Top Search Engines Details

Top Search Engines Details

GOOGLE.COM Google, a popular search engine, is a tool for finding resources on the World Wide Web. Google scans web pages to find instances of the keywords you have entered in the search box. Google is a fully automated search engine that employs robots known as "spiders" to crawl the web and find sites for inclusion in the Google index. Since this process doesn't involve human editors, it's NOT necessary to submit your site to Google in order to be included in our index. In fact, the vast majority of sites listed aren't manually submitted for inclusion. The best way to ensure that Google finds your site is to have pages on other relevant sites to link to yours. Google's robots jump from page to page on the web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to your pages, the more likely it is that we'll find them quickly. Design and Content Guidelines: 1. Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link. 2. Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages. 3. Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content. 4. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it. 5. Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images. 6. Make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are descriptive and accurate. 7. Check for broken links and correct HTML. 8. If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few. 9. Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100). Reference: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html Submission: Free Submission: Google Add URL page to input your URLs. You can submit your site as often as you like, but multiple submissions won't improve the likelihood of your site being added or accelerate the process. We don't penalize sites for "over-submitting." If you choose to submit your site, only the top-level domain is necessary, as the spiders can follow your internal links to the rest of the pages. Reference: http://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html Paid Submission: Google doesn't accept payment for inclusion (known as "paid inclusion") of sites in our index, nor for improving the rank of sites in our results. We do offer advertising opportunities adjacent to our results, which are always clearly labeled "Sponsored Links." The method by which we find pages and rank them as search results is determined by many different factors, including the PageRank technology. In the Google AdWords program, the cost of your campaigns really depends on you -- how much you're willing to pay and how well you know your audience. It all boils down to knowing your own goals and letting us know what they are. There is a nominal, one-time activation fee for Google AdWords. After that, you pay only for clicks on your keyword-targeted AdWords ads, or for impressions on your site-targeted AdWords ads. You can control your costs by telling us how much you're willing to pay per click or per impression and by setting a daily budget for spending. For example, a new advertiser paying in USD can activate his/her AdWords account with just US$5.00, and can then choose a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) from US$0.01 - US$100. Daily budgets start as low as 1 cent up to whatever limit the advertiser is comfortable spending. Site-targeted ads require a minimum CPM price of US$0.25, or the local currency equivalent, per 1000 impressions. Reference: http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6382 Time Taken to Index: Getting listed in Google can either be very quick (under 2 weeks) or very long (several months) depending on their crawl schedule and how many other websites are in queue to be indexed before yours. Reference: http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/SE/google.shtml YAHOO.COM The Yahoo! Directory is organized by subject. Most sites in it are suggested to us by users. Sites are placed in categories by Yahoo! editors, who visit and evaluate your suggestions and decide where the sites best belong. We do this to ensure that Yahoo! is organized in the best possible way, making the directory easy to use, intuitive, helpful, and fair to everyone. Reference: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/ Since Yahoo! does not use robots, everything indexed into Yahoo! is done by people. No META tags, ALT image tags, HTML comments or image maps will help boost your ranking here. The best chance on getting your site listed is to describe your website as accurate as possible. Reference: http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/SE/yahoo.shtml Here are a few tips that can help your page be found by a focused search on the Internet: 1 Think carefully of the key terms that your users will search on to find content like yours. Use those terms to guide the text and construction of your page. 2. Users are more likely to click a link if the title matches their search. Choose terms for the title that match the concept of your document. 3. Use a "description" meta-tag and write your description accurately and carefully. After the title, the description is the most important draw for users. Make sure the document title and description attract the interest of the user but also fit the content on your site. 4. Use a "keyword" meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page. 5. Keep relevant text and links in HTML. Placing them in graphics or image maps means search engines can't always search for the text, and the crawler can't follow links to your site's other pages. An HTML site map, with a link from your welcome page, can help make sure all your pages are crawled. 