Free Search Engine Submission

Are all Search Engines Free?

No, some of the search engines make you bid on your position or charge you a fee every so often to be included. Not all of the free search engines are worth it, and neither are the pay engines.

Be careful of spam when you sign up, use fake emails and a fake name to track who is selling your information. For example, when anyone asks for a certain name I know they are a marketer and I usually make them take me off their list before they even get their sales pitch out. Yahoo.com or hotmail.com will give you free emails for this purpose. Read the spam tutorials elsewhere on this site to help not receive so much spam.

Usually, the pay engines provide a much faster service, but they are not necessary. Without paid search engine inclusion or keyword bidding you may wait up to several months to get listed in the search engines!

What is a Realistic Search Engine Submission Budget?

This is a minimum recommended spending on advertising. You may adjust to suit your needs. Yahoo can wait for a few months, but should be done in the first year, and usually first year only. Everything else is done on a monthly basis.

Yahoo Express - $300 for first year
Google PPC - $25 per month
overture PPC - $50 per month
overture content - $10 per month
aol classifieds - $6 per month
Ebay commissions - $50 per month

Is there a service that manages this for You?

Hypersubmit has a package for $76 per year that gaurantees listing in google.com. They are also the only service of this type that we recommend currently. That alone is worth it. They also submit to 400 other search engines once per month and send you a tracking report. If you are pressed for time and do not want to experiment with search engines, this is a recommended method. For about $6 per month, you just can't beat this service. Make sure you optimize your keywords first, this is something you should do, and not pay anyone else to do. Use our keyword tutorial to make sure you have the best keywords.

There are also free ways to submit are listed below, but realize that they take several months to several months to actually gain momentum. The free ways take more time, more effort and have a higher learning curve, but here they are:

Before You Submit Your Web Site!

Search engines want content. If you have a single page website that offers nothing of value, you probably won't get listed by most search engines. Please make sure you've done the following BEFORE you begin submitting your web site or url to the search engines:

If we have designed your website, you do not need to worry about most of these items. But be aware of them at least, especially for any pages that you've edited.

Always use a phrase, not just a single keyword
Research your keywords
Place Keywords In Title
Use Unique and Descriptive Short Titles
Use Subheaders with Keywords
Use meta tags with proper keywords
Use the same keywords from metatags in paragraph tags
Name your Pictures with keyword file names
Name your links using Keywords
Name your file names using keywords
Export Your Javascript out of your HTML
Clean up your Code, use the HTML Validator
Use Cascading Style Sheets and import them
Do not use frames
Do not use flash
Make your website spiderable
Provide good quality content, do not spam or trick
Make sure your website is usable by disabled people
Do not submit the same website more than once every week
Do not use automated submission software

Even after you do all of these, you may still have to wait months to get the free traffic from other websites. Submitting to search engines is one thing you should do, but search engine submission is not the only thing you should to do market your web site.

Read and do the other tutorials provided on this site to get maximum traffic, both free and from paid sources.

List of Free Search Engine Submissions

Here is a list of free and paid search engine services that we recommend you use. If you cannot afford or do not want to pay for search engine inclusion, that is fine. It is not required, only recommended.

We strongly recommend that your first profits go towards the paid services as well.

List of Popular FREE Search Engines

Visit each one of these search engines and add your link once.

google.com - your main target. Google rewards for good content and links to your website.
froogle.com - you can type your products in an excel spreadsheet and upload them to froogle free.
altavista.com - Basic Submit now powered by yahoo.com
alltheweb.com -
gigablast.com - was down the last time I tried, but it is an upcoming search engine.
search.msn.com - fed by overture
search.netscape.com - uses dmoz.org to feed it. Read Dmoz tutorial

List of Phone Book Directories

These are not as important, but still free. They are pretty popular too, so we recommend getting a free listing.

List of Paid Search Engines ( Recommended & Tested )

BEFORE you spend a cent on any of these, make sure that your website is complete. Do not have a "under construction" page anywhere, fix all broken links, and follow the guidelines above. Also, make sure that you precisly target your paid searches for your PPC budget. Example, do not expect to make a profit on the terms: "gift ideas", as you will end up getting people who really are just looking. Instead, if you sell blue ceramic angels, the only term you should pay money for is "blue ceramic angel". This ensures that you will only buy traffic that is looking for exactly your product. We recommend all of these.

yahoo.com - 1 Year Listing, highly recommended, helps with all other search engines. Recommend first year listing only, $300 MUST FOLLOW THEIR RULES, results in 7 days
google.com Adwords - 5 cents per visitor or more, only pay for the actual visitors. Instant response and great ad tracking, recommend spending $25 per month.
overture.com PPC - 10 cents per vistor or more, only pay for the actual visitors. Instant response and great ad tracking, recommend $50 per month.
Overture Site Match - helps you get good results from yahoo, untested, but likely a great program. Instant traffic for less than $50 per month. Recommended for VERY hot products only.

List of Paid Search Engines ( Untested but Recommended )

Again, do not bid on general terms, you won't make your money back. Be very specific about what people must type in to find you. These services are untested, but popular and known to be effective. For our commission based customers: If you spend money out of your profits for the following services, this will be considered approved advertising.

lycos.com - pay site, as low as 5 cents per click, fast turnaround.
looksmart.com - starts at 15 cents per visitor.
hotbot.com - PPC search engine
dogpile.com - untested, but available and approved advertising. Recommend spending less than $50 per month.
askjeeves.com - unknown submission info waiting to speak to an ad rep
aol.com - the actual search engine is fed by other sources, don't try a free listing. Here are a few pay sources that may be good for you though. Very low cost for testing purposes, very fast response times.
teoma.com - powered by the askjeeves pay network.

Do Not Use Search Engine Submission Software

All of the products we have reviewed will penalize you more than help you. We do not recommend any automated search engine submission software at this time.

Specialty Search Engines

If you search for your products eventually you will run across search engines that specialize in your exact product line. Be wary of them, test them and see if they work, if they do, great! If not, don't spend money on them again. Search engines in this category do not qualify for approved advertising ( applies to commission based customers only )

Additional Resources on Search Engine Submission

One of the long time experts in search engine submission is searchenginewatch.com/. You'll find many useful SEO articles as well as a ton of advertisements. Be weary of any advertisement, but the articles are great!