as well. Some offer paid inclusion in their Index such as Excite while others like Lycos offer Pay Per Click options
In my opinion, the best way to bring traffic to your site is to list it with Yahoo, Google, and Open Directory Project. In addition, one should use Pay Per Click marketing which is explained in my PPC Marketing Article at http://www.webhostchecklist.com/payperclick.html.