how do i get search engines to search my site?

[steadicam]

hi, i'm new to the forum. i was searching some for some answers as to how i would go about getting search engines ie: google, yahoo, lycos....to search my website. i have read about the "meta" tags and put in descriptions and keywords within my site, but i don't knwo if that's gonna work. please help.

thanks

josh

[ncw164x]

Google is the only search engine from your list which will visit your site and spider your pages
A good title and description are important, keywords are not taken into account by Google anymore but it is good practice to have them on your pages for other search engines

Yahoo is a directory which you pay (non returnable) to submit your home page for an editor to have a look to see if it is suitable for inclusion in the Yahoo directory.
the search results are powered by Google at this moment in time but are being changed to inktomi in the very near future

Lycos used to have a spider called trex but this has not been seen for some time, the results are powered by fast - alltheweb dot com

ncw164x

[trifi]

They are many services that allow you to submit your site for free to yahoo, google, altaVista,etc(top 25 search engines). In usually takes about 2 or 3 months, after that your site will be indexed by all majopr search engines check back for updates on the re-fresh rate in your browser. I would also read about writing metatags, they are used by ALL search engine to index your page and you may be blocked from certain ones if you do not follow their rules.

[agerhart]

trifi,

Where are you getting this information from? Can you please clarify, as I have a problem with many of your points.

I would also read about writing metatags, they are used by ALL search engine to index your page

Not all of them, and they are given different weight by all. Some use a particular tag or give it more weight than others.

I would also read about writing metatags, they are used by ALL search engine to index your page and you may be blocked from certain ones if you do not follow their rules.

They will not block you for not following their "rules" pertaining to Meta tags.

They are many services that allow you to submit your site for free to yahoo, google, altaVista,etc(top 25 search engines).

Search engine submission is dead. In addition, there are not 25 major search engines. I can count them on one hand.

[ncw164x]

Yahoo
dmoz

google
alltheweb
altavista
teoma
gigablast

Yes it is true to say that there are 100's of thousands of search engines, directories, link farms, link compilations etc whatever you want to call them, but only the main ones as above will give you the "most" visitors to your site

ncw164x

[steadicam]

thanks for all the replys. i will continue to "explore" how to do this. does it really take 2 - 3 months for a serach engine to index your site? that's a long time, but i realize that there are alot of sites out there. thanks again for the replys.

josh

[agerhart]

Indexing time depends on a number of factors:

1) When you launch your site.
2) When you get incoming links
3) When the search engine recognizes this link
4) If and when you pay to have your URLs registered in a search engine
5) If you have any directory listings

There are probably some factors I forgot to mention also.

[Mohamed_E]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, josh!

From your questions I believe that you have a lot of reading to do! I would suggest that you start with Brett's Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone [webmasterworld.com]. You will get enough ideas from that single posting to keep you busy for a couple of weeks. As you read you will find that you want to ask specific questions, do not hesitate to do so.

The world of search engines evolves very fast. Right now there are only two search engines that generate any real traffic in the US: Google, which currently powers Google, Yahoo, AOL and a host of major ISPs, and Inktomi which powers MSN. Major changes are expected soon, but this is the current lineup.