What are Search Engines & Directories?

Nielsen/NetRatings reports that search engines, directories and online communities attract 92 percent of the Web population (95 million users, one out of every three Americans).

So lets learn what Search Engines and Directories are all about so you can make a profitable return by using them to promote your business!

Search Engines rely on spiders often called robots or crawlers to find webpages on the World Wide Web.

Spiders can only find webpages through a link on a webpage they have already visited or by having the URL submitted to them through a form on the search engines website. A good example of a search engine is Google.com

Directories on the other hand rely on human editors whose job it is to find quality links to add to their directories. A good example of a directory is www.dmoz.org

Ok, I said that search engines rely on spiders but what exactly does a spider do?
A spider is a program that actually “crawls” the web looking for websites and web pages. This program starts at a website, loads the pages, and follows the hyperlinks on each page. In this way, the theory goes, everything on the web will eventually be found, as the spider crawls from one website to another.

Saying that, I want you to think about all those companies that offer to submit your website to the search engines for $29.95 per month. If the spiders will eventually find us anyhow, why waste your money?

So how can I get my website found by a spider?
You can either submit it by hand yourself or just have links on other’s websites pointing to your website. Eventually you will be found. I don’t submit any websites now and mainly rely on the spiders finding them. If you do wish to submit however, you may, although it is no faster than the spider finding you on its own. I want you to note that there is no harm in resubmitting your website to search engines over and over again once you are in it. There is also no gain and it won’t improve your rankings either.

I want to say a few words about submitting to Directories now.
You must remember that a human editor will be deciding whether or not your website gets into their directory so always read the directions to submit at each directory first before filling out their form. Things that will cause you grief and not get you submitted are:

• Signs that say “under construction"
• Typos
• Broken links
• Missing images
• Poor or no navigation
• Poor or little content

So make sure you read their instructions before you submit to get you in their directory easily and without a hassle.

So which search engines and directories should I submit to?
Here's a good list to the main ones to get you started:

Free Submissions Google Yahoo MSN Alltheweb Hotbot / Lycos Altavista DMOZ AOL

Paid Inclusions Google Adwords Yahoo Teoma / Ask Jeeves Hotbot / Lycos Inktomi Overture Looksmart Altavista