Directories vs. Search Engine Submissions

What is the difference between a Directory and a Search Engine?
Is it worth paying $299 to submit my site to Yahoo?
Where can I go to register my web site with search engines?

What is the difference between a Directory and a Search Engine?

Search Engines and Directories both allow you to run searches for web sites, but the results will likely be different due to the method they use to build their database of web sites.

Search Engines
Search engines use computer programs called Robots to automatically go from page to page through the web, reading content, and adding it to their databases. To speed up the process of getting your site indexed, they usually have a way for you to submit your site for indexing. You usually only have to tell a Search Engine the URL (address) of your site and it takes care of the rest.

Directories
Directories are run by humans who review web sites and categorize them within their directories. This leads to a more abridged set of sites which can good or bad depending on what you're searching for.

Yahoo and DMOZ are the two biggest directories on the web, but other important directories include local directories for your state, town, chamber of commerce, etc.

Due to the human editing of directories, there is usually a charge for submitting your website for review. Yahoo charges $299/year to be in their directory but DMOZ is currently free.

Is it worth paying $299 to submit my site to Yahoo?

For most sites, Yahoo delivers over 15% of the site's search traffic, so a better question is "Can I afford not to submit my site to Yahoo?"

This link below is from a case study of search engine popularity. As you can see, Yahoo drives a ton of traffic to a website.

As of the first of the year, 2002, Yahoo has once again increased their directory listing fees. In 2001 Yahoo charged a 1-time $299 fee for site submissions. But starting in 2002, Yahoo is charging an annual fee of $299. This is an example of a fee Haystack In A Needle can help you justify. For example, if you have the potential to receive 1000 visitors/month from a Yahoo directory submission, your cost per visitor would be less than three cents. That would be an extremely cost effective marketing tool for your business and we would suggest you do it.

However, if your business is in a very small niche market or marketing only to a local audience, we might have other solutions for your business that may be more cost effective. If your site is a for a non-profit agency, you can submit for free.

Note: We highly recommend using a professional service to handle your Yahoo submission. Changing a directory listing on Yahoo is next to impossible, so you want to make sure your listing has been optimized for keyword density before submitting.

Where do I go to register my web site with search engines?

Most major search engines have a page to use to submit your web site to their search engine. However, it's not actually necessary to use search engine listings pages (or hire a company to do search engine listings) because most major search engines will simply find and index your site by following links to your web site from other sites.

To submit directly to the major search engines, follow the links listed below:

Submit your web site to Google.
Altavista submit a site form.

Click here to find out the difference between submitting a web site to search engines and optimizing that site for high search engine rankings.

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