Search engines read a web page and index all of the words from the page. Users of the search engine can find your page by searching for keywords. The good thing about search engines is that they let you find everything that contains a certain word (or set of words). The bad thing about search engines is that they generally return a lot of chaff with the wheat that they find.

From a web promotion standpoint, the nice thing about search engines is that it is easy to get your site listed on them. The following links point to the "Add URL" page of all of the major search engines. It is very easy for you to work through the list and register your page(s) on each one.

For instant gratification on big engines, start with InfoSeek. It will list your site the same day. AltaVista is next - it will list your site in about two days.

Many of these sites say, "You do not need to enter all of your pages. Our spider will visit your entire site if you enter just one." In general you should ignore that message and list each page with content individually. Otherwise it will be months before your pages get into the index. InfoSeek will limit you to 10 postings a day to slow you down (and so will several others), but you should still submit all pages over the course of several days if necessary.

The big 6:

• AltaVista at http://www.altavista.digital.com/av/content/addurl.htm
• Excite at http://www.excite.com/Search/add_url.html?bmm
• HotBot at http://www.hotbot.com/addurl.html
• Infoseek at http://www.infoseek.com/AddUrl?pg=DCaddurl.html
• Lycos at http://www.lycos.com/addasite.html
• WebCrawler at http://webcrawler.com/WebCrawler/SubmitURLS.html

For an extensive list of other search engines, try the list at yahoo at http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Searching_the_Web/Search_Engines/

One way to help search engines find your site and make sure it features in the top 10 of any search (remember number 11 is often a click through away) is to include keywords in Meta tags. Meta tags are special HTML tags which are not displayed with a page but which can be read by a few of the leading search engines, including AltaVista, WebCrawler and Hotbot. They can be used to define both a content line for the crawler to log and a list of keywords, so that the search engine can return the title and your descriptive content line, having found your site through the relevant key words.

On any site expect the time lag between submitting your site and it appearing somewhere in the search listing to be at least a couple of weeks if the search engine is an auto crawler-based site. If your site does not appear in a directory at first, don’t re-send your original request. Search engine 'spamming' may result in your site being removed from a directory if you show impatience.

If you haven't got the time to go around 20 or 30 search engines submitting your site, you can find someone to do it for you. 'ukbusiness.com' can offer this service at minimal cost. We can automatically update and monitor your site and also analyse the positions of your competitors.

Search Engines have different processes for registering your URL. Here's how to register your site with the major international search engines.

Before you register with any of these sites type in your URL and or category to see if your site is already listed.

Search for your site by title (URL) or category to see if Yahoo comes up with a match. If there is no match you'll need to register your site. Follow the "How to include your Site" link. Yahoo want you to choose a category for your site according to a list they provide i.e. Education Reference Computers and Internet. Next you choose "Add URL" to the category you've chosen. You may also need to give a brief description about your site the URL and title.

Check to see if your URL is in this search engine by name or category. If not choose "Add URL" and type in your URL and email address.

At the bottom of the excite home page is a "Add URL" link. Click this and then simply add your URL where asked and give your e-mail address. It can take a couple of weeks to get your site added to this search engine.

Follow the "Add Your Site to Lycos" link. You'll need to type in your URL to see if your site is already listed with Lycos. If you're not all you have to do is fill in the URL details where asked as well as giving your email address. It takes around 2 weeks for your site to be added to the search engine.

Choose the "Add URL" link and type in your URL and email address to be added to this search engine.

To add your site to this search engine choose the "Add Your Site" link which is on the left side of the page. You don't need to add key words or phrases because the search engine spiders do it for you. Simply add your URL and email address to be added to this search engine.