For Those with More Time Than Money
As discussed in last month's issue almost all the major search engines and directories now charge a fee for submission, inclusion or placement. Are there any free options left? The answer is yes. But only if you don't need quick results and have time to spend instead of money.
The Open Directory Project, which is used by Google, AOL and others, is the one big freebie left. It uses volunteer editors and so can take a significant amount of time and several submissions to get listed. For the other engines and directories there are two key components to free listings - non-commercial content and targeted link building.
Non-Commercial Content & the Directories
Marketing with content was discussed in detail in a past issue of eMage by eMail. Non-commercial content is also the only way for a commercial site to get into Yahoo and LookSmart if you can't afford or don't want to pay their fees.
What is non-commercial content? It is free, original, of good quality, updated or expanded on a regular basis and purely informational. It is NOT full of marketing hype or trying to sell something. It is a useful resource that adds value to any directory in which it is included. It also takes time and effort to develop. However, once added to your site, that section (not your commercial home page) can be submitted to Yahoo and LookSmart for free. How it this done?
Submitting to Yahoo for Free
To get into Yahoo for free you must use their Standard Submit option. This is only available through the non-commercial categories of the directory. You'll know the category is non-commercial if the "reverse bar" containing the category name at the top of the page is blue (it's yellow in the commercial section). Be warned however, standard submission can take months to be included. Also, unlike the paid Express option, you will not be told if your site has been rejected and why. After submitting via the free option you have to watch and wait. If it still has not been picked up in a month, try again.
Submitting to LookSmart for Free
LookSmart also includes a free option through the Zeal directory (http://www.zeal.com). Like the Open Directory, this directory uses volunteer editors. To submit to Zeal you'll need to sign up as a member at this URL http://www.zeal.com/users/become_a_zealot.jhtml and once accepted, you can then submit your site to a non-commercial category using the "Add a Site Profile" link near the top of the category page.
A note: Be very careful when submitting to Yahoo, LookSmart and the Open Directory. Once you get in changes are almost impossible to make. Submission still requires you to do a lot of work to effectively position your listing with title, description, category and even URL selection.
Targeted Link Building & the Crawlers
The major crawler based engines are now Google, FAST (which powers Lycos, AlltheWeb and soon HotBot) and AltaVista. The best way to get listed with these search engines is build links to your website. Crawlers follow links, so if you have quality, on topic links pointing to your website, the crawlers are more likely to find and include your pages. The good news is that once you are listed with the major directories then the crawlers will most likely pick you up. This means you may not need to do any additional work to get listed with the crawler based search engines. You just have to wait for time to pass and may also find it helpful to do some targeted link building beyond the directories.
Targeted link building is also quite time consuming. The best pace to begin - the major search engines. Look for the sites that are ranking well for your targeted search terms or for complimentary sites that are in your niche; then work to build some kind of relationship with these sites, even if it is only a reciprocal link. We will discuss link building strategies in more detail in a future issue, but these are the basics involved. Effective targeted link building, with both the major directories and smaller niche sites, takes time, creativity and persistence if you have no money to spend. But for those site owners who have more time than money, it is key to developing a successful online presence.
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eMage Sites of the Month
Although free Add URL pages have disappeared from some of the major search players, they do still exist. However, there is no guarantee using these that your site will be included or when. Also of note, Inktomi actually attaches a ranking penalty to any site entering their database this way.
AlltheWeb: http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php
AltaVista: http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new
Google: http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Lycos: http://searchservices.lycos.com/searchservices/lite_step1.asp
MSN/Inktomi: http://submitit.bcentral.com/msnsubmit.htm
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eMage Tip of the Month
Although we have outlined the free options above, we strongly recommend you find the money to make at least a minimal investment with the major directories. If you are serious about doing business on the web, accept it's part of the cost:
| Yahoo: |
|
$299 yearly |
| LookSmart: |
|
$149 or $299 one-time |
|
|
|
| Total Investment: |
|
$448 or $598 first year* |
Also if you need to be listed quickly, then more money needs to be budgeted for paid inclusion on the major crawler based engines as follows:
| Inktomi: |
|
$39
|
| AltaVista: |
|
$39 |
| FAST (via Lycos): |
|
$30 |
| Ask Jeeves/Teoma: |
|
$30 |
|
|
|
| Total Investment: |
|
$138* |
*all prices in USD
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