ABOUT SEARCH ENGINES AND DIRECTORIES
You're finished. You're ready to open the doors and let in the cheering crowds. Don't break out the champagne just yet. You still have a lot of work to do. Your first step is to get your Web site listed on all the major search engines and directories.
What's a Search Engine?
You're probably thinking, I already know what a search engine is, why are they going to explain it to me? Well, there are some common misconceptions out there about search engines and what they do, and we're here to set you straight.
A search engine is a site that compiles a database of Web sites using a spider program. When you enter a term in a search engine's keyword field, the search engine doesn't search the entire Internet at that exact moment and return the results to you. Instead, it searches its own internal database and then displays results of this search.
A spider is a piece of software that browses the Web, similar to what a human user does, but much faster and more thoroughly. When a spider hits a page on your Web site, it gathers information on the page, and then follows all links on that page and gathers info on those. And then it follows all of the links on all of those pages, and gathers info on those. And so on, and so on.
So, If My Web Site Is on the Web, It'll Be on the Search Engine, Right?
Well, maybe, but it may take a long time for the spider to get to you. After all, there are millions of Web pages. So you have to tell it to visit your site. You do that by visiting the major search engine sites and submitting your site. Your site is then put on a list to be indexed (visited) by the spider, and will likely be indexed within a few weeks.
Because so many search engines have consolidated in the past few years, there are only three search engines you need to target:
Figure 6-1 shows what you can expect to see when you submit your site to Google. You just type your URL and add any comments about the content, and then submit it.
Figure 6-1: Submitting a URL to Google.
If you've created a site map on your site, submit that page's URL to the search engines. It links to all parts of your site, after all.
After you submit your URL to these search engines, the rest of the work is done for you. Most second-tier search engines use one of the three major search engines to perform their search operations. For example, AltaVista uses Google and Netscape uses Yahoo!.
Well, Then, What's a Directory?
A directory site can seem the same as search engine, but it's actually a human-edited hierarchical directory of Web sites. Key examples of directories are:
To have your site listed on a directory, you have to submit it for consideration. Some directories, such as LookSmart and Yahoo! Search Directory, charge you a fee to be listed (check the site for the current pricing). Others, such as Open Directory, are free, with no guarantee that your site will be added.
To submit your site to Open Directory, go to the dmoz Web site, navigate to the category appropriate for your Web site, and click suggest URL on the toolbar. You're then taken to a form in which you can enter your site's URL, title, and description.
Follow all instructions on the dmoz Web site to make it more likely that your site will be included.
So, Should I Use a Search Engine Submission Service?
The number of well-trafficked search engines and directories is small enough these days to allow you to submit your site to all of them yourself in about 1 hour. The real value provided by search engine submission services, such as Microsoft bCentral Submit It!, is in setting up your site for the best performance on a search engine. You can do this work yourself, though, if you'd like to save some dough. By following our suggestions on the next few pages of this lesson, your site will be well equipped to show up high in the rankings for appropriate searches. So, let's move on to learning about metadata and other low-cost ways to promote your site.
