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Search Engine Submissions & Ranking
Now, this list is misleading for two reasons:
1) not all of those listed are search engines, some are actually directories (human- edited, not computer-based "spiders")
and
2) most of these sites interlink with one another to some extent and many even share the same algorithms or databases!
Don't get the idea that there's one magic place to submit your site to and everything will be hunky- dory.
That's not true. You'll want to submit to at least five or six of the above list regardless of who they "link" with.
The first step in submitting your site to the search engines requires only a text editor, word processor, or a pen and paper. Write down all of the words and phrases (up to three words each) that you can come up with which you might type in a search box when looking for a company that offers products/services similar to what you offer. Put each on a separate line and try to come up with at least five of them. Now open up your email program or pick up the phone and call/email at least two of your friends, colleagues, and family members and have them do the same for you. Take their lists and your list and compare them. Do any of the phrases match? What about individual words? The more matches, the merrier. Make a new list of matching phrases/words and put a number next to each one indicating how many matches it had. These are your keywords! The one with the biggest number next to it is your first keyword/phrase, with the rest falling into place according to rank. After the first key phrase, the order of the rest is not a big concern, so long as they are all listed.
Now look at your website. What is your website's Title (usually appearing across the top left portion, or "title bar" of your browser)? Does it contain your key phrase? If not, it should. Don't make it ambiguous, though, humans have to read that too. In fact, it may appear as the title/link in search results!
Next look to your META tags. They are viewable only in the source of your website. In Internet Explorer, open your website, click "View" and select "Source." This opens Notepad and shows the source file of your web page. Somewhere near the top will be a group of tags that have the word META as the first word. One of these will be labeled as "content='keywords'" and another as "content='description'." These two are the ones you're after. What do they say, if they even exist at all? Do they match your list of keywords? Probably not. You can either change them yourself and re-upload the new pages to your site or have your Webmaster do this for you. Although the META keywords tag is not as important to keyword ranking as it once was, it still has some merit so it should still be used.
The next thing to consider is the actual body of your index or website's front page (usually index.htm or html). Since some search engines don't utilize the META description or keywords tags, they will use the text appearing on your front page to accomplish this. Make sure that the text is readable, full of your keywords, and not over-zealous (you don't need your keyword to appear 500 times, once at the beginning, once at the end, and a few times in-between is good). There isn't really a hard-and-fast rule on this, but I would say five or six times is more than enough to get the point across.
Now you are ready to begin submitting your site to the search engines and directories. What? You bought a nifty piece of software that does this for you? I hope you didn't pay a lot. No Internet Marketer will tell you to use that software to submit to the Top Ten. Why? Because you need to submit to each site individually and try to optimize to each one. That software won't do that. If it links to "thousands" of others, then by all means, the more the merrier. Just remove the Top Ten from the list and go ahead and use the software! The second rule to site submissions is NEVER submit your site more than once every three weeks (I round off to a month, since it's easier to track). Otherwise, you run the risk of being considered a SPAMmer to the search engines and you (and your site) may become blocked altogether. Getting off that list is nearly impossible, so staying off it in the first place is best!
Each engine is discussed below. I have not included the URL for site submissions because these change regularly and directories require that you go to the area where your site would be listed and submit from there. Another thing you should do is to go through your site completely and make sure that there are no broken links, graphics, etc. If your site doesn't look and act professionally, it might not get listed. I strongly suggest that you open a text editor/word processor and write a keyword list and description line for EACH engine/directory. Label each and put them on separate lines/paragraphs. This will help you track your progress and aid you later with re-submissions.
Pay-Per-Click
I have written an entire article on Pay-Per-Click engines before, but will quickly summarize the idea behind these newer engines. You usually log into these engines, set up an account, and deposit money into them. You then list your site's information and choose keywords you wish to bid on. Then you enter a bid which is what you're willing to pay EVERY TIME someone clicks on that link and visits your site. In the short-run, this is a great way to get a LOT of response quickly. In the long run, though, it will become very expensive so you'll want to either begin budgeting for it or just make it a short-term portion of your overall search engine marketing strategy. The only pay-per-click (PPC) engine listed here is Overture. There are literally hundreds or even thousands of these, but Overture is by far the largest and most well-known of these engines and, if you're going to be serious about listing, will be your first and possibly only stop on the PPC trail.
Obviously you need to get listed in the search engines to get noticed significantly online. The down-side to this is that, unlike the early days of the World Wide Web, getting listed in the popular search engines is time-consuming, becoming expensive, and takes FOREVER. There are few "free" alternatives for the little guy anymore. If you are in a hurry to get listed and have the budget, then by all means use the paid services. If you aren't, make sure that you're listed in the Open Directory (at the very least) and you'll show up elsewhere as time goes on. Search engine placement/marketing has become a full-time job in itself with several professionals making careers out of it.
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