There's no need to get tangled up in promotional companies that require membership or charge a small fee.

These companies that nickel and dime people to death basically do the same thing. - They manage to attract customers from a pool of newbies. Their fees are so "reasonable" because the service they offer can be easily performed.

I know it's tempting to let someone else worry about the details for a change. I know because I was one of those who, already overwhelmed by all the things I was learning, was more than willing to hand over this important task to someone else. - Just pay a $3 to $5 fee and you'll submit my site to thousands of search engines? WOW!

If it sounds to good to do true...

It's not that they're lying to you...exactly... They will submit your site to a lot of engines. Even if the quality of those engines is somewhat questionable.

Just stop and think about it.

Hundreds... even thousands of search engines?

Can you name more than ten?

Do you use more than three?

The only benefit these obscure little engines provide is as a data pool for the bigger ones. - And I'm just being nice and assuming that these small engines might service such a purpose.

But even if they do, why wait so long.

Why not cut off weeks of your website's journey and submit it directly to the major engines and directories?

"But the ad said they submit websites to the TOP engines!"

A lot of engines now send out email to confirm account existence, or require you to enter a submission code before entering your request so that software designed to perform this task can't be used.

Personally, I'm grateful for their efforts to clean up the internet. Hopefully mass submission software will soon be a thing of the past. - I've already noticed an improvement. I was getting sick of links that led to nowhere and sites that displayed under construction notices. - They're still out there, but it's not as bad as before.

Anyway, ...

So I let someone else submit my site the first time around.

What information did I cheat myself out of?

After spending the day jumping around the internet, I found that the following engines and directories were the only ones worth submitting my site to:

Yahoo! and Open Directory require you to submit your site within a particular category, so their links just lead to their submission information page.

Yahoo!
Google
AltaVista
Open Directory Project
HotBot
Lycos (& iNeedHits FREE Submissions)
Click here to go directly to iNeed Hits FREE Submission service.

The following engines are all included in iNeedHits. But, if for some reason you want to bypass the other engines, click on the links to the individual sites. - Do not submit your site through iNeedHits and then go to the individual engine and resubmit. - You're just going to piss someone off.

Ah-ha
Direct Hit
Northern Light
All the Web

I even came across a site that'll analyze your page's meta tags for free. (Don't get sucked into this site's membership deal - unless of course you want to - I just have a natural repulsion to such things.)

Click the following link and scroll down to the bottom of the page to bypass the sales pitch:

SCRUB THE WEB
ABS - Easy Submit and Meta Tag Analyzer
http://www.scrubtheweb.com/abs/meta-check.html

I didn't include any directories or engines that charge a fee. But you might find that after your site has been indexed by a few engines, other engines will start pulling it up after awhile.

After reading all the engine policies and procedures, I came to the following conclusions about what it takes to get a decent ranking on a decent engine.

FORMULA FOR GOOD ENGINE RANKING:
*Good MetaTags - Focus on title and description metatags (some engines disregard keywords). If you don't include meta tags, a search engine will probably check text contents.
*Appropriate Text
*Regular Engine Checks (every couple of months) - And make sure the engine that's pulling up your site is the one you're checking. Example: I thought I was checking my Yahoo! ranking, but I was actually looking at Google's search results. (I didn't find out about this until I started submitting my own site. - I went to change my site information listed in Yahoo's index, just to find I wasn't in the index.
*Number of links to your page on other sites. - Don't get cute with a lot of silly tricks. You're liable to get kicked off.
*Stay updated on changing site info policies. - In other words, maintain your site. Keep it updated, and update the directories that index your site about any changes if necessary.

So, what about the details?

What do these search engines want to know?

There are still some out there that only require you to enter your URL (http://whatever.com...) and click a button. But most engines also have directories now, so they'll want you to enter a title and description for your site.

Most want your description to be under 25 words. Some might want the description to be no more than ten words.

You might be asked to list a few keywords, forcing you to narrow your focus compared to the perspective you held when you first put in your meta tags.

Many directories will ask you to further classify your site by selecting the most appropriate category in their index.

Believe me, by the end of the day, you'll have a better idea what your site means to you (or at least, what you want your site to mean to others).

Save this information and have it ready for resubmissions. (Whether you need to routinely resubmit your site or not depends on the particular policies and procedures of the engines you're dealing with.)

Maintaining a website can be a major undertaking if done well. Because of this, I suggest those of you who have more than one or two sites take the time to determine which one should be the focal point. - Connect your sites in some way, and put links to the main site on the others. This can be done by placing links to all your pages on a kind of index page or by forming a webring.

This approach to website management simplifies the task. You don't have to overwhelm your audience by putting everything on one page, and at the same time, you enjoy improved engine ranking (all those links to your main page) and reduced submissions (you'll just be submitting your main page). - Just make sure the topics of each page are relevant to each other.

If you're a real prodigious webmaster, chances are you'll still want to submit more that one site. - Perhaps, once you've gotten your sites organized, you'll want to submit a batch of them in one shot.

Make sure your meta tags are in order. Once you're satisfied with titles and descriptions, have a list of the engines you're going to submit to.

Save the directories for last. It could take you a while to determine how you want your site indexed, so you'll only end up slowing down your momentum.

You should also put iNeedHits near the bottom of the list. - Some of the engines in this process allow you to enter more than one URL, but most don't.

If you use the engines listed on this page, your itinerary will look something like this:

Be sure you select you're top 6 keywords &/or phrases. You'll be asked for them if you use iNeedHits.

Make sure your site isn't already listed by entering the URL in the search box. - Some engines only recognize URL's with the prefix http://, some only without it; and some require you to use url: instead of http://

So, you might end up having to try all 3 URL entries:

http://www.whatever.com
www.whatever.com
url:www.whatever.com

(To find out what method is used, search for a site you already know is listed.--Just run any kind of search and pick the first site it pulls up. Then try the search again by typing in its URL in various forms.)

Some engines like being difficult. -- For these, key words are just about the only way you're going to pull up a site.

Once you've determined if your sites are listed, the rest is clear sailing.

(I pick out 5 of my sites, check all my selected engines to see if they're already listed, and then start submitting.)

Special Note on Using iNeedHits: If an engine gives you the option to submit multiple sites, don't do it. If you do you'll have to remember to keep your eyes open for these engines so you won't enter the same URL. - It's bad enough having to keep on eye open for those little category boxes some of these engines have.

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Some engines may change their submission page without removing the old one. If a site won't process your URL, go to it's homepage and access their submission page from there. If this happens to you while using this page, please contact me at whistleblower@angelfire.com so I can update the link. Thanks.

The following links used to allow free submissions:

Direct Hit
HotBot

I continue listing them in the hope that they will once again offer free submissions.

They will, of course, be removed at a later date if payment continues to be required.

Lycos now requires you to register before allowing a free submission. And getting to the appropriate page is an undertaking in itself. -- Hardly worth the effort considering the fact that you'll probably end up in their index regardless (once you've been listed by other engines).

BASIC HTML LAYOUT

<html>
<head>

<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="enter keywords here">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="enter a description here">
<META NAME="author" CONTENT="enter your name here">

<TITLE>enter title here</TITLE>

</head>
<body>

blah, blah, blah, ...

</body>
</html>

For more info, refer to:

HTML Codes