Before someone can find your site in a search engine or directory you need to be listed in the search engines. Once you are listed you also want your new content to listed as well, as soon as you update it. However here is the difference between a directory and a search engine, a simplistic explanation:

Search engines

Search engines are able to catalog more than just your home page. A search engine, such as Google can keep track of all your webpages. However you need to be sure they know when you add new pages to your site, this can happen many ways. You can submit each individual page to a search engine, you can hope that the search engine finds your new page when it is linked from another page, or you can create a sitemap and let Google and others know the URL of the sitemap. A sitemap lists all the pages of you site, the search engine can parse the sitemap and find links to all your pages as well as other relevant information. More about sitemaps in another post. However, before any of your pages can be found you must have at least one page submitted. While most allow you to perform this task manually, there are hundreds of search engines to be listed on and using a submission service can save you time and also guarantee you are listed. Most search engines are free and some do not let you submit directly as they receive their search results from another search engine and display as their own.

Directories
Directories typically only list one URL, usually the top level or home page such as http://www.longest.com or http://www.longest.com/index.html as opposed to a deep linked page such as http://www.longest.com/2008/02/05/in-text-advertising/. Some directories are paid submission, such as Yahoo! where you must pay to be listed, at least in their directory. There are some directories that other engines receive initial links from as well.

Therefore the plan is to:
1. have your home page submitted and listed in search engines and directories;
2. be sure the search engines have the most efficient way to know when you have updated a page or added a new page, and
3. be sure to update your listings if the search engine or directory require you to do so.

This post will address number 1 above to be sure you are submitted, then following up and tracking your progress will be discussed and explained in another post. Number 2 and 3 can be solved by a variety of methods such as providing an XML site map, more in another post.

Note that while some search engines such as Google drive the majority of the search traffic, a benefit in being listed in multiple places is having links back to your site. Links to your site help with search engine rankings, more in another post.

While you can use software to submit to directories and search engines, or submit one directory and search engine at a time. Here are various packages that can get you started and save you valuable time.

Submit to 20 Search Engines for Free
Click Here to submit to 20 search engines free. They submit for you, great to get started.

Submit to Google and 300 Search / Directories
Click Here to submit to Google and 300 Search / Directories for only $2.99.

Submit and Optimization of Your Site
Their basic optimization package submits your site and optimizes it as well. They normally charge $99.89, however you can get the Package for $59.99.

They state the following for this package which can save you valuable time:

• An affordable solution to increase your organic search engine traffic.
• Optimize your website code for a higher search engine ranking.
• Get your site included in Google’s results in only 7 days.

Take a look at the above to get started fast, a great time saver and you know it will be done right.

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