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We all want to get our websites high up in the search enignes but how do you do it? One thing you shouldn't bother doing is submit your site to any search engines. Not Google, not Yahoo!, not AltaVista. Sound a bit strange? Read on...

Submitting to all the search engines

Submitting your website to every search engine is an incredibly time-consuming process. There are hundreds and hundreds of them out there - no doubt, you've come across the companies who'll submit your website to 1000 search engines for you.

Search engine professionals know that the vast majority of these search engines have a very low usage rate and will drive hardly any traffic your way. In fact, it's only a handful of search engines that drive the majority of traffic from search engines to websites.

The major search engines

Some of the most important search engines, probably accounting for over 90% of the search engine market, are:

- Google
- Yahoo! (released earlier this year)
- MSN
- Teoma
- Fast
- AltaVista

Don't submit to these search engines

"But there's only six of them - why on earth not!?" Well, aside from saving time and a bit of money (some require a submission fee), quite simply there's no need. Allow me to explain...

Search engines crawl the web every few weeks (or months) looking for websites to index. Here's how it works:

- Search engines start at one website with a large number of outbound links (usually a directory)

- They follow every link they come across, indexing each page they arrive at

- Once a page has been indexed they follow all the links from that page

- And so on until there are no more links to follow

- Unless today is your very first day on the Internet, you might have heard that inbound links into a website are extremely important in establishing its search engine ranking.

If a search engine can't find you by itself through crawling the web, then your website doesn't have any inbound links. If so, you'll never achieve a decent search engine ranking so what's the point in registering?

Getting incoming links quickly

So, how do you get incoming links? Well, this is a vast topic which I won't be discussing now, but if you want to get a few good links quickly then there is a solution: web directories. If your website is listed in the Yahoo! directory (http://dir.yahoo.com, not the same as Yahoo! search) and the Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org, used by Google) all the search engines should find you within two to three months.

There are plenty of other directories you should get listed in too. Global, local and industry-specific directories abound on the Internet. To find them run a search for 'web directory' on your favorite search engine. The directories that come up highest in the search rankings will probably generate the most traffic. You can also check the directories of directories listed at the end of this article.

Another even quicker solution is webmaster forums. Search engines love forums because they include so much fresh content. Most have an area where you're allowed to enter your URL to get feedback from other webmasters. http://www.webmasterforumlist.com has a list of webmsater forums - sign up to them all and get posting!

Long term strategy

Search engine optimisation is a long term strategy. You'll be successful if you:

- Structure your pages correctly by positioning your keywords in effective places

- Build a great site with unique content that other websites will want to link

Register with as many web directories as possible and then concentrate your efforts on these two things. Within a few months you'll start to see success.

Directories of directories:

- http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/
- http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/
- http://www.seo-lab.com/directory-articles/best-free-directories.php
- http://www.isedb.com/html/Web_Directories/
- http://www.directory-pages.com/

This article was written by Trenton Moss. He's crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - http://www.webcredible.co.uk ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone.