At WebPagePros, we're search engine specialists.
Submitting sites to search engines is among the most basic of
the activities we perform for our clients; many of the techniques
we use to bring client sites to the top ranking positions that
are our goal are much more demanding of specialized knowledge,
painstaking attention to detail, and simply hard work. Still,
search engine submissions are an important part of our repertoire;
we'd be happy to do it for you (read our services
page on submissions for more information). But some site operators
will prefer to make their own submissions.
If you are doing your own manual
submission, use this list of addresses of the "add URL"
pages of the major search engines and directories. A brief explanation
of any particular requirements or tips for each resource is included;
read the information on each site for more specifics — or
contact
WebPagePros for assistance.
Directory Project
Submission page: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
Comments: Absolute first stop in any "free submission"
project. While few users actually go theDirectory site to
perform a search, this database is used by a lot of the other
important search engines and directories so it's very important
to have your site listed here. Like Yahoo!, it's a directory and
your site will be reviewed by a human editor, so before making
your search engine submissions, your site should be complete and
usable. Any WebPagePros optimization package starts, by the way,
by making sure of exactly that.
Google
Submission page: http://www.google.com/addurl
Comments: The most-used search database today, with a growing
reputation for serving the most accurate, relevant results. Google's
spider is very active, so there's a good chance you won't even
have to submit as long as you have some incoming links to your
site, but you don't want to take a chance on being left out of
their index. Google results appear at AOL, Yahoo!, Netscape, and
others.
FAST/Alltheweb
Submissions page: http://alltheweb.com/add_url.php
Alltheweb is quickly growing in popularity, and serves accurate
and relevant search results. In addition to Alltheweb.com, the
FAST database is used by Lycos. Submit your home page and a couple
of other important pages, but FAST's spider should crawl your
site. There's no guarantee, though, that free submission will
get you into FAST; they have a paid inclusion program also available.
AltaVista
Submission page: http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/addurl
Comments: AltaVista's reputation has slipped some, but some sites
still find it a worthwhile source of traffic. You can make search
engine submissions of multiple pages from your site. You might
want to review their hints for a good submission, because some
of what AltaVista likes is a little different from the other search
engines. AltaVista also has a paid inclusion program, which you
can use to be sure your pages are listed or to speed listing.
As of right now,
the above are the only major search resources that are accepting
free url submissions -- an indication of how the environment has
changed in the past couple of years. But following are descriptions
of some other important sites:
Gigablast
Submissions page: http://www.gigablast.com/
Comments: We're not yet ready to place Gigablast above as one
of the "majors," but it may be an up-and-comer. Biggest
plus right now for webmasters is the quick indexing turnaround:
often within minutes of using the above link you can check your
server logs and see the prompt visit from "gigabot."
Good news in these days when search engines might take weeks to
get to you, if they ever even do.
Google
Submissions page: MSN
As explained in the above listing for HotBot, submission to Google,
which supplies results to a number of search engines including
MSN and AskJeeves, is done through an outplaced paid submission
program. We provide more complete information on a separate Yahoo
web site submit page. Important note: Yahoo!
purchased Google in late December 2002, so changes in Google's
relationships with other search sites, including Yahoo! itself,
are likely to happen -- as might changes in pricing -- so this
may be a great time to buy placement in Google!.
Yahoo!
Submission page: http://www.yahoo.com
-- find the appropriate category for your site, and click the
"add URL" link from that page.
Comments: A Yahoo! listing is generally thought to be essential
for anyone seriously doing business on the net, but for a small
site the $299 annual fee may be a drawback. Don't even bother
submitting your site here unless it's solid, usable, and has no
broken links. Yahoo! is a directory; every site is reviewed by
a human editor and they may choose not to include your site in
their listings. If they make that choice, there's no refund —
so be sure your site is ready to go!
Don't want to risk $299? Your site may qualify for WebPagePros's
guaranteed Yahoo placement! Sign
up for a site evaluation, and we'll tell you if your site
qualifies for inclusion in this program with our Professional
or Enterprise optimization
solutions.
AOL
As mentioned above, results at AOL Search come from Google --
get into Google, and you'll be included at AOL.
MSN
Results come from the LookSmart directory and from Google, both
detailed elsewhere on this page.
Hotbot
Not currently accepting direct free submissions. Hotbot results
will be served from Google and Lycos (see below). Fast and reliable
inclusion on the Google-based search engines can be achieved through
Google's paid
inclusion program.
Teoma/AskJeeves
AskJeeves search results are now supplied by Teoma, and no free
submissions are accepted for either service. They may simply find
your site through spidering, or you might use their paid inclusion
program.
Lycos
Submission page: http://searchservices.lycos.com/searchservices/select_overview.asp
Update: Lycos is apparently phasing out free submission, but it's
still available through a link on this page. You may submit only
one page from your site, though, and will have to register as
a user. Lycos uses the FAST directory, so that's what you're adding
your site to here... so it may be preferable to use the free submission
at alltheweb.com, which doesn't require registration.
LookSmart
Small business submission: http://listings.looksmart.com
LookSmart is a human-edited directory; similar to Yahoo! but with
a different approach to pricing. Currently for a single commercial
site, you pay $49 to have your site reviewed and listed, and 15
cents per click.
