Where to go to register or submit your website for maximum exposure
This list is designed as a handy jumping-off place to start doing your search engine registrations and getting listed in the directories. It is also a very long list, originally written by me, Jere Matlock, the owner of Words in a Row. I started this list for myself some years ago, to keep track of where to submit my client sites when registering them with the search engines. When word of the list got out, I received many requests to open it up to the public. Since it was posted for public use, the Words in a Row team has worked to keep it up to date. Now there are people who swear they will come gunning for us if we ever take this information down or charge for it!
Search Engine Registrations & Directory Submissions Pages
We no longer maintain the short version of the list -- it was too much work. (It's hard enough to keep this page current.) Instead, this page has been shortened considerably and broken down into separate lists for Directories, B2B Resources, Search Engines, Pay-per-Clickthroughs, and many sub-pages with other helpful information.
If you have information about one of the search engines or directories that you think belongs here let us know and we'll most likely post it and credit your contribution. It would help other people to get registered more quickly or more easily. You can send me an email with your comments, feedback and any corrections or additions you think should be made to: seinfo@wordsinarow.com.
If you want our chatter about these search engines, background info and more advice, click on the "MORE ADVICE" links down the page.
MORE ADVICE: How to use this page.
MORE ADVICE: Should you optimize your website before submitting it?
Shameless Plug for our Services
By now you may be thinking that registering your website with the search engines by hand is going to be a lot of work. It is. If you're interested in hiring us to do it for you, here is a shameless plug for our services.
Directory Submission Pages
We have sorted this list of directories by likelihood that real traffic will come to your website from it, in terms of human popularity. As you go farther down this list, you have less of a chance that the listing will actually be a direct source of traffic for you. However, that does not necessarily mean it won't help your search engine rank. We don't include directories on this list without a reason -- there are literally thousands of them out there. We try to keep the list to just the SPAM-less, trustworthy and human-reviewed directories.
Search the Yahoo! Directory
Yahoo! Directory Submission Info
MORE ADVICE: How to get into Yahoo!
Procedure: First make sure your site is fully functional, with no "under construction" pages. Then at Yahoo! select the exact category of their directory in which you want your site to be listed. Keep digging into their directory structure until you're absolutely sure you have the exact right category for your site, then click on the "Suggest a Site" button on that page so you can submit your site from within that category.
If you have a business website, you MUST pay $299 (see Hard Costs) and use the Yahoo! Express submission service to register your site.
To make a change to a listing you already have at Yahoo!, use this Yahoo! Directory changes form.
The above charge gets you listed in Yahoo!'s directory only. See also the Yahoo! Search Engine and Yahoo Search Marketing (pay-per-click).
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If you click to the "Directory" tab at Alexa, you are actually looking at ODP, so submission there gets your into the Alexa official directory. But what we mean is getting yourself into Alexa's actually website listings, which is a sort of mix of directory (in that you can edit your listing) and search engine (in that it probably already has your site in it if anyone out there has visited it with an Alexa toolbar installed). Despite that the ODP/Alexa thing is a bit confusing, there are ways to make sure your Alexa listing (not the ODP one, but the Alexa one) is accurate and informative. Read on.
First, check if your site is in Alexa already.
Not already in Alexa?
If you are not already indexed at Alexa, you'll have to download the Alexa toolbar, which is for Internet Explorer only. (There is also an extension for you FireFox users called "SearchSite" from Quirk that has a toolbar with Alexa built in, but Alexa's not behind it. There are probably other FireFox extensions, too.)
With the Alexa Toolbar active, navigate to your site in the browser, and then use the Alexa toolbar to access Alexa's information about your site. If you are not listed, you can enter your site into it. Try to provide an accurate, keyword-using description of your site, as Alexa directory listing information is widely used.
Already in Alexa?
If you are already listed in Alexa, but there is an error in the listing, there is something you can do about it. Go to Alexa, search for your listing, click on it, and you will be on a page full of details about your site as collected by Alexa and reviewed at Amazon. You cannot make changes to the reviews or to the statistical data that Alexa has gathered. But, you can make corrections to Alexa's data about your site or your contact information. At the bottom of the page you will see a link that reads something like "edit site info" or "edit contact information". Click on that to get started.
Creating or editing your listing at Alexa is free. We highly recommend that you at least make sure that your Alexa listing has accurate information.
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Search AboutMORE ADVICE: How to get into About.com
Dig into the categories at About.com. Find the exact category in which you want to be listed. Find the bio page about the guide for that category. Then find the link to send an email that guide. Send the guide a short, polite email with details about the site you want in About.com. It's free.
If you don't succeed at that, the other option is to advertise with About.com instead.
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Search ODP.
How to Submit your URL to ODP
MORE ADVICE: About ODP
You have to pick (go into) one of their categories first, then click "suggest URL" from that page. If there is no "suggest URL" button on that page, you need to keep digging into sub-categories.
Enter only your main page, "http://www.yourcompany.com".
It takes as long as it takes for one of their editors to visit your site and agree with your category choice--typically less than a month. It's free.
Lately it has been getting harder to get into ODP. Here is some good advice from someone I respect: Jill Whalen of Search Engine Guide. She tells you how to better your chances of getting into ODP, especially if you've already submitted your site a couple of times and haven't been picked up.
According to the ODP rules, you are advised to submit ONCE - if you're not picked up in a month, contact the category editor. Re-submitting will not gain you any friends AT ODP - it just adds to their editorial backlog. If your site isn't picked up within a month, send an email to the category editor. If there IS no category editor, go up the categories tree until you find one. Then contact that editor. Note - all these ODP editors are volunteers. Consider joining them and becoming an ODP editor yourself.
Here's a link to the ODP forum, where you can get questions about the Open Directory Project answered by actual ODP editors.
After you submit your site to ODP, you can use this free service ( seotie.com ) to monitor whether or not the site you submitted has made it into the Open Directory. While soetie requires setting up a free account, it can be worth the time it takes to do so, to confirm that your site made it in. Otherwise, you won't find out unless you go check, yourself.
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Search AOL's Web Directory
Submit your URL to ODP
AOL uses Google, which uses DMOZ.org (also known as ODP / Open Directory Project) to provide their directory. Just submit to ODP and you are covered at AOL Search's Web Directory.
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