Not surprisingly, search engines have been reduced to lumping all SEO's into "untrustworthy" basket. On their Webmaster Do's and Don'ts page (http://www.google.com/webmasters/dos.html), Google state: "Be very careful about allowing an individual consultant or company to 'optimize' your web site. Chances are they will engage in some of our "Don'ts" and end up hurting your site". Chances are? Sounds a bit presumptuous if you ask me. Likewise, at a recent search engine conference, a representative from AltaVista declared that "all SEO's could be described using four letter words". The typical Internet user can only come to conclusion that, according to some very reliable sources, SEO's are not to be trusted - now how fair is that?

So main problem is - how do we address this reputation issue? Do we establish and agree on a standard Code of Practise as in development on sites such as World Association of Internet Marketers (http://www.waim.org/ethics.html), SEO Consultants (http://www.seoconsultants.com/seo-code-of-ethics.htm) and SEO Pros (http://www.seopros.org/members/practices.htm)? Do we race around locating and reporting search engine spam in hope of improving our reputation in eyes of search engines? Or do we simply follow our own set of standards and hope potential clients can come to their own untainted conclusions? Personally I'm looking forward to day when I no longer detect immediate suspicion when I tell people I optimize web sites for a living.

Lycos Insite Select ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Several pricing policies available to suit your size

of business.

Guaranteed 48 hour inclusion for one year with 48 hour

refresh. You have to pay an annual membership fee of

$18 and $12 per URL.

http://searchservices.lycos.com/searchservices

On to Crawlers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crawlers are so named as they literally crawl web

looking for links to sites. Therefore more links

you have coming into your site, more likely you

are to get picked up! Persuade people to link to you.

Also pick up from major directories, Open

directory, Yahoo and Looksmart.

Crawlers include: Google, AltaVista, Excite,

FAST,Inktomi. Teoma also crawls web.

Google ~~~~~~ Probably most well known and you can submit free.

Google results are also used by yahoo and netscape. To

submit to Google go to:

http://www.google.com/addurl.html

It can take about a month to be indexed and there are

no guarantees. You only submit your main page. With

some of other crawlers it is a good idea to submit

several pages from your site.

FAST ~~~~ Free submission only, although promise of paid

inclusion to come. Also powers some of Lycos and has

it's own search engine, AlltheWeb.

Visit: http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php

Excite ~~~~~~ Rumour suggests this is a dying service, but as yet it

is still alive and well. Again no paid inclusion,

only free submissions.

Visit: http://www.excite/com/info/add_url_form

AltaVista ~~~~~~~~~ Paid only. $39 for 6 months for first page $29 for additional pages/url's. Weekly refresh.

Visit: http://www.infospider.com/av/app

Inktomi ~~~~~~~ Powers HOTBOT, MSN, AOL, IWON

Sold by link partners who you can find by visiting:

http://www.inktomi.com/products/search/submit.html

$39 for first URL $25 therafter.

Guaranteed inclusion within 48 hours, with 48 hour

refresh.

Pay per Click ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Basically it's exactly as it says. You put a bid for

your keyword/s and highest bid, gets highest

listing when someone searches using that keyword.

You can set a monthly budget, so you know what you're

spending.

Looksmart ~~~~~~~~~ Visit: http://listings.looksmart.com

Visit: http://www.overture.com

So that's about it really. This only touches

surface, but it's a good place to start.

Don't totally dismiss free submissions. They dowork.

If you are providing a service to a small geographical

location then it is probably a good start.

Have a great time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sandra Lawton - MSc Experienced Web Designer who has helped many small business' in UK get online for first time.

You may contact Sandra via e-mail at: mailto:sandra@sandradesign.co.uk or visit her at http://www.sandradesign.co.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~