Search Engine Secrets (hint... bookmark this page :)

Google is one of the "Top" pay per click search engines based on a strong brand and one of the top search destination sites that people know and trust. Google gets a tremendous amount of traffic - not only from their own sites but also through affiliates like America Online, Ask Jeeves, Earthlink, Lycos Canada, Netscape, Compuserve, AT&T Worldnet and NYTimes.com.

Pay for Placement Tips:
AdWords Select™ enables you to manage your own account, and with cost-per-click (CPC) pricing, you pay only when users click on your ad. You control your costs by setting a daily budget for what you are willing to spend each day.
Ads are ranked based on a formula of cost-per-click times the click-through rate which enables an ads rank to improve without costing more.
There is a $5 setup fee.  Easily worth the price for what you get. AOL's sponsored keywords are powered by Adwords Select and you have to be in the top 3.

Google's Premium Sponsorships allow you to purchase highly targeted advertising on the most relevant search engine on the Web. No more than two enhanced text links appear at the top of the Google results page whenever the keywords or phrases you have purchased are searched for by one of our users.
Google staff optimize every premier campaign so click through rates and ROI improve over time.
Comprehensive reporting shows exactly how your campaign is progressing.

Free Submission Tips:
Start by submitting your site using the free Google site submission.  Although this really doesn't do much for your site unless you get into a couple of other sites. Listing with Yahoo will increase your page rank and get you access into the Google database of free listings.  You should also try to submit your site to DMOZ.org which will get you into the Google web site directory and improve traffic.

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for placement

Human Editor

48 hours

Overture.com

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for inclusion

human editor

3-5 days

Yahoo.com

Yahoo.com is now a pay for inclusion database and they own the Inktomi search database soon to be used instead of Google for search engine listings. Yahoo asks that you pay $300 a year to be included in the index directory.  Each year they will deduct another $300 from you to remain in the Yahoo directory. You can appear in the main search by being in Google.com but things may change soon with Yahoo's purchase of Inktomi.

1. If you are selling something on the Internet, Yahoo is where you need a listing. Yahoo is the most used search engine.
2. To submit your page you must be in the category that best fits your subject matter.
3. When listing your title with Yahoo!, do not exceed 40 characters in length. Keep things brief. If you put a period in the title they will cut it off and use the part before the period.
4. Your pages should be of the highest quality and content. Yahoo! has an actual person look over your page and look for quality and content. Only a few submissions get into the Yahoo! data base (around 25% of submissions).
5. Don't use a submission service for submitting to Yahoo! There are too many specific things that Yahoo asks for. You want to do this on your own so you know it is done correctly.
6. When making a description of your site do not use more than 200 characters.
7. Yahoo! uses an alphabetical listing format. It is beneficial for you to start your title with a number or the letter A if at all possible. Make sure that you don't look obvious in your title, the Yahoo staff has seen it all.
8. Yahoo uses Google as a secondary database (Very soon they will use Inkatomi) for listing info that can not be found in Yahoo. Submitting your site to Google will assure you get into these listings. But, submitting to Google does not always work well so you should also try to submit to DMOZ which will get you into Google for sure!

Personal note: Hold off on paying for the directory until Yahoo gets out from under Google's search technology. Focus time on DMOZ.org to improve link popularity.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for placement

Human

instantly

FindWhat.com

FindWhat provides industry leading returns-on-investment for its more than 16,500 advertisers. Through its distribution network of approximately 200 partner sites, such as CNET's Search.com, Excite, Webcrawler, NBCi, MetaCrawler, Dogpile, Mamma.com and Go2Net.

Search Engine Tips:
If your listing is in the top 3, your link also appears on, CNET.com, MetaCrawler.com, Mamma.com

If your listing is in the top 5, your link also appears on InfoSpace Network (Dogpile.com, Excite.com...etc.)

If your listing is in the top 10, your link also appears on DogPile.com, GoHip.com

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Open Source

Human

1 month

dmoz.org

DMOZ is one of the largest directories on the web.   It rivals Yahoo is size yet it is a free directory that is run by about 40,000 volunteers.  It is classified as the Open Source Directory Project that was started under Netscape and is now under the wing of AOL.  Any search engine is free to use listings from DMOZ in their own search listings.  It is a great way to get into Google Directory and search listings.

Secrets to submitting to dmoz Open Directory Project:

1. dmoz is the most important engine to submit your site to. Because it's an open source search directory, companies are free to use dmoz search listings mixed with their own search results. Sites that use dmoz results include AOL Net Find, Netscape.com, Google.com, HotBot.com, Lycos and AskJeezes.com and many more are adding dmoz to their search results each year.
2. When submitting your site to dmoz look for the best category that relates to the content of your site. At the bottom of each dmoz search results page you will find a "add URL" link that will allow you to submit your site.
3. Sites are not ranked in alphabetical order so having a site start with the letter "A" or a number will not increase search results.
4. Your domain name will most likely become the title of your site on dmoz. If you try to make something up that is not part of your domain the editor will edit your title.

