Finally you have your own web site, now you need to tell the world. Search Engines are like the Information Center on the Internet and a very important factor concerning the traffic to your web site. 90% of all Internet users utilize search engines and directories in order to find something. But it may take some time until search engine submissions "bite". So, you better start immediately to submit to them. It may take from a couple of days to several weeks or month, before you will see results. Some engines update their database more frequently then others.

Ongoing maintenance is essential to maintain optimal positions within target search engines. Due to fluctuations in indexing tactics and intervals by search engine bots or spiders, your site's ranking may fluctuate. If your ISP is responding slowly when a search engine is attempting to index or re-index your web site, your site listing may be dropped.

Once you are prominently listed with the major Search Engines and Directories, you will see a continuous stream of highly targeted visitors dropping by your site, giving you the opportunity to turn them into customers.

Below mentioned are some of the major Search Engines:
Google, Yahoo!, Altavista, AOL, MSN, Dmoz, Subjex, Alexa, Scrub The Web, FAST Search AllTheWeb, REX, LookSeek, ExactSeek, Search It, Voila, NerdWorld, Mall Park, LifeTips, etc.

It is important to realize that you will have to put special attention on the way your site is listed on the Search Engines. Consider the search engine listing as an advertisement. It is not only important that your site comes up when a surfer keys in one of your keywords. The surfer has to be teased to actually click on your listing and visit your site. The listing works as an ad. If your listing is a good ad, a high percentage will actually click on it and visit your site.

So, you need to invest some time playing around with different wordings. You have to show the surfer in a few words, what is in for him. If you do a good job, you will be rewarded with thousands of free visitors. And they will be targeted, eager to buy your product or service.

Each Search Engine works differently. They may base the results of their searches on Meta Tags, page content, page title, or a combination of these. The search engines get their content from Spider (see below about the spider programs).