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Listing
Your Site
Now that you've found a
home for your new web site, what's next? Now, it's time to tell the world about
your new site. You must register your site to be listed in the Search
Engines, Directories, Announcement and Award sites.
True Search Engines
utilize a software, often referred to as a Robot or Spider, which crawls the web
in search of new or updated pages to index. They constantly crawl the web until
they have indexed every page. When submitting your web site, you will only
be required to enter your URL (web address) and the robot will spider your site
and record the full text of every page within your site. It will continue
on and follow any external links you may have on your site and eventually
index every site on the Web.
Although the spiders will eventually find your site, it may take quite some
time. Submitting your URL will speed up the process.
Search
Engines
In order for your web
site to be listed in a directory, you must register it. They do not search
and index the web or spider your web site. You must fill out a form and manually
submit each page of your web site.
Directories are usually set up in categories and subcategories and will contain
a "Add URL" link within each category. To register your web
page, browse through the categories until you find an appropriate category for
your site, then go to the "Add URL" link and fill out the submission
form.
Announcement sites offer
you a great way to announce your new site. When you register, your site will be
listed in the "What's New" section for a short period of time and then
will be archived for their visitors to continue to view.
Directories/Announcement
There are thousands of
sites on the Internet offering awards for various accomplishments. All award
sites are not created equal. Many award sites are not true award sites and will
not benefit you in any way. They merely give out their awards to everyone who
applies without even reviewing your site. They do this to get a link from your
site to theirs.
A true award site will review your site, judge it according to their criteria
and present you with an award if they find your site appropriate. In addition,
you will be given a temporary listing at their site. They do not require you to
link your award to their site, but appreciate it if you do.
When submitting your
site to the major Search Engines, I highly recommend manual
submission. Many Search Engines are now penalizing sites using autosubmission
programs. It will only take a few minutes at each site.
Yahoo! Yahoo is in a class of its
own. Getting listed won't be easy. To list you site, perform a search using keywords
appropriate for your site. The results page will list sites similar to yours.
Make sure the category showing is the most appropriate for listing
your site and click on it. To submit your site, go to the top
of the page and click on "Add URL." Make sure you
follow the instructions exactly as they appear. Submissions are reviewed by
humans and can very easily be rejected. Tip: Don't make your
submission sound like an ad. Before you begin, look at some of the
other sites listed in Yahoo to get an idea of how your
submission should look.
For additional information on Yahoo! read the article entitled, "Getting Listed
in Yahoo" by Ken Evoy.
 Infoseek
Excite
Lycos
Altavista
WebCrawler
HotBot
AOL
Netfind
Jayde
Northern
Light
Rex
When you're ready to begin listing your site in the directories,
announcement and award sites, it would be a good idea to create a text
file with all of your pertinent information. This will save you
a lot of time by enabling you to copy and paste your information into each form.
Each site may require different information, different description lengths,
etc., so create several different versions. Your text file should look something
like this:
Name:
Business Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Country:
Phone:
Title:
Description #1: 100 characters
Description #2: 150 characters
Description #3: 200 characters
Description #4: 250 characters
(include spaces when counting characters)
Keywords separated by commas:
Keywords separated by spaces:
If you would like to submit your site to hundreds of Search Engines,
Directories, Announcement and Award sites with one form, visit SelfPromotion.
The net's first and only URL Registration ShareService. Using this site, you can
automatically register your web site with all the major Search Engines and
Indexes. Use the site for FREE. If you feel the site is useful, then pay what
YOU think it's worth!
For further information on Search Engines, visit:
Search
Engine Watch
Using
Search Engines to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Search
Engines: What they Are, How They Work, and Practical Suggestions
Search
Engine Tutorial for Web Designers
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