Where You Can Submit Your Site for Free

Last date this list was improved : Feburary 1997

The sites on this list meet the following criteria:

1. Site submission is relatively easy and straightforward (Yahoo! is a bit of a pain to submit to but hey, it's Yahoo!)

2. Directory accepts all submissions.

3. Directory can not be a Free-For-All where links are added to the top of one long list.

Top engines by our ratings:

Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: The original web searcher. Categorized listings combined with easy access to Alta Vista's results for the same keywords. A recommendation for speeding up submission time -- go to the category you want to submit to and then click on "add URL"

Alta Vista
http://www.altavista.digital.com Search Submit
Description: Digital Electronic Corporation's Alta Vista searcher has indexed more than 30 million web pages. This site is accessed more than 18 million times per weekday. One of the premier search engines. Submit your site and it will be indexed within 24 hours.

Excite
http://www.excite.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: This is one of the largest databases on the internet. Query results can be sorted by site which can be quite useful. Excite announced that they have reached an agreement with America Online and will be the sole search engine for AOL subscribers (11/26).

Hot Bot
http://www.hotbot.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: Their advanced search allows one to search by date, media type, and location. One of the largest databases on the web. It's also quite fast. Just enter a URL and it will categorize the site for you.

Infoseek
http://www.infoseek.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: Infoseek's database allows one to search the web, newsgroups, e-mail addresses, and web FAQs. They also have categorized listings. Currently, they only accept submissions by e-mail.

Lycos
http://www.lycos.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: Lycos has a feature that permits searching by sound and picture. One of the premier search engines. They also manage the infamous "Top 5% of all Web Sites". It may take up to six weeks for a submission to be indexed.

Web Crawler
http://webcrawler.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: It may take a few weeks for Webcrawler to index a page and this is a rather small database. It does allow "surfing the net backwards" that is, you type in a URL and it will tell you which pages have a link to that URL. Web Crawler also reviews sites.

Rest of them Alphabetically

Infohiway
http://www.infohiway.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: A great site to start with as it spellchecks your descriptions and keywords. A search gives you not only a list of sites that match your keywords but also a list of relational links.

555-1212.com
http://www.555-1212.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by category, name of business, and area code.

Anzwers
http://www.anzwers.co.nz/index.html Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: New Zealand's premiere search engine. It crawls your page so you only have to submit your URL.

Apollo Advertising
http://apollo.co.uk/ Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Over 100 categories. This is a worldwide service that offers searching by keyword, category, or country.

BizWeb
http://www.bizweb.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Bizweb lists sites by goods sold or services offered. You can also search by keyword.

BC-I Business Classifieds
http://www.bc-i.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by geographic location, product, service, or business name.

Businesseek NEW. Added 1/27
www.businesseek.com/business/index.htm Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: Search fields include company, city, state, country, keyword, and activity.

CANLink
http://www.canvest.com/canlink Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: A Canadian based searchable directory that is primarily but not limited to business listings. Off-line until March Word is .. improvements are coming.

ComFind
http://www.comfind.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: At ComFind, you search first by keywords and are then given a list of categories. You can then search these categories by geographic location. Comfind claims to be the largest global business directory.

Cyber-Search
www.cyberink.com Search Submit
Description: Search by keyword only

Cyber Search Express
http://www.reynoldsenterprises.com/search.htm Search Submit
Description: A new search engine that is simple and fast to submit to.

Delta Designs Business Directory
http://www.delta-design.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Another business directory which is searchable by keyword and category. This directory has grown 32 % in the last 30 days.

The Executive Pages
http://www.execpages.com Search Submit
Type: Business Search Engine
Description: this is a new business search engines with great search features. Search by keyword, category, or location.

GlobalBIZ.com
http://www.globalbiz.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by keyword. They have a nice search engine.

Global On-Line Directory
http://cache3.www.gold.net/gold/search2.html Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: A European search engine. Search by keyword or various fields.

G.O.D.
http://www.god.co.uk Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: UK located world-wide search engine. Europe's largest. A separate search engine from Global On-Line Directory.

Goldlinks
http://www.goldlinks.com Search Submit
Type: Directory
Description: An alphabetically arranged index for business sites. relatively new with a small database. A good time to submit.

Group Web Directory
http://www.catalog.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: A nice looking site with a search engine. Every entry shows when it was submitted, a company description, and e-mail address. We like this one.

GTE SuperPages
http://yp.gte.net/ Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: An awesome yellow pages directory. According to GTE their listings are free only for a limited time so submit now.

Handy Guide
http://www.ahandyguide.com/ Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: A great directory that is easy to navigate. You can even learn American Sign language while you're there.