6. Use ALT text for graphics. It's good page design to accommodate text browsers or visually impaired visitors, and it helps improve the text content of your page for search purposes. 7. Correspond with webmasters and other content providers and build rich linkages between related pages. Reference: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/ranking/ranking-02.html Pages Yahoo! Wants Included in its Index 1. Original and unique content of genuine value 2. Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary 3. Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable 4. Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page 5. Good web design in general Reference: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.html Many factors influence whether a particular web site appears in Web Search results and where it falls in the ranking. These factors can include: 1. the number of other sites linking to it 2. the content on the pages 3. the updates we make to our database 4. the testing of new product versions 5. the discovery of additional sites 6. changes to the search algorithm --and other factors. Reference: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-14.html Submission: Free Submission: Yahoo does have free submission. Suggest your site for inclusion in Yahoo! Search (requires registration). Reference: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html Paid Submission: Sponsor Results are paid listings provided by Yahoo! Sponsored Search that appear on Yahoo! Search results pages and within selected Directory categories. This program uses a performance-based model in which businesses bid for enhanced placement in search results on terms that are relevant to their business, and pay on a per-click basis. Yahoo! Directory Submit is part of a suite of services Yahoo! created to serve the needs of businesses like yours. Yahoo! Directory Submit provides expedited review of web sites you submit for possible inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory. They will respond to our request within 7 business days. For web sites that do not feature adult content or services, the Yahoo! Directory Submit service costs US$299 (nonrefundable) for each Directory listing that is submitted. Furthermore, for each listing accepted into the Directory, there is a recurring annual fee of US$299 to maintain the listing in the Directory for the subsequent year. For sites that include adult content or services, the nonrefundable initial fee is US$600 and the recurring annual fee is US$600. The higher cost for sites with adult content reflects the fact that Yahoo! directory team uses a more complex and time-intensive review process for sites offering adult content and/or services. Important note: Use of the Yahoo! Directory Submit program does not ensure that your submission will be accepted for inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory. Reference: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/reference/cost Time Taken: Yahoo! Search crawls the web every 2-4 weeks and automatically finds new content for indexing. If pages already in the Yahoo! Search index link to your site, it will be considered for inclusion in the next update of the index. Reference: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/indexing/indexing-06.html DMOZ.COM The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. The ODP is a Web directory, not a search engine. Although we offer a search query, the purpose of the ODP is to list and categorize web sites. We do not rank, promote or optimize sites for search engines. The ODP is simply a data provider. ODP data users, such as AOL, Netscape and Google, install their own search functionality on their site. The ODP has no influence or knowledge on how these search engines process search queries. Reference: http://dmoz.org/help/geninfo.html Get Good Rank: Since ODP is powered completely on editors who are experts in their categories, everything indexed into ODP is done by people. No META tags, ALT image tags, HTML comments or image maps will help boost your ranking here. Your best chance on getting your site listed is to describe your website as accurate as possible. Reference: http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/SE/odp.shtml Determine whether a site is appropriate for submission to the ODP: 1. Do not submit mirror sites. Mirror sites are sites that contain identical content, but have altogether different URLs. 2. Do not submit URLs that contain only the same or similar content as other sites you may have listed in the directory. Sites with overlapping and repetitive content are not helpful to users of the directory. Multiple submissions of the same or related sites may result in the exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites. 3. Do not disguise your submission and submit the same URL more than once.4. Example: http://www.dmoz.org/ and http://www.dmoz.org/index.html 5. Do not submit any site with an address that redirects to another address. ] 6. The Open Directory has a policy against the inclusion of sites with illegal content. Examples of illegal material include child pornography; libel; material that infringes any intellectual property right; and material that specifically advocates, solicits or abets illegal activity (such as fraud or violence). 