Have
you had trouble getting your site listed on the major search engines? It's a Herculean
task. You go through the usual channels, and you submit your site, sometimes to each
search engine one at a time. But how effective is that?
I did not have any luck with that method, but I recently did a
search on Yahoo for my site, and it finally came up months after I had submitted it. But a
closer look showed that none of the URL's listed were mine! Yahoo hadn't listed my site
because I submitted it; Yahoo listed it because it was listed on other sites! While the
other major search engines were a bit more generous, the same was true of them: most of
the links for my site weren't mine. So, I concluded the only way to get my new URL listed
was to list it with other sites, namely directories. I started with the six sites that
came up in Yahoo and submitted my new URL to them. I figured if it worked once... Then I
checked other search engines to see where they picked up my URL. I have read that
sometimes URL's are picked up from posting in forums, but many won't let you
"advertise." The one site that had two listings was for my directory listing at Zing.com. Create free photo albums at Zing;
if you have a business, you can put your products up, list your business and include a
short description in the Zing directory. Make sure you put your URL into your virtual
photo album and in your directory listing; if the search engine link goes to the Zing
page, and your URL is listed, they can still reach you.
Another crucial directory to add your site
to is the Open Directory Project (Dmoz.org/add.html).
Many search engines, large and small, gather their listings from the Open Directory. My
Open Directory listing came up repeatedly on the search engines. Plus, the more search
engines you are listed on, the more search engines will pick up your listings. For
example, getting listed in directories helps you get listed on major search engines;
smaller search engines mine the larger search engines, by performing metasearches, for
their listings.
But listing yourself on smaller directories is beneficial too,
because the major search engines mine those. For example, in my case, a link I submitted
to DogPages.net, was picked up by
most, if not all, of the major search engines. To find directories to list your site,
punch into the search engines keywords related to your site and see which URLs or sites
come up. Check particularly into directories who will let you list your URL for free. It's
time consuming yes, but it works. Many directories let you submit your link, either as
free for alls or reciprocal links.
Another place to start from is www.directoryguide.com, which is
what it says, a guide to directories; you can also check keywords at Yahoo, and look under
the "directories" category. Some directories, like www.christmasgiftstores.comand
www.heryellowpages.com let you
post a link at a nominal cost. My own such links came up frequently in my searches so it
was worth a small fee.
I signed a guestbook once on a local "hometown" site and
that, too, came up repeatedly in my search. And for every contest I've ever sponsored,
there were links to those pages on the search engines! Some sites that accept contest
sponsors are KeystoneConnect and
All-About-Babies.
And lastly, I once did a search for something else and there were
multiple listings for one particular article that had been "reprinted" on
numerous web sites, so another good way to get listed is to submit an article like this
one! It takes time, but costs nothing. The rewards could mean the difference in sales.
Good luck!
Here are a few more free directories where you can submit your
site, just to get you started:
www.madeinusa.org
www.magnoliaink.com
www.herplanet.com
www.digital-women.com
www.sheknows.com
www.womensnewsbureau.com
www.couponmadness.com
/www.happyhippie.com
Women's Resource Center and Moms Network Exchange both let you
create free virtual business/personality cards—mine were repeatedly picked up by the
search engines:
www.resourcewomen.com/bizcard/create.html
AND
www.momsnetwork.com
Submit your articles to A Mom's Love—click here
Donna Turello
An Enchanted Letter™
Letters written just for you! Personalized letters and gifts for kids of all ages, and
pets too. www.angelfire.com/biz6/gtbaskets/index.html
OR clik.to/funbaskets or email gtbaskets@yahoo.com
