Okay, you've got your website on the Internet. Now what? Just because it's there doesn't mean anyone is going to see it. To get your site seen, you need to get it listed in the Search Engines.

A Search Engine is the first place someone on the Internet goes to look for...anything. So how do you get listed in the Search Engines? First, ask yourself what YOU would type in a browser to find YOUR website. Do you have an online gift shop? What do you sell in it? Use those words AND phrases as your keywords.

Got them ready? Good. Now, what do you do with them? You use them - in your website description, page title(s) and meta tags.

Your what? Meta Tags. These keywords are placed within the HTML Code of your web pages. Slow Down! HTML Code? HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language, to be specific) is the code that makes the "pieces" of your site (graphics, text and/or links) show up where you want them to on your web page.

Once you (or your website designer) have the keywords in place, you can "submit" your site to the search engines. You CAN use a submission service to quickly add your URL, but...you don't know for sure if it's been added unless you do it yourself.

Each Search Engine has it's own specific rules for submission. Be sure you read their policies thoroughly because they change often.

Here are the links to the top FREE search engines to submit to:

Alta Vista http://addurl.altavista.com/sites/addurl/newurl All The Web http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php Hot Bot http://www.hotbot.lycos.co.uk/submit.html Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html Lycos http://www.lycos.co.uk/service/addasite.html Northern Light http://www.northernlight.com/docs/regurl_help.html

Other Important Engines

Aeiwi http://www.aeiwi.com/submit.html 2kCity http://www.2kcity.com/search/addurl.asp?page=adurl Exact Seek http://www.exactseek.com/add.html Find Once http://www.findonce.com/submit/ Frequent Finders http://www.frequentfinders.com/addsite.php Surf Gopher http://www.surfgopher.com/addurl.htm Info Tiger http://www.infotiger.com/addurl.html Master Site http://www.mastersite.com/addurl.htm National Directory http://www.nationaldirectory.com/addurl/ Scrub the Web http://www.scrubtheweb.com/addurl.html Search It http://www.searchit.com/addurl.htm Splat Search http://www.splatsearch.com/submit.html True Search http://www.truesearch.com/addurl/ Googley http://www.googley.com/cgibin/search.cgi?AddSite=prompt Infomak http://www.url.infomak.com What You Seek http://www.whatyouseek.com/addurl-secondary.shtml Walhello http://www.walhello.com/addlinkgl.html Subjex http://www.subjex.com/submit_url.html

You're finished. Or are you? There are a LOT more search engines out there...just type "search engine" in one of them and see what comes up! There are also pay-per-click engines and directories...but this article is for the Newbie. Let's not get you overwhelmed!

I hope this article helps you understand more about what is involved in search engine submissions. If you have questions, send them to jwright@aboutaffiliates.com. I'll answer them as best I can.