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Many of these sites have never had there URL addresses submitted to the search engines. Why not? Because the site owner either doesn't know about this or, for reasons unknown, doesn't care about this. In any event, they are not listed. They are like unlisted phone numbers. You will never find them unless someone tells you about them.
So, if you have a web site or other internet resource you want people to visit, you must submit information about them to the search engines. You can do this conveniently with Eureka! because each site that accepts submissions has a hot link to the submission page of the site on Eureka! which is shown as "Add URL". Just click on that and be ready to tell the world.
Start by submitting your site to the search engines in Eureka!. Remember, 99.9% of all searches are done using these engines. Next find some of the multiple submission or promotion sites. You can find them with Eureka! Find the engines which cover the special niche that includes your type of site and submit your site to them.
I do not recommend that you use the submission pages that do it all at once for you in one fell swoop. These are fine tools if you have a humble home page on which you've spent maybe a day or two of time developing. You didn't spend much time on the page so why should you spend much time on the submission process. You'll be happy if someday, someone visits your page.
Another important place to submit your website is to Free Link Pages. These are growing in popularity and are available on many sites. Some of the submission services listed below have links to many of these pages. You need to provide a strong and powerful message in the brief description line provided on most free link pages. I provide 10 Tips on how to get the most visits from Free Link pages on my Free Link Promotion Tips page.
The submit your announcement all at once websites are useful for those who don't have the time or don't want to spend the time doing individual submissions to the search engines. If you want to take this course, or if you simply want to see what these services have to offer, I would check these services out first:
I recommend that you look at each of these services before you use one. Several of them provide a means of submitting to multiple websites at one time. All offer free services. Some also offer fee based services. There are hundreds of other similar services available, many of which charge a fee, that you can find in Yahoo. You can also use these services to suppliment your own individual submissions using Eureka! Try to avoid making multiple submission to the same site. These people are busy enough already and handling duplicate submissions just slows the whole process down for everyone. That's one of the reasons it sometimes takes so long to get your website listed.
But if you have invested a huge amount of time in your website, you need to make an extra effort in exposing it to the world. Why spend hundreds of man hours developing a web page if no one will ever find it? Building your web page was only a third of the job. The other two thirds of the work is promoting it.
It is important to do the submissions yourself because each search engine request different kinds and/or different quantities of information. Some of them also want keywords and classification categories which you may want to select depending on that search engine's design and organization. You can and should tailor your submission to meet each search engines requirements.
http://www.best.com/~mentorms/sanjose.htm
If you are submitting to a directory, it will want much more information. It varies from one to the other, but they will generally want the URL, the Title, a description, classification categories, and some keywords. The most efficient and effective way to do this is to put all this information together on a text page using a simple editor like Notepad or Write in Windows.
You should have at least two descriptions: one short, less than 25 words, and the other should be as long as necessary, up to about 100 words. Some search engines accept only short descriptions. Others will take descriptions of virtually any size. Some take both a short and a long description. You need to be prepared for both types. Sometimes you will even have to shorten your short description for some submissions. Some engines want you to put your web site into a classification category. Add this to your list, just in case.
Arrange the information in your text page as in the following example:
Silicon Valley Web Directory
URL:
http://www.best.com/~mentorms/sanjose.htm
Short description ( Use only first sentence if less than 25 words are needed)
This is a hierarchical index and directory to over 4,750 web sites about San Jose, Silicon Valley, the greater San Francisco bay area and computer industry companies. An ideal site for business people, tourist, and residents. Loaded with resources in every imaginable area.
Long Description:
A hierarchical index and directory to over 4,750 world wide web sites about San Jose, California, Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. Categories include associations, non-profit organizations, business, demographics, disaster relief, education, colleges, high schools, employment opportunities, events, attractions, movies, theaters, festivals, museums, performing arts, government, politics, live video camera views of Silicon Valley, broadcast media, newspapers, recreation, biking, hiking, running, golf, parks, gardens, skating, hang gliding, flying, beaches, paddling, wind surfing, dancing, music, religious organizations, professional sports, baseball, football, basketball, hockey.
Extensive tourist and visitors information also available about clubs, hotels, restaurants, shopping, and visitor guides. Transit and transportation information includes airports, railroads, and light rail. Weather, time, and traffic conditions also included.
Other categories include cities and counties, and over 760 bay area computer companies. Over 1,134 other computer industry companies outside of Silicon Valley are also listed in this directory. Several hundred business service firm sites are listed which include hi-tech advertising and public relations firms, financial services, venture capitalists, market research firms, systems and software sources, and health and medical care.
Please note, many of the sites are very useful no matter where one is located. For example, you can get transit information, images, maps, news, and weather for almost any location. This site is updated daily. Usually from 10 to 50 new sites are added each day. So check back frequently.
We have also been adding entirely new categories on a weekly basis. The most recent addition is our legal section. This is a very good resource for anyone, anywhere, whether for business or personal interest or need.
Keywords: (Arrange in order of importance)
San Jose, Silicon Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, travel, recreation, sports, computer, software, employment, parks, museums, activities, events, restaurants, hotels.
Categories: (Order of importance)
1) Travel
2) Regional
a. Silicon Valley
b. San Francisco bay area
c. San Jose
2) Recreation
3) Sports
4) Computers
Some search engines are hybrids. Some robots request more information. Some directories ask for very little information. Some guides will even ask you to rate the submission.
It takes time. Lots of reasons. Some good. Some bad.
You will find that some search engines will list your site immediately. You enter your information directly into the search engine and it is immediately available for searches. But most search engines don't work this way. Most robots don't go out every night. Some do, but most don't. Most robots go out on a schedule that might be once a week, or once a month, or even less frequently. I even suspect that a few never go out any more.
Robots don't go everywhere every time they go looking for sites. That may search only a portion of the internet at a time. Some robots also use selection criteria to determine their priorities in searching for sites. They may select only sites that have a certain number of links to them. Some robots don't even look for the URL you submit them. They only use it as permission to enter your site if and whenever they find the site. If you keep track with your notebook, you will find that some robots find your site right away, while others never do, no matter how many times you submit your URL to them.
Most robots do not say when or how they look for web sites. They don't for a variety of reasons, but this makes it difficult to evaluate the usefulness of a particular search engine.
The problem with getting listed in directories isn't much different. Many directories are manually updated by human beings with very finite resources available for updating. This means that a popular directory may take weeks or months before it gets around to looking at your site. And when they do look at it, they want to see something good. If your site doesn't past muster, it just might not be listed at all.
Guides are very discriminating. If the site isn't very, very good, it wont be listed. Period. And the good guides, like the good directories, have long waiting lists. This again take weeks or months before they even get to your site. And since they have to write reviews and come up with ratings, the process takes even longer. They make up for this by just flying by the sites that will be included in a directory, but don't merit their attention.