The HUGE List
http://thehugelist.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Alphabetized listings by category. The HUGE list averages 2 million hits per week. The average user records 15 to 20 hits per visit. This site has won about every major web award there is. Their Submit URL page is temporarily down

i-Explorer
http://www.i-explorer.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: A great looking search engine that may catch on. They also have categorized listings.

Infoseek Ultraseek
http://ultra.infoseek.com/ Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: This is a new search engine by Infoseek that is now out of its beta testing period. It is the Web's first real-time search engine. Add your URL and it indexes your site instantaneously. Infoseek claims that this is the fastest, most comprehensive, and accurate searcher on the Web. It's absolutely awesome.

InfoSpace' Business on the Web
http://www.infospace.com/ Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by business name or location in the main directory. Infospace also has a Yellow Pages Directory where you can search by category and a Blue Pages Directory where you can search for government agencies.

Innovator's Network Yellow Pages
http://www.innovatorsnet.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: To use their Yellow Pages you must first fill out a brief registration form. It is, however, free and you don't need to register to list your site.

InterBIS
http://www.interbis.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: One of the best. Extensive search options by keyword or category.

Intuitive Web Index
http://intuitive.iexp.com/ Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: A directory that now spiders your page. They've just changed their URL also.

Jayde Online Directory
http://www.jayde.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Submit your link and Jayde will have your site indexed within seconds. Search by keyword or category. They also list sites by submission date and/or category.

JumpCity
http://www.jumpcity.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Search by Keyword

Lexiconn
http://www.lexiconn.com/dir Search Submit
Type: Business and Organizations Directory
Description: Search by category or geographic location. Your site will usually be indexed in one or two days.

Linkmaster
http://www.linkmaster.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Search by keyword or category. Looks like you need a reciprocal link but their submission rules say you don't.

Linkmonster
http://www.linkmonster.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Search by category, keyword, or concept. After submission your site is immediately indexed.

LinkStar
http://www.linkstar.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Even if you only have an e-mail address, Linkstar will add your site to their database and they can do it in just a few hours.

Magellan
http://www.mckinley.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: Search by keyword or browse through by subject. They've also rated and reviewed more than 40,000 sites.

MetaWorld
http://www.metaworld.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Searchable by keyword or category

Nerd World Media
http://www.nerdworld.com Search Submit
Type: Subject Index
Description: A popular site that is about two months behind with their listings. You'll have to pay a fee to move to the head of the class. Nerd World gets more than a million hits a month. Growing by about 20000 sites a month.

Netimages Classified Ads
http://www.netimages.com/classifieds Search Submit
Type: Classified Listings
Description: Search is by category only. Don't forget to put your URL in the description.

Netmall
http://www.netmall.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Takes only about 24 hours for a submission to become listed. You can search by name, keyword,product, state, or zip code right now and they promise that you'll eventually be able to search by product and price. You can also browse through an alphabetical list.

New Rider's Official WWW Yellow Pages
http://www.mcp.com/nrp/ Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search Yellow Page Listings by keyword and category.

Northwest Navigator
http://www.nwnavigator.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Search by keyword and category

On'Village Yellow Pages
http://www.onvillage.com/ Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: One of the massive Yellow Page directories on the net. Search by category, name of business, and/or location.

One World Plaza
http://www.owplaza.com/ Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Point Top 5% of all Web Sites. Search by category.

Open Text Index
http://index.opentext.net Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: Searches every word of every page that it categorizes. Their crawler categorizes and updates more than 50,000 web pages a day. Open Text has not been accepting submissions for about a month. It is unknown when they plan to resume accepting submissions.

Pagehaus
http://www.pagehaus.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by keyword.

Pronet
http://www.pronett.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: An extensive list of businesses broken down by location and category.

Rescue Island
http:www.rescueisland.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Winner of Top Business Site Award. Searchable index by keyword, category, and geographic location.

REX
http://rex.skyline.net Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Search by keyword or category.

Starting Point
http://www.stpt.com/ Search Submit
Description: Categorized listings. You can also search by keyword.

TechOp's ROBO-LINK
http://www.techops.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: One of our favorite sites. Robo-Link has a searchable database that can also be browsed by category. Anyone can rate a site on the scale from 1-5. Displayed next to each site is the cumulative rating and how many people rated it.

Tradewave Galaxy
http://www.einet.net Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: Search by keyword or browse categories.

True North Commerce
http://www.truenorth.net Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Browse business listing alphabetically by name of company or type of business. Great site design.

Turnpike Emporium A to Z Directory
http://turnpike.net Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by category and keyword.

USA Online
http://www.usaol.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by category or location. Over 10,000 hits per month.

ValueCom
http://valuecom.com Search Submit
Type: Business Listings
Description: Search by location. Over 300,000 hits per month.

The Vision Grafx Internet Directory
http://visiongrafx.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Full WWW directory including extensive business listings. Search by category and keyword.

