Getting indexed by the search engines is easy and completely free. You don’t need to bother submitting manually to each engine, although this option is available (at http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html and http://www.google.com/addurl/). It is faster to get listed in free directories. Spiders find these directories and will find and index your site. For a list of free directories, search Google for “list of free directories.” A good one is Joe Ant, although you have to become an editor to submit a site. The editorial process is strict for beginners. There are plenty of other directories that are more lenient.

Don’t rely on a submission to the Open Directory to get your site indexed – it can take over six months to get listed in Dmoz. Be careful when submitting to this directory; get it right the first time. Always submit to Dmoz, but read the directory’s submission guidelines carefully.

After you submit to free directories, your site will be indexed by Google first, then it will appear in MSN, and finally Yahoo! (Yahoo! takes much longer than the others). Expect to wait at least two weeks before any search engines will pick up your site. To see if your site is in a search engine’s index, search:

site:yourdomain.com (Get more information about important SEO searches.)