Web Promotion - Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML - page 509

13.5 Listing in a Search Engine
and Search Index

According to a study by The Direct Marketing Association ( http://www.the-dma.org) ,
66 percent of Web marketers surveyed rated search engines as the top method used to
drive traffic to their sites. While very effective, it is not always easy to get listed in a
search engine or search directory. Table 13.1 shows the steps involved in submitting
your site to a search engine or search directory.

Table 13.1 Submission to a search engine or search directory

Search Directory (Such as the Open Directory
Project)

Search Engine (Such as Google)

Step 1: Visit the search engine site (http://google.com)
and look for the “Add site” or “List URL” link. This is usu-
ally on the home page (or about us page) of the search
engine. Be patient—these links are sometimes not obvi-
ous. At Google, click the “About Google” link, click on
the “Submit your content to Google” link, and then click
on the “Add Your URL” link.

Step 1: Visit the search directory ( http://dmoz.org) and
follow the hierarchical listings until the page that is most
suited for your site appears. Take time to choose the
most appropriate category. Look for the “suggest URL”
link on the page.

Step 2: Follow the directions listed on the page and
submit the form to request that your site is added to the
search engine. At other search engines there may be a fee
for an automatic listing, called paid inclusion—more on this
later. Currently, there is no fee to submit a site to Google.

Step 2: Follow the directions listed on the page and
submit the form to request that your site be reviewed
for inclusion in the directory. This does not guarantee
inclusion.

Step 3: The spider from the search engine will index
your site. This may take several weeks.

Step 3: An editor (a real person) will visit your site. This may
take several weeks. Search directories such as the Open
Directory (http://dmoz.org) review the content of the site—
only sites with worthwhile content are included.
Step 4: Several weeks after you submit your Web site, check the search engine or search directory to see if your site
is listed. If it is not listed, review your pages and check whether they are “friendly” to search engines and display in
common browsers.

If the Web site is for a business you may want to consider paying for listing considera-
tion in a search engine or directory (often referred to as an express submit or express
inclusion), paying for preferential placement in search engine displays (called sponsoring
or advertising), and paying each time a visitor clicks the search engine's link to your
site. Many businesses regard payment for these types of services as another marketing
expense, such as paying for a newspaper ad or a listing in the Yellow Pages.

Preferential Placement
Another trend for search engines and some search directories is to require payment for
preferential placement. Each search engine has its own term for this feature. Yahoo! calls it
Sponsor Results. Google uses the term AdWords. In these programs, payment is made
when the site is submitted for review. If accepted, the site has a listing usually at the top or
right margin of the search engine results. The Web site owners must pay each time a visitor
clicks on the search engine link to their site—this is called a cost-per-click (CPC) fee.