7. Do not submit sites "under construction." Wait until a site is complete before submitting it. Sites that are incomplete, contain "Under Construction" notices, or contain broken graphics or links aren't good candidates for the directory. 8. Submit pornographic sites to the appropriate category under Adult. 9. Submit non-English sites to the appropriate category under World. 10. Don't submit sites consisting largely of affiliate links. Reference: http://dmoz.org/add.html Submission: Free submission: It does have free submission Paid Submission: The ODP does not have an express service. Reference: http://dmoz.com/help/submit.html#howlong Time Taken: If your site has been accepted into the Open Directory, it may take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months for your site to be listed on partner sites which use the Open Directory data, such as AOL Search, Google, Netscape Search, Yahoo Search, and hundreds of other sites. Reference: http://dmoz.com/add.html LYCOS.COM For now, Lycos is not offering a submission service. As a result of some recent enhancements to AskJeeves, our search partner, we're confident that we're indexing even more Web pages than ever.Given that your site is search engine friendly, your site should appear in Lycos Search as a result of our ongoing "crawling" of the Web for new and updated sites and content. Reference: http://help.lycos.com/search/ls_q_6_10.asp Although we cannot guarantee your placement within search results for particular keywords, the following tips will help you to ensure that your pages are spider friendly: 1. Write great content that human searchers would understand and do not try to trick the Search Engine's algorithms. 2. Use keywords that searchers use to find your web site in the meta-data. Use your web logs to determine the keywords. Don't guess! 3. Make sure your web content mentions those keywords near the top of the page. For instance, place the keywords in the headline or in the first paragraph on the page. 4. Repeat keywords more than once within your web page, but don't over do it. Too much repetition is considered spam. 5. Lycos now offers instant spidering of your site. Don't bother registering every page in your site individually, unless you're really anxious. (Our spiders will automatically register all additional screens shortly after your home page.) Once you register with Lycos, your site will be spidered immediately. However, it will not be immediately available on Lycos. We receive thousands of URL's every day making us the most comprehensive service available. Don't register a URL with any of these symbols: equals sign (=), dollar sign ($) or question mark (?). Our robot is symbol-intolerant. Reference: http://www.fingertek.com/submit.htm Time Taken: It's generally takes 2-4 weeks to be listed with Lycos. Refernce: http://www.fingertek.com/submit.htm Paid information: You may also wish to consider InSite AdBuyer. Pay-Per-Click Advertising with AdBuyer drives targeted, high quality, low-cost search traffic to your website. Promote your business on top internet properties including Lycos, HotBot, Tripod/Angelfire, and more. In order to activate your InSite Adbuyer account, you are required to deposit a minimum of $50. This amount is credit towards actual traffic to your website and is non-refundable. Reference: http://help.lycos.com/insite/in_q_16_2.asp HOTBOT.COM If any other indexed page links to your page, HotBot will automatically find and index your page. Reference: http://www.fingertek.com/submit.htm Time Taken: HotBot site submission ranges anywhere between three weeks and 60 days. Reference: http://help.lycos.com/hotbot/hb_q_12_7.asp ALTAVISTA.COM Altavista currently has one of the largest Internet databases of all the search engines. Altavista is owned by Digital (recently acquired by Compaq) . 1. Altavista will spider or follow all links it finds on your website and index them into their database. 2. Altavista will not tolerate websites that try to "spam" their index with the same page over and over (ie: too many doorway pages will get you blacklisted). Additionally, repeating words often in your META tags may get your site demoted or removed from Altavista's index. 3. Altavista supports full page indexing which includes all ALT image tags, image maps, and frames. In addition, any in-line text and actual content on your pages are indexed with the exception of HTML comments. Also, upper and lower case are recognized differently with Altavista, so select your keywords with care. 4. If lots of websites link to your site, then your site will be ranked higher in AltaVista's rankings. Time Taken : Getting listed in Altavista takes about 2-5 days Reference : http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/SE/altavista.shtml ALLTHEWEB.COM All The Web (Fast Search) is a popular crawler-based search engine with an excellent database. Submission : Free submission :Search results on AlltheWeb are provided by Yahoo!. If you are interested in submitting your site to be considered for free inclusion in the Yahoo! Search index, Yahoo! registration required.FAST All The Web offers