Get your website recognized

Inc.com has some interesting basic suggestions for making sure your website doesn't hang out all by itself on the internet:

Search engines: The major search engines include AltaVista, HotBot and Lycos. Submission is free.

Prepare your site first by optimizing your pages for search engines' indexing procedures. Advice on how to do this can be found at the SearchEngineWatch site.

Pay-for-performance (PFP) search engines: The top PFP search engine is GoTo. Others include Sprinks and Kanoodle.

While many search engines offer free submission, there's no guarantee your page will get a good ranking even if you make every effort to optimize it. The only way to guarantee good placement for your chosen keywords is to pay for it.

PFP search engines allow you to bid for placement of your chosen keywords. Workz.com offers an explanation and some examples of how to calculate how much you should spend on PFP search engines, based on your budget.

For a list and reviews of PFP engines, see the PayPerClickSearchEngines site. Advice on how to maximize your click-throughs can be found at GoTo.

Directories: The major directories, such as Yahoo!, are usually run by human editors, not the spiders search engines use. Prepare your Web site by putting valuable information on its pages; this is what editors look for.

Most major directories now require payment. The cost is well worth it as many of them distribute their listings to large directories, search engines and portals.

* LookSmart.com: $199 one-time fee.
* Open Directory: free.
* NBCi LiveDirectory: free.
* Yahoo!: $199. (The fee is for review of your site and doesn't guarantee your site will be listed.)