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A Fool & His Money (or hers)

The Facts About Search Engine Submission Services.

You have your page on the Net & are wondering, "what next?". Then you see a banner for a search engine submission service. They will submit to 1800 search engines for only....

1. Are there really 1000's of search engines? This depends on what you call a search engine. But, in a word - NO. People that advertise their submission service being able to submit your URL to 1000's of search engines are being very liberal with their definition. Most of them call a Free-For-All, or FFA links page, a search engine.

   If they are saying your URL is going to 1000 search engines, probably 800-900 of them are FFA links pages. As a rule, these pages have no search capabilities at all. As another rule, they only allow "x" amount of links in a category. After that number is reached, the older ones "drop off" the list. This amount is usually 50 links. So, your URL may not be listed for more than 1 day.

   Do you really want to pay to get listed for 1 or 2 days?

2. Are there really 100's of search engines? To this one, the answer is a qualified YES. There are getting to be more search engines than you can keep track of these day. But, the quality of these search engines is questionable.

   Anyone can pick up free, or very low-cost CGI scripts, and start their own search engine. And in some cases, you wonder who these "anyones" are. Some are just individuals who are starting their own search engine. Some are small companies. In any event, some of these search engines only have a few 1000 URLs listed.

   A while back we went to one "search engine" to submit our main URL. When we went to the category we wanted to be listed in (web promotion), there was all of one entry. We were number two. Now, that one may grow into a great search engine, but would you pay to be submitted to it?

3. Do I really need to submit to all of them? You never know what search engine someone will use. So, it doesn't hurt to be listed in as many as you can. But, most people (maybe 95% or more), only use the "big ones". This means if you are listed in these 8 or 10 search engines and directories, virtually everyone can find you.

   So, if you want to be listed in all the other search engines -- that's fine. Just don't waste your money paying someone to submit your URL to places that for all intents and purposes, no one will use.

4. So, what are the "big ones"? That's really hard to say. This is an area that's constantly changing. In the year prior to this revision, Infoseek & Excite have all but vanished. At this time I hear rumors that AltaVista is no longer accepting free listings, and that Yahoo is going only to paid listings (and that is additionally rumored to be a yearly payment). But, I'd recommend these search engines:

   AltaVista - One of the best. Easy to get listed, too.
   Google - A few months ago it was nothing. Now it's a powerhouse.
   HotBot - Not really a new one, but picking up steam fast.
   Lycos - One of the best. It may take a while to be listed, but the hits will come.
   Yahoo - Not really a search engine, but get listed here, if you can.

5. What's the best way to submit to them? No matter what some submission services say, it's still best to submit to these yourself. At their own submission page. Just follow the links in the previous section. These are to the main page because the "add url" location changes sometimes.

    

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Until next time,