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

Since most referrals to sites from Yahoo come from search results and not from people visiting certain categories, it is wise and best (in most occasions) to submit to a very specific category with lots of keywords in category name. To see this strategy in practice revisit results page for "Internet marketing articles" on Yahoo.com. Notice that top ranked site is in a category

with lots of keywords, these are: Internet, Business, Advertising and Web, these combined with various keywords in title, description and URL combine to give this site a pretty good chance at ranking well on a few good keywords and phrases. Therefore category names are just like having more titles and descriptions. Note - if you are a regional operation try to pick a category with name of your state or province in it. This will help you get targeted local visitors from Yahoo.

As for title, Yahoo insists that you use your official business or website name when applying to them, if you submit some keyword rich title they wont even look twice at your application. You should take this into account when choosing a domain name/official website name.

Yahoo favors short titles. This stems from fact that shorter title is, less likely they will be to edit it. This means less work for them. However if you follow above guidelines and Yahoo's own onsite guidelines, chances are you won't be edited very much.

The description part is tricky part. The Web site description posted with your URL is a big factor in how your site will rank once it's listed in directory.

You have to submit a description which has your main keywords in it. Make it sound very appealing to potential visitors at same time. However, you must avoid anything that resembles hype and bragging, for example - number 1 site on net for... The best on web for...

Yahoo will either edit this kind of language to something that doesn't benefit you at all or worse... just move on to next application. If they do edit it, you can bet your keywords won't appear in final listing. For these reasons, it is important to get it right first time.

The description should be concise and based on facts. Most importantly, it should include your most important keywords whenever possible. Do not exaggerate what is located on your site. Remember a real person reviews your site and if you exaggerate, your site will not be approved. It's as simple as that.

The length of description should be about 10 - 15 words. Note: On Yahoo submittal form, they say 25 is maximum. Never go near this number; they are sure to edit it and probably remove your keywords. Refer to Yahoo's own words: "Please be brief"

SIDENOTE

Sometimes people email me asking this question: "Does title and description that I submit to Yahoo have to be same as Meta description tag and title tag on my site". The simple answer is: NO!

Have an "about us" page on your site - Yahoo likes to know who it is dealing with. On this page describe what you do honestly and also post physical address of your organization.

IMPORTANT

Don't Spam Yahoo. If they notice you submitting your site more than every 2 or 3 months, they will just forget about you and move on.

Good luck in your quest for Yahoo success!