The Search Engines on the web are roughly comparable to the telephone book Yellow Pages.  Most small business web sites get their new customers from the search engines.  The customer goes to a search engine like Alta Vista and enters keywords looking for a specific product.  For example, someone looking for a used bookstore would enter keywords like: "used books, my city, my state".  The search engine then provides a list of sites that include those keywords.  The user can click on an entry in the list and get connected to that site.

You wouldn't expect to open an off-line business and magically appear in the Yellow Pages and the same is true on-line.  If you open your web site for business but don't submit to the search engines, a few engines may find you but the only reliable way to get listed is to submit your site.

What is a Search Directory?

A directory such as Yahoo only lists sites that are submitted to them.  Once a site is submitted it is visited by a human being who reviews the site and may make changes in your listing or even refuse to list it at all.  Most other search engines employ software "Spiders" or "Web Crawlers" that search the World Wide Web (www) for new sites and analyze their content and create a listing.

Because of the human element involved with directories, getting listed generally takes longer than Spider based search engines.  The other implication is that you will never be listed in a directory without submitting but can become listed in other search sites without doing anything.

What does Submission Involve?

To submit your site, you go to special pages for each search engine and enter information such as your web address, contact name, etc.  You then need to monitor each engine to make sure your site gets listed and eventually indexed.  BIZynet provides a Search Engine page to make it easier.

Is that all there is to it?

Just about.  Once your site is submitted to a search engine, it will probably be indexed.  However, if your site isn't ready to be submitted it may not work properly.  The search engine Spiders look for hidden attributes that your site may not have.  This includes things like keyword definitions and concise descriptions of your business.

How long does the web site submission process take?

Once your site is submitted, it can take from a week to many months before your site is actually indexed.  Yahoo is notorious for taking months for a submitted site to appear.  Some of the other engines claim to visit and index your site in a matter of days.

Do the Search Engines charge for being listed?

Generally not, most engines make their money from advertising.  Adding your site to most search engines yourself doesn't cost you anything.  As long as your site has a high ranking in the engines, you have an ongoing publicity machine working for you at no charge.

Won't my web site designer submit my site?

Usually not.  Unless your agreement with the designer includes requirements for submission, this is not part of the normal design process.  Some designers may include a few obvious keywords in the first page of your site but don't expect them to attempt to optimize your pages for the search engines or submit your site.

Remember that submitting your site is a fairly mechanical though tedious process.  The area where most sites need help is in preparing the site for submission.  Not many designers have the time or inclination to stay abreast of the search engines and their changing requirements.

Can't I submit my site myself?

Yes.  There is nothing to prevent you from submitting your site.  However, it is time consuming to figure out each engine's quirks for submission and then monitor the engines to be sure your site is indexed correctly.

Again, submitting your site won't do much good if your web pages don't take into account the search engines.  If your site doesn't have good keywords and descriptions, etc., then the time you spend submitting your site is largely wasted.

How many search engines should I register with?

The search sites you register with are much more important than the number of submissions.  Sure you can submit to hundreds of search sites but are you really going to get customers who are searching those sites?  We believe it is more important to concentrate on maintaining a high ranking on the major search engines.  By concentrating on these major engines you can avoid the shotgun approach and can focus on the factors that affect a small number of engines.

What do you mean by "Ranking"?

"Ranking" is simply where your site appears in the list returned by a search engine.  When you search for one of your keywords the engine returns a list of sites in its index that match that keyword.  If your site is in say position number 125 out of 5000 sites found, then your ranking for that keyword is 125.  Most engines return search results in groups of ten so to find your site ranked 125 the user would have to click to the thirteenth page of results.

Several studies have shown that a ranking below the range of 30 to 50 is nearly useless because the user gives up before going through that many pages of results.

Keep in mind, if you are hosted on BIZynet our tree structured shopping indexes will ensure the Spiders find and refresh your ranking far more often than you will find elsewhere.

Who makes changes to my Web Pages?