Getting Listed On Search Engines
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David
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February 20th, 2012
Getting listed on search engines is by far the most affordable way to drive traffic to your website. I feel that it's also the most effective because the search engine is creating legitimacy for you by listing your website.
Before I get any further I want to say that getting listed on a search engine is a lot different than ranking well on a search engine. You could be listed on page 50 of a search engine and you should expect basically no traffic from that listing. At that point you'll need to start optimizing your website for search engines. Getting listed is just the start.
The Top Search Engines
The top search engines that you'll want to get listed on are Google.com, Yahoo.com and Bing.com. These are the search engines that'll drive the most traffic to your website. Of the 3 listed above Google will provide you with the most traffic of all.
There are some second tier search engines that you'll want to ensure that you're listed on such as DogPile.com, Ask.com and LookSmart.com.
There are others but the traffic from them is minimal but you'll still want to get listed because it certainly won't hurt.
How Do I Submit My Website To The Top Search Engines
Each search engine offers a URL to submit your website to them for free. It's important that you're site be completed and optimized for search engines though. Otherwise they'll simply 'crawl' your website and not list it.
Although submitting your website to search engines is an option I've covered some better options below. These methods seem to work better because they all involve being linked to from other websites so it builds legitimacy to the search engines.
Below are the URL's to list your websites for free.
Additional Ways To Get Listed On Search Engines
I'm going to cover a couple of additional ways to get listed on search engines. I prefer the 1st method because the listing is natural, not a manual submission. The second method is also great but can take some time to get listed.
The way that I prefer to get listed on search engines, primarily Google, is by them finding my site via another website's link to my website. The idea is to find a website that's already listed on Google and request that they link to your website. When Google crawls their website the next time Google will follow this link and potentially index your website.
Another method is to get listed in a directory. The most effective directory is DMOZ.org, this directory is managed by human editors so it can take some time to get listed. If the editor of the category doesn't feel that you're site offers anything beneficial to the directory they simply won't add your website.
The thing about DMOZ.org is that Google looks highly upon listings that are found on DMOZ so it's important to get listed there. It's not going to break you if you don't get listed but it certainly helps if you do.
Webmaster Forum
I invite you to visit my webmaster forum, it's a great place to discuss websites and ask questions to fellow webmasters regarding topics that you may still have questions on.