a free search engine submission and listing service, but doesn't guarantee that sites submitted this way will actually show up. Reference: http://alltheweb.com/help/webmaster/submit_site Paid submission : If you want to ensure that you are included in the FAST All The Web database, they offer a paid inclusion service with an Annual Membership fee of $18 per year plus $12 per URL submitted per year. Paid submittals are guaranteed indexing within 48 hours and every 48 hours thereafter. LOOKSMART.COM Get Good Index : Looksmart does not use robots, everything indexed into Looksmart is done by people. No META tags, ALT image tags, HTML comments or image maps will help boost your ranking here. Your best chance on getting your site listed is to describe your website as accurate as possible. The final decision rests up to the editor who reviews your website so your website must impress them to be worthy of adding you to their database. Submission : Free Submission : Looksmart no longer offers free submissions Paid Submission : There are two service levels available for getting listed in Looksmart. The first service level costs $79 and requires about 8 weeks for an editor to review your site. The second service level costs $199 and requires about 48 hours for an editor to review your site. Both these service levels will get you a guaranteed response whether your site will be indexed or not but does not guarantee your application will be accepted. Reference: http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/SE/looksmart.shtml EXCITE.COM 1. We ask that you submit only one URL, that of the topmost page of your site. From there, our spider can crawl through the rest of the site, following and indexing all the related links. 2. Excite only reads the Description Meta tag. All other Meta Tags are disregarded by Excite. 3. Excite indexes all visible text, but does not support ALT image tags, image maps nor frames. Refernce: http://www.fingertek.com/submit.htm http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/SE/excite.shtml Time taken : Getting listed in Excite takes about 2-4 weeks Reference : http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/SE/excite.shtml MSN.COM MSN Search website ranking is completely automated. The MSN Search ranking algorithm analyzes factors such as web page content, the number and quality of websites that link to your pages, and the relevance of your website’s content to keywords. Design Consideration : The best way to attract people to your site, and keep them coming back, is to design your pages with valuable content that your target audience is interested in. 1. In the visible page text, include words users might choose as search query terms to find the information on your site.  Limit all pages to a reasonable size. We recommend one topic per page. An HTML page with no pictures should be under 150 KB. 2. Make sure that each page is accessible by at least one static text link. 3. Keep the text that you want indexed outside of images. For example, if you want your company name or address to be indexed, make sure it is displayed on your page outside of a company logo. 4. Add a site map. This enables MSNBot to find all of your pages easily. Links embedded in menus, list boxes, and similar elements are not accessible to web crawlers unless they appear in your site map. 5.Keep your site hierarchy fairly flat. That is, each page should only be one to three clicks away from the home page. Reference : http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm#C Technical recommendations for your website : 1. Use only well-formed HTML code in your pages. Ensure that all tags are closed, and that all links function properly. If your site contains broken links, MSNBot may not be able to index your site effectively, and people may not be able to reach all of your pages. 2. If you move a page, set up the page's original URL to direct people to the new page, and tell them whether the move is permanent or temporary. For more information, see What to do when your site moves. 3. Make sure MSNBot is allowed to crawl your site and is not on your list of web crawlers that are prohibited from indexing your site. 4. Use a robots.txt file or meta tags to control how MSNBot and other web crawlers index your site. The robots.txt file tells web crawlers which files and folders it is not allowed to crawl. The Web Robots Pages provide detailed information on the robots.txt Robots Exclusion standard. This site may be available in English only. 5. Keep your URLs simple and static. Complicated or frequently changed URLs are difficult to use as link destinations. For example, the URL www.example.com/mypage is easier for MSNBot to crawl and for people to type than a long URL with multiple extensions. Also, a URL that doesn't change is easier for people to remember, which makes it a more likely link destination from other sites. Refernce: http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm#A Time Taken: If your site has recently been posted, or you have made changes to your site, it may take several weeks for your updates to appear in MSN Search results. Submitting your site does not guarantee that your site will be indexed. But it does help us locate your site so that MSNBot can try to crawl it. Reference : http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GettingSiteIndexed.htm