Below is a quick mini-guide to submitting your site to the search engines. Outlined are submission URLs, guidelines and tips for getting listed in each of them, along with the average time it takes for a site to become listed.

AltaVista

Submission URL(s): http://doc.altavista.com/addurl/ http://add-url.altavista.com/cgi-bin/newurl? (Free)

Submission Guidelines and Tips: Submit up to 5 pages a day at most.

Indexing Time:

Often less than one week.

Lycos

Submission URL(s): http://home.lycos.com/addasite.html (Free)

Submission Guidelines and Tips: ALT tags can increase your ranking.

Indexing Time:

Often within 3 weeks.

Excite

Submission URL(s): http://www.excite.com/info/add_url http://www.excite.com/info/add_url_form (Free)

Submission Guidelines and Tips: Submit only your main URL and your entire site should be spidered automatically.

Indexing Time:

2 weeks.

Yahoo (directory)

Submission URL(s): http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/ (How To Suggest A Site)

http://www.google.com/addurl.html (Google Submission)

Submission Guidelines and Tips: When a search finds nothing in the directory, Google results are used (hence the Google submission URL above). Be sure your business site includes a physical address somewhere if you want to be listed in the directory at all.

Indexing Time:

With free submission, often several weeks to months.

HotBot

Submission URL(s): http://hotbot.lycos.com/addurl.asp (Free)

Submission Guidelines and Tips: Search results are provided by Inktomi. Getting in the Inktomi
database means your page will show up in searches on other search engines using this database also. Submit every week or two.

Indexing Time:

Usually within a few days.

DMOZ (directory)

Submission URL(s): http://dmoz.org/add.html (How To Add A Site)

Submission Guidelines and Tips: Be careful of your submission here as an ACTUAL PERSON will be reviewing it. A great site with great content is the key.

Indexing Time:

Usually within a few days.

Dan Grossman runs http://www.websitegoodies.com where you can find over 250 hand-picked resources, articles, and tools! Dan also publishes the free weekly "WebDevPortal" newsletter for website owners! Subscribe today and get articles like this every week: mailto:subscribe@webdevportal.com'subject=article-subscribe