Synopsis Information and resources on getting listed on the various search engines.

Chapter Contents Marketing Your Website Search Engines Pay-Per-Click Other Marketing Techniques

Search Engines

Getting your website listed in the major engines is the first step to marketing your website. Seven of the ten most visited websites are search engines. Almost everyone who browses the Internet makes use of one or more search engines to find what they are looking for. By getting your site listed in search engines you can capture some of this traffic. Many search engines will add you to their directory for free, such as Google and Altavista. Others, such as Yahoo, and Looksmart, require you to pay a listing fee.

Free listings

Let's start with listing your site for free. The more exposure your site has the better, so you should take advantage of all the free listings you can. Getting your site listed is easy. All you have to do is visit the search engine's website, find the page of their website where you can submit your site, and complete the form. Once you submit your website, it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few months to have your site added to the search engine, depending on their policies and procedures. We will provide you with a list of the search engines where you can submit your site for free.

Click here for a list of search engines offering free listings

Paid Listings

Some search engines, including Yahoo, require you to pay a fee to be listed. Yahoo is one of the most popular destinations online, so getting listed there can be very beneficial. However, the listing fees are significant, so you will have to decide for yourself if the cost is worth it. We recommend getting your website listed in these search engines because of the exposure they can offer.

Click here for a list of search engines offering paid listings

Search Engine Positioning

Each search engine has its own way of determining the order in which search results will be displayed. Having your site displayed at the top of a list of search results will attract more visitors to your website. Getting your website to appear near the top of the list can be somewhat of an art. This is a topic in itself, and is beyond the scope of this course. There are many good books available on the topic of search engine positioning. Click on the link below for a list of books on this topic.

Click here for a list of books about search engine positioning