Personal Note: This site is now extremely difficult to get into. Most categories are run by a mean webmaster that is protecting there own web site from competition. So you submit your site and if your lucky it will get put in the index in about a year or so.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for inclusion

Human

instant

Looksmart.com

List with Looksmart and your links can be integrated into the directory search results on leading portals, such as MSN, AltaVista, CNN.com, InfoSpace, Prodigy, and hundreds more.
Typically the way it works is that you give Looksmart a set amount of money each month and they will deduct .15 cents from your account based on each click. There is a $49 set up fee to start the service.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for inclusion

Spiders

instant

msn.com

MSN paid inclusion programs are kind of sketchy in our opinion.  They charge you $49 to submit your site but in our experience with the engine you will have better luck in getting into Looksmart and Inktomi which will show better listings in MSN.  If your still interested then go here.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for inclusion

Spiders

instant

Inktomi.com

Inktomi paid inclusion programs ensure that your site is included in such best-of-breed portals as MSN, Looksmart, Overture and HotBot. For anything that is not paid for placement on these engines, Inktomi is the main provider for listings.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for inclusion & placement

Human/Spiders

3-6 days

Altavista.com

AltaVista is now offering paid for inclusion services:
That means that if you want to be included in their database then you better pay up.
For sites larger than 500 pages look at AltaVista's Trusted Feed Program

Secrets to submitting to Alta Vista search engine:

1. By placing a keyword at the beginning of the title you can help increase your site's relevancy.
2. Alta Vista search engine spiders index <alt> tags so you should take advantage of placing a keyword in these tags.
3. Alta Vista is case sensitive meaning you should list your key words in lowercase and UPPERCASE letters.
4. Place many keywords in the body of your text to increase relevancy. The first 1000 characters of text should have a lot of keyword phrases, but avoid text that reads like you are spamming.
5. Don't submit more than 5 pages a day. Alta Vista is limiting submissions to reduce spamming. If you submit more the engine will ignore them.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Paid Inclusion

spiders/human

1 week

Lycos.com

Lycos is also turning to a pay for placement search engine and is gradually eliminating the free search submissions.  They are also sharing the Lycos database with Fast search services which are part of alltheweb.com

Lycos InSite™ Select
Designed to build traffic for small to mid-sized web sites. Submit single or multiple URLs into the Lycos Web Search index for an annual fee. Inclusion in the Lycos Web index within 48 hours of submission.

Lycos InSite™ Pro
Build traffic and enhance navigation for mid-sized web sites. Combines multiple URL submission to the Lycos Web Search index with Hosted Site Search for a monthly fee.

Secrets to submitting to Lycos search engine:

1. Lycos is now using the Open Source Directory DMOZ.com for some of its primary listings. It is extremely important that you submit your site to this directory.
2. Lycos appears to only index the title, body text and the Alt tags. Comment tags and Meta tags are ignored.
3. Lycos recognizes synonyms in your text so be sure to use these keywords throughout your text for relevancy.
4. Do not start your title with a symbol ( ! @ # $ % ^ & * " ) or your page will be ignored. Some people do this for engines like Yahoo! to get listed at the top of alphabetical listings. My suggestion is to use a number or the letter "A" to start your title. (Update) I have seen a few symbols work on this search engine, but they are not symbols located above the number keys.
5. Be sure to not use any of these symbols in your directory structure. Lycos will ignore them as well.
6. Include keywords frequently throughout the first 200 words of body text.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for inclusion

Monthly

<1 week

Hotbot.com

Hot Bot is run under the Lycos family of search sites, but to get into this database you will need to pay for inclusion into the Inktomi search services.  This service will also give you access to MSN's search engine as well as Overture and Looksmart listings that are not paid for placement.

Secrets to submitting to Hot Bot search engine:

1. Titles are most important followed by the Meta tag description and Keywords. Always put the meta tags into your page. It is worth the time and effort. Many other search engines use this information so take the time to do it.
2. Saturate your text with keyword phrases that are in your meta tags, but don't read like your spamming. This will increase relevancy.
3. Hot Bot says that it will follow links to index the entire site. Watch this closely . My advice is to submit every page URL individually.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for placement

Overture

instant

Exite.com

All Excite.com listings are now powered by Overture.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Pay for placement

Overture

instant

Go.com

All Go.com listings are now powered by Overture.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Paid for inclusion

spiders/human

4 weeks

Ask.com

For Webmasters and Web Site Owners, you receive:
Fast 7 day, inclusion into the database powering Ask.com and Teoma.com.
Your Web Page will also be refreshed every 7 days.
Your URL (Web Page) stays included in this powerful database for 12 months.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Paid for inclusion

spiders/human

4 weeks

Teoma.com

Teoma is a newer "up and coming" search engine that we really like.  It provides very relevant search results that we think are comparable to Google.
For Webmasters and Web Site Owners, you receive:
Fast 7 day, inclusion into the database powering Ask.com and Teoma.com.
Your Web Page will also be refreshed every 7 days.
Your URL (Web Page) stays included in this powerful database for 12 months.

Search Engine:

Type

Database

Average Submission Time:

(go to site)

Paid for inclusion

Spiders

1-2 weeks

alltheweb.com

Alltheweb is powered by Fast search.  To get into this search engine requires that you go through Lycos paid for inclusion services.