Search Engine Submissions & Directory Listings

Now that your website has been fully optimized, it is ready for submission to the search engines and directories.

This is the submission process, which can be different for each Search Engine and Directory you submit to.
They all have different criteria to address, and how you submit your request may determine whether you will be accepted by them. Some may charge a small fee, others are free.

No website will be automatically included and there is no guarantee of ever being included, particularly in the Search Engines.

How you submit, how you list and describe your site, the quality of your site and how it is structured and the information it contains, all have a bearing on whether your site is accepted for listing. It is necessary to submit to many different search engines as this is the way you *announce* your website to them.
The S.E. will then send its spiders and web crawlers to your site to check it out for listing suitability and to uncover and log its links, keywords and phrases, and its pages and titles.
This is how the search engines will eventually *rank* your site and determine its page listings.

Search Engines
Google is the most highly searched engine in the world. Being crawled by the googlebots will happen soon after your site goes live as Google is drawn to fresh information and unique urls. Google is very efficient at logging and discovering your pages and following your links.

Being assessed by Google is an automated process which Google has perfected, which readily reflects the changes in the algorithms it uses to foil the underhanded tricks used by some disreputable companies to increase their website rankings. Some of these methods can get your sites blacklisted by google.

Search Directories
Yahoo, often referred to as a Search Engine is, in fact, a Searchable Directory. It is a very important directory to be listed in and is a human edited directory, which means that your site will be looked at and assessed by humans. Yahoo also has their own criteria for submission, again, with no guarantee of inclusion.

Business Submissions can be fast tracked along the assessment pathway with payment of an up-front fee of $299. If your site is accepted, then you will be re-assessed the following year and if you wish to remain listed, must pay this fee again.

There are many alternate and compliant ways of getting your site listed and knowledgeable web promoters (Affordable Web Promotions) will be able to assist you here.

Directories
Directories are different to Search Engines and have different submission criteria. Divided into (sometimes) searchable categories, directories focus on the type of business you have. Careful selection of category that you list in is crucial to being accepted and easily found. Not only are there International, Local and Industry Specific directories you could be listed in, there are also thousands of categories within each directory. Finding exactly the right spot for your business listing is essential.
Listing in these directories can be very advantageous because they also attract their own targeted business traffic.

Getting listed with the web's key directories is very important because not only are their listings seen by many people, this is where the Search Engines get some of their information.

Manual submissions (paying individual attention to the submission criteria for each website you submit and each directory you submit to) are far superior and given greater consideration by the search engines than automated or bulk submissions. There are many thousands of search engines, some catering for specific industries, others are more general.

It is wise to be selective in choosing which ones to list with.

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