What's the best way to submit a site for free?

Visit www.addme.com

They'll list your site to 20-30 search engines.
I use them too. :)

http://se.rm-s.net - I use them :) They submit your site in more than 500+ just for $20 per month, they don't :SPAM: yor mail box. They also give you unlimited usage.

Hit the real, larger ones yourself. There aren't too many of them and you want to be sure you fill everything out correctly and completely. I personally wouldn't use a service to submit.

If your web site is really important to you, nothing beats submitting manually. Remember that there are actually less than 20 big search engines, so once you've submitted to them, you will have covered 95% of your target audience.

Not only is submitting by hand absolutely FREE, but unlike using a submission service or program, you can be assured that everything was done properly. :)

if submitted by hand ?
how long does it usually take to show up ?

Due to your Experience ?

Originally posted by Sina
if submitted by hand ?
how long does it usually take to show up ?

Due to your Experience ?

This depends entirely on the search engine -- it can be anywhere between a week to 6 months, sometimes even longer. And there is no guarantee that your site will show up at all.

By the way, www.searchenginewatch.com is always a good place to find tips and advice about search engine submission, and how the engines work. :)

Of course it takes a shade longer, but I've got a site that I intentionally did not submit to any search engine. It turned up in most of them anyway. :look:

I have been using www.verysimple.com/submit to submit sites for free. It is very simple to use.

When you submit on the site, don't select all search engines from the list provided. Select a few every time you submit. Click "back" to select the next batch. The page loads fast and omit your submission if you select more than 10 at once.

I got some really good tips for submitting to Yahoo from
http://www.selfpromotion.com
There's this article there that made all the difference.
2 weeks after submission and my site was up.

No success with other search engines though. :-(

I know that Google takes about 60 days to add your site to their database... :rolleyes:

In fact that's even one of the fastest 'adders' (besides Yahoo according to knockingknee). That sucks actually. Especially for starting companies who want to become commonly known... :(

I would definetly advise submitting manually, at least to the major search engines. In my experience the results are far better when you apply manually. It will probably take you between 2 to 3 hours to properly submit to all the most important search engines but once you are submitted to them, you will have covered them all as nearly all traffic comes from those major search engines.

The problem I have is finding the urls to actually submit them manually. They seem to be hidden. (to me anyway). I must be blind or something.

=)

is submitting to yahoo free or the $299 charge is a must ?

To find the link to actually submit a site with most search engines, you'll first have to find a specific category that your site fits into. And even then, the link is usually at the bottom of the page, or some other obscure corner. They will rarely have a link on their top-level categories for site submissions.

Also, I notice that a lot of search engines now have just started using content directly from the Open Directory Project (like AOL, MSN). In those cases, they won't have their own site submission form, but they should have a link to ODP, where you can submit your site.

Originally posted by Aralanthir
Also, I notice that a lot of search engines now have just started using content directly from the Open Directory Project (like AOL, MSN). I'd disagree; the trend is not good for the Open Directory (dmoz). In fact, AOL earlier this year began using Inktomi as its main source and de-emphasized dmoz by using them now only for the directory-only listings at the bottom of the page. Bad sign, since AOL owns the Open Directory. The only major using dmoz data now as the main source of search results is Netscape, though Google uses them for their directory listings.

MSN's primary source for their directory listings is Looksmart, not dmoz.

Sorry 'bout the mistakes, but the main point I was trying to get across is that some search engines take their content from other engines, and that may be why there is no "Add site" link. I was just using ODP was an example, and I guess I got a bit confused when I listed MSN for some reason. :confused:

As for submitting to Yahoo, there is still the "Basic" submission option, which is free. If you prepare your site well enough for submission, it should still be able to get listed with the free submission. www.selfpromotion.com has a good guide to getting your site listed.

This may be a bit off-topic, but why is there no option to submit sites for free in looksmart anymore (that I could find, anyways)?

Originally posted by Aralanthir
As for submitting to Yahoo, there is still the "Basic" submission option, which is free. Only for non-commercial sites. Same deal with LookSmart, which is why you don't see a free submission link there anymore: commercial sites have to pay at both Looksmart and Yahoo. Noncommercial sites can get into Looksmart through zeal.com.

But those are directories. The only major directory where a free submission can be made for a commercial site is the Open Directory.

For search engines, free submission is pretty much becoming a thing of the past:

Google won't list a site unless it's linked to by another site they already list -- and if it is, their spider will find you before they get to you through the free "submit URL" page anyway.

You can submit for free to Inktomi through HotBot or canada.com, but they almost come out and say that they won't list you if you do anyway.

You can submit to FAST through AllTheWeb, but again they're upfront about saying that they use free submissions only to supplement crawler activity -- and paid listings.

You can make a free submission to AltaVista, but notice that none of those free submission sites include AV submission -- or if they do, they're lying -- because you have to get past the "ransom note" submission code.

Teoma is now the source for AskJeeves listings; they don't accept submissions.


If you want to get a site into search engines fast, forget free submission services. Build a good site, with content. Get some links from existing sites. Submit to dmoz... and if you want to spend some time and maybe help, altavista, google, alltheweb... and if you want to waste more time keep going until you get bored. You won't be making much more difference.

Then decide how much money you want to spend. If none, you're done. If just a little, submit a few urls to Inktomi's paid inclusion program. You can do that for less than $100 per year; even as little as $39 for one page (submissions are made through partners, search for "Inktomi SureList" or "Inktomi Search/Submit" to find places to submit through). That will get you into MSN, AOL, HotBot, etc.

If you want to spend a little more, submit to Yahoo for $299/year. In most cases, you can probably stop there, but if you want to spend more and cover more bases, submit (and pay) at LookSmart and AltaVista. If you haven't shown up yet FAST, consider the paid inclusion program through Lycos.

Then, think about whether you want to deal with PPC programs.