>What is the consensus regarding how many of >the search engines & directories a website >should be on? Many informational sites offer >to submit your site to 100 or even 4oo search >engines & directories-is that really necessary? I'm new to the internet-thank you >all for your input.
Laila - If you submit to the "big ones" of AltaVista, InfoSeek, Lycos, and Excite (who else? my notes are at the office?) and then any specialty search sites that are RELEVANT to that page. The services and software that promise to submit your page to 100-500+ search engines are not targeting the submissions, and you are wasting your time. I have noticed a traffic pattern for sites: At first, the traffic comes mostly from search engines. Then, when people start bookmarking and making those "My favorite Links" pages, the traffic from web directories and cross-linking begins to have an effect, and it can be a big boost to traffic. Cultivate those links! Spend some time finding places to solicit cross-links with. My criteria are that the page be well-designed, have a topic related to or complementary to the page I am working on (for example, a page on weaving and spinning would be a nice place to get a link to the llama wool seller's page). Send a personal email, stating why you think the two pages would be helped by cross-linking. Not that "Hi, liked your site, please link to mine." kind of email, but something that shows you REALLY read their site. If you have some non-sales information pages - like the "Incan Textile Patterns" page the imaginary llama wool site would have, it's easier to get cross links from non-commercial sites. Their traffic will wander around yours if you make sure to have links from the non-commercial info to the main pages so they can wander easily.
