Search engines can help get your site the traffic it needs to survive. Unfortunately there are a lot of variables to search engine submission. By ‘variables’ I mean mysteries, shrouded in darkness, wrapped in enigmas.
      When submitting to search engines, most of them tell you right away that they dont guarantee when or IF  you will have your site added to their directory if you do the free submissions. That’s the part that gets me about search engine submissions. The search engine’s themselves dont know if their software will ‘crawl’ (a.k.a. add) y0ur site to their directories, or when this will happen. How do you program a piece of software, have full control over the system it runs on, be able to view all activities within your system, yet dont know when or if it will work? But amazingly if you pay for the submission services, either directly to the search engines themselves or through pro submission sites (that may or may not be reputable) then there is more solid information available, but none can give you an exact date as to when your info will be searchable through any specific sites.

How do they work?
The Basics
Search engines essentially are programs designed to make what is best described as a Yellow Pages for the web. Search engines ‘crawl’ the Internet and create copies of every webpage they find and put them in a database. THen all of these webpages are analyzed so that when a user goes to a search engine’s website and searches for a phrase, the search engine looks through its database of websites and picks the most appropriate sites.
How did they start?
The three first modern search engines where launched in 1994, starting with Webcrawler that was created at the University of Washingon. The second was Lycos which began at Carnegie Mellon University, and finally, Yahoo!. The king of all search engines, Google, did not officially launch until September 1999, and was originally programmed by two individuals from Stanford (their original workplace was a rented residential garage). As you can see, the majority of search engines started with educational roots. The search engines themselves, are actually very complex programs, hence the secrecy and just general lack of knowledge about how they work.
How do Search Engines find you?
1.) Crawling. Crawling search engines, such as google, will find websites by following links from other sites. If there is a website out there that has a link to your website onit, and Google knows about that page, then they know about your site as well. Crawling search engines follow link after link to (in theory) find every page on the Internet.
2.) Submission. You can wait for the search engines to find you or you can go give them your information through submissions. Some search engines will only find your website if you submit to it, or will take much longer to find you if you don’t. Some will also charge you to submit your site’s information

Here is an excellent list of search engines with links and information about submission. Search Engine List. And here is an outstanding graphical interface to give you a visual of how search engines are related http://www.search-this.com/search-engine-decoder/

Paid Advertising.

Google Adwords
Google sells sponsored listings that appear above and to the right-hand side of its regular search results, these listings are called Google AdWords.

Paid search programs allow site owners to “bid” on the terms they wish to appear for. You agree to pay a certain amount each time someone clicks on your listing. This is why sponsored listings are referred to as “pay-per-click” (PPC) or “cost-per-click” (CPC) advertising.

Google AdWords ranks sponsored listings based on a number of variables including the CPC (bid price), click-through-rate (CTR) and landing page quality. This page explains how ads are ranked in more detail.

If your goal is to build visibility on search engines quickly, then Google AdWords is an essential option to explore. It can put you in the top results of many major search engines within a short period of time.

Google distributes its paid ads to other partners, with some major sites listed on the Search Engine Results Chart . This provides you with exposure to more potential traffic. When setting up an AdWords campaign, you may choose to have your ads appear in the Search Network and/or Google’s Content Network (AdSense), or you may opt-out of either.

It is worthwhile for anyone to open a Google AdWords account and experiment with how paid listings may help drive traffic to a site, or use the service as a keyword research tool. Google’s self-service AdWords program charges a per-click fee, in addition to a $5 activation fee, but there is no minimum monthly spend.

As you continue to participate in paid search advertising, you may find that the editorial or “free” listings generated by your submissions to directories and crawlers have kicked in. While some marketers elect to eliminate their paid search ad spend when this happens, you may find that you want to continue spending, or perhaps even increase your budget, to target terms for which you don’t receive good editorial placement.

Search Engine Watch members have access to a detailed How Google Works page that guides you even more through the process of how AdWords operates. To learn more about becoming a member to access this information, visit the membership information page.

Yahoo Search Marketing
Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM), formerly Overture and GoTo, also allows sites to “bid” on the terms they wish to appear for.

Up until the recent “Panama” improvement, YSM ranked sponsored listings based on cost-per-click. For instance, if you wanted to appear in the top listings for “running shoes.” You might agree to pay 25 cents per click. If no one agrees to pay more than this, then you would be in the number one spot. If someone else later decides to pay 26 cents, then you slip into the number two position. You could then bid 27 cents and move back on top, if you wanted to.

Yahoo Panama brings YSM’s ranking algorithm for paid ads more in line with Google by considering additional variables such as click-through-rate and landing page quality.

If your goal is to build instant visibility on search engines, Yahoo Search Marketing is an excellent option to explore, putting you in the top results of many major search engines within a short period of time.

Again, it is well worth it for anyone to open a YSM account and experiment with paid listings. An account requires a $5 minimum deposit, and you set your own daily budget. By carefully selecting targeted terms, you can stretch that money out for one or two months and get quality traffic.

As with Google, you may wish to eliminate your ad spend or continue for terms not receiving good editorial placement once your initial deposit has expired.

Search Engine Watch members have access to a detailed How Yahoo Search Marketing Works page that guides you even more through the process of getting started with the service. To learn more about becoming a member to access this information, visit the membership information page.

Microsoft Ad Center

Microsoft adCenter launched in May 2006. Like Google and Yahoo, it allows advertisers to “bid” on the keywords they wish to have their ads show up for. The system uses what is called the “black box” bid and ranking method, similar to the way Google and now Yahoo determine Cost Per Click (CPC).

The CPC is a combination of how much you are willing to bid (max bid) and your Click Thru Rate (CTR) in comparison to the others bidding for that particular keyword.

Upon launch, adCenter distinguished itself from competitors by being the first to offer geographic, demographic and daypart targeting. It requires a $5 service fee for account setup. After that, you pay the cost of the clicks.

Bidding starts at $0.10 minimum. Sometimes $0.05 bids go through. You can increase your bid to reach a targeted audience through Targeted Bidding. This allows you to target based on (1) users in a specific geographic location, (2) users searching on specific days of the week or during specific hours of the day or night, and (3) users of a specific gender or age.

While initially pleased with adCenter, marketers would like to see more traffic. The consensus is that traffic performs well and is growing but is still not at the level of other search engines.

Experienced Search Marketers also like the targeting tools. These tools allow them to narrow the ad buy, resulting in audiences that convert better, allowing marketers to put more of their budgets into other ad buys or into additional keywords with Microsoft. The help section is very detailed.

That’s the basics for Search engine submission. Search engines have way more to them that what’s covered here, but this article and these links should get you going in the right direction. Watch for an upcoming post on Search Engine Optimization to help make your website more easily readable to crawlers.

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