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Traffic Blazer helps you submit your Web site content to a large variety of search engines, Web directories and advertising programs. This guide explains which of the search engine and directory types you should consider submitting your Web site to.
The available search engines and directories are divided into the following categories:
- Top Search Engines & Directories
- Other Search Engines
- Other Directories
- Regional Search Engines
- Blog Search Engines
- Local Search Programs
- Paid Advertising Programs
Your Web site content determines which search engines and services you should submit to: Only Web logs should be submitted to the blog search engines, while local search services apply exclusively to businesses with brick-and-mortar storefronts, and regional search engines require indexed content to relate to the geographic area in question. Paid advertising programs, meanwhile, can be costly and difficult to manage for many small businesses. But regardless of your Web site type, you should start by submitting it to all of the top search engines.
Top Search Engines
The first step in the search engine submission process is to submit your Web site to the Internet's top search engines, which combine to account for more than 90 percent of all Web searches. Unless your Web site is indexed by these engines, only a small fraction of the Internet's users will find the site. Depending on your time and goals, you can consider which of the other engines to submit to, but the top search engines are necessary.
Note: The Internet's fourth-most popular search engine, Ask.com (which also provides the search results for Lycos and HotBot), does not allow direct submission of Web content.
Other Search Engines
Submitting your Web site to other search engines than the very top ones allows you to reach smaller, but less competitive niche markets. Because it is considerably easier to secure a top ranking with the smaller search engines than with the top ones, you should consider submitting your Web site to at least some of the smaller search engines.
Other Directories
Basically, directory submission serves two central purposes: Attracting Web site traffic through the directories themselves and building back links (inbound links) to your Web site. Most directories have fairly small amounts of visitors, so directory listings usually do not generate that much traffic. However, back links from directories - some more than others- can help boost your search engine ranking with top engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com. All of the available directories thus can be used for the crucial link building part of your search engine optimization campaign.
Regional Search Engines & Directories
Regional search engines limit their indexed content to Web pages whose content/topic is specifically related to the applicable region. Regional search engines have varying amounts of users, but they all provide an invaluable opportunity to reach a more narrowly defined market than the worldwide audiences reached by the highly competitive top search engines. It is highly recommended that you take advantage of the opportunity to submit your site to search engines and directories that cover your specific locale.
Blog Search Engines
Blog search engines and directories are reserved for Web logs. Other types of Web sites are not accepted. If your Web site is a blog, be sure to submit to as many of the blog search engines as possible, as the rapidly-growing amount of blogs on the Internet makes it difficult to ensure Web visibility without the help of search engines.
Local Search
A new and rapidly-growing form of Internet advertising, local search allows brick-and-mortar businesses to promote themselves to local audiences via the Internet's leading search engines. Combing traditional yellow page-technology with mapping, directions and algorithmic search technology, local search is the perfect way to promote your business locally. Local search is not applicable to Internet-only businesses.
Advertising Programs
Paid Internet advertising can be a prosperous and very effective means of attracting traffic to your Web site. However, in order to prosper from pay-per-click advertising, you must select your keywords carefully and be prepared to lose money as competition can be very tough for the more popular keywords. Paid advertising is primarily used by commercial Web sites. |
