Search Engine Basics

Search engines and directories are one of the best ways to
round up some targeted traffic to your website. Here are
the basics of search engines and directories.

Search Engine Vs. Directories

The main difference between engines and directories is the
way they index sites. Although search engines vary in the
way they index, they all basically use a "spider" to crawl
from link to link and index the meta-tags, keywords, and
page words to get their relevancy when a user searches their
index.

Directories, on the other hand, have actual people look at
a site and decide if they will add it to their directory,
and where they will add it.

Directory Submission

Submitting to directories involves a different process
because it more closely involves people. Although
definitely not the only ones, two very important directories
are Yahoo! and Open Directory.

If your site is commercial in nature, Yahoo! charges $299
for a review that doesn't even guarantee that you will get
listed. It is the single most important engine or
directory, so if you have the money, it is definitely a
great idea to submit.

To submit to Yahoo! go to
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/add?+Business.
Just fill out the form and they editors will take care
of the rest.

The Open Directory is based on a large group of volunteer
editors. It is free to submit your site. To submit, go
to www.dmoz.org, the web address for Open Directory, and
find the category that your site would fit in. Take some
time and look around, you want to be sure that the category
that you pick is definitely the best one for your site.
Once you have found the right category, click on the add
URL link in the top right corner.

Search Engine Submission

Crawler based search engines compile their listings by
automatically searching the web with spider programs.
Google is the top search engine on the web. Submission is
free at http://www.google.com/addurl.html.

Google and other search engines are now paying special
attention to link popularity. An effective linking
strategy will help your ranking on Google. Another engine
that has been around for a while is Altavista. To submit
go to http://addurl.altavista.com/sites/addurl/newurl.

Conclusion

Despite a trend towards paid listings and reviews, search
engines and directories are still one of the best sources
for targeted traffic, and lots of it. Read up on the
specifics of each of the important engines and directories
and try your best to get listed in as many of them as you
can.

Best of luck to you,

JC Anderl
www.Redlionbooks.com, JC@Redlionbooks.com

Visit my site or email me if you have any questions about
marketing or website promotion.