Promote: Search Tools
Search engines & web directories:
Search engines & web directories are the main search tools used on the Internet today. Search engines index the contents of your web pages, generally focusing on META tags and on the text of the page. They do this by using a "spider," which starts on one page of your site and follows the links contained on your pages, effectively building a "web" of your pages. Some popular search engines include Infoseek, Excite, and Hotbot. Web directories differ from search engines, in that they do not periodically index your site using spiders. They generally index the content of your pages once and then categorize the pages. They are much less likely to re-index the content of your pages at any specified interval (if at all).
What's new:
What's new guides focus on "what's new" on the web. These tools tend to be used less often by people searching for specific information on the web. However, for those web surfers looking for the latest information and pages, these tools are the perfect place to find it.
Virtual libraries:
Virtual libraries are essentially online libraries of information. These libraries contain links and pages on a variety of categorized topics. Similar, in a very general way, to web directories, virtual libraries are a good resource for those individuals trying to do serious online research on a specific area of interest.
Web promotion services:
Now that you've got your pages set up, you need to register them with the search tools on the Internet. Because there are hundreds of search tools, there are three main approaches:
- Register with the major search tools (most often search engines and web directories).
- Determine if there are search tools specifically oriented toward the content you are providing (especially virtual libraries) and register with them.
- Use one of the many promotion services available on the web to submit your web pages to hundreds of search engines, usually for a fee.