Web://411
http://www.sserv.com/web411 Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Searchable index with a huge database.

WebDirect!
http://www.wdirect.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by keyword.

Web Walker
http://www.vru.com Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: Seems to be a rather small data base. Still, VRU.com has managed 3.9 million hits.

WebVenture Hotlist!
http://www.webventure.com Search Submit
Type: WWW Directory
Description: Search by category. Site indexed in 1-3 days.

What's New
http://www.whatsnu.com Search Submit
Type: Announcement Service
Description: A great looking new announcement service. Keyword searchable. Allows for partial word matches.

What's New on the Internet
http://www.emap.com/whatsnew/ Search Submit
Type: Announcement Service
Description: A short submission form and a searchable index of more than 180,000 URL's makes this site a winner.

What's New Too!
http://newtoo.manifest.com Search Submit
Type: Announcement Service
Description: A very popular way to announce a new site. Submit a site and it will be posted within 36 hours. "What's New Too!" frequently registers more than 1000 unique URLs in a day.

What-U-Seek
http://www.whatuseek.com/ Search Submit
Type: Search Engines
Description: A great new search engine that features boolean searches, "proximity" features, "context", "more like this", and all the other sites in their database that link to that one.

Where 2 Go
http://www.where2go.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: 16 different search fields.

Wocket
http://www.commerce2000.com/wocket Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: A searchable index where each and every site can be customized. Also allows much more information than a typical business directory.

WWW Business Yellow Pages
http://www.cba.uh.edu/ylowpges/ Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Magellan 4-Star Site and Ventana Press Internet Business 500 premiere site. Search by keyword or category.

WWW Worm
http://guano.cs.colorado.edu/wwww Search Submit
Type: Search Engine
Description: This site pulls in two million hits a month.

The YellowPages.com
http://theyellowpages.com/index.html Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by category.

Yellow Pages Online
http://www.classifieds2000.com/ypo Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: This is THE on-line business directory with a huge database and searching by category, associated brand name, keyword, and company name.

Yellow Pages Superhighway
http://www.kwik-link.com/kwik-link/new_index.html Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: YPS is averaging nearly 10,000 hits per day. Automatic indexing of your site.

YelloWWWeb
http://yellowwweb.com Search Submit
Type: Business Directory
Description: Search by location and keyword.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get my site at the top of the search engines?

Here are a few of the more important things to do:

1. Put some keywords in your title. Some of the biggest search engines (like Alta Vista) give special preference to keywords that are in the title.

2. Here's a little known one. Put invisible keywords at the bottom of your page. Some engines (Web Crawler) count the number of words on a page. Just make them the same color as your background.

3. Use meta tags for description and keywords. The HTML looks like this:
<META name="keywords" content="keywords, keywords, keywords">
<META name="description" content="Your description">

4. Use the keywords that you think people will search with most often at the beginning of your list.

5. Repeat important keywords in your document. Most engines use the number of times a word appears in a document in their search algorithm.

6. Don't repeat keywords too many times in your meta tags -- some engines will ignore the whole tag if there is too much repetition (five times is probably safe)

Promotion Resources

Promoting a web-site is a continuous process. With 7000 new domain names being registered per day, there is a constant influx of new places to promote. One should submit to search engines, directories, post to newsgroups, and probably most importantly network with others that have related sites.

Search Engines and Directories

get the word out maintains a list of the best places to promote your site. Start by submitting your site to these engines and directories. The sites on this list represent the most effective places to get listed on the Web. More than 1000 sites were rejected in compiling this list. An interesting place to submit to that get the word out does not submit to is revolvers. These sites work in different ways but the basic idea is that you can add your site but it will eventually be removed for one reason or another. By periodically checking back with these sites you can keep your URL on the list.

Free for alls

See our List of Free for Alls

Revolvers

The Link-O-Matic is a list of 25 sites. When a new site is added the oldest on the list is removed.
Recyclinx is a list where visitors can add and delete entries.

Newsgroups

Posting to newsgroups is an easy way to reach a large group of people. We recommend the following newsgroups:

alt.business
alt.business.misc
biz.general
biz.misc
misc.business
misc.entrepeneurs

Networking

One of the most effective way of promoting your site is to contact others with sites similar to yours and ask them to link to you. If you're in a service related area, you might also be able to exchange services with other service businesses. A good example is an artist that can offer to do artwork for a marketing company in exchange for promotion. Short on immediate cash? Some companies will perform a service for you and hold the bill for a week or two. Share information that you think might be valuable to a particular business. When they have information that is of use to you they'll send it along. This might even be a referral to your site.

While looking for sites similar to yours learn to use the advanced features of the search engines. Alta Vista and Infoseek Ultra . Read their help files on advanced search features.