Here are estimated waiting periods for some of the more popular search engines:

* MSN up to two months
* Google up to four weeks
* AltaVista up to one week
* Fast up to two weeks
* Excite up to six weeks
* AOL up to two months
* HotBot up to two months
* iWon up to two months

How often should you resubmit? Technically, you don't have to resubmit. Once your site is indexed, simply keep adding search-friendly content and there's no need to esubmit. You should, however, be familiar with your site statistics. Look at your website statistics for robot visits.

Let the Spiders Do the Walking
Like search engines, directories can aid your web visibility. Following is a list of directories and your options for submission.

1. Yahoo! Directory. The first thing to do is submit your site to the Yahoo! Directory. This website contains a detailed compilation of websites that can be browsed by visitors through certain categories. Unlike Yahoo!'s search engine, Yahoo! Directory is powered by editors rather than robots.

What connection does the Yahoo! Directory have with the Yahoo! search engine? It's generally accepted that you have a greater chance of getting your site listed higher if you submit to the crawler-based Yahoo! search engine. This isn't a guarantee, but either way you have nothing to lose by submitting to the Yahoo! Directory.

To submit to the Yahoo! Directory, use their "standard" submission service or their "Yahoo! Directory Submit," which charges a fee. The standard submission service lets you submit your site in general categories at no extra cost. You're not allowed to submit to commercial categories. If you try to submit your site to a commercial category using the standard submission option, it won't be allowed. Instead, Yahoo! Directory will force you to upgrade to Yahoo! Directory Submit.

How does Yahoo! Directory Submit work? First, you must pay an annual fee of $299, for non-adult sites and $600 for adult sites. What you get, according to Yahoo! Directory, is an "expedited review" of your website(s)--that's right, you can submit more than one, though you have to pay $299 or $600 for each submission. You'll get a response within seven days indicating whether or not your site is accepted. If it's accepted you'll have to pay $299 or $600 once a year to keep your listing in the directory, at least if it's a commercial site (non-commercial sites aren't charged the recurring fee). The upside to the paid submission is that your site gets reviewed quickly; with the standard submission service, you may not get your site reviewed at all. The downside is that you're paying a lot of money for a service that can't guarantee you placement (although if you're promoting a business you must use the Yahoo! Directory Submit).

In terms of getting your site accepted, what matters is relative content. When it comes to the standard submission option, you want to ensure that your content is not commercial in any way. For example, if you're running an online clothing store, more likely than not this won't be acceptable with standard submission. However, if you submitted a site that talked about how to be fashionable with a certain collection of clothes, this would be accepted, even if the article provided a link to your website. Yahoo! Directory would choose the latter site because it's seen as being informative and more helpful than the actual store.

If you do use the Yahoo! Directory Submit and you choose not to pay the renewal fee (if it applies to you), your listing will be dropped by Yahoo! Directory. However, this may not have a negative impact on search engine crawlers. If you get an initial boost from the Yahoo! Directory, there's greater potential that others will want to link to you. This is even more true if you follow the link-building specifications laid out in this book. This may be enough to keep your high ranking with the other search engines, including Yahoo!. If it isn't, you can always submit your site again through Yahoo! Directory Submit.

To submit a site to the Yahoo! Directory, you need to visit dir.yahoo.com. If you want to use standard submission, select the "Suggest a Site" link at the top right corner of the non-commercial category page you want your site to be indexed to. Note: You'll have to look closely, since "Suggest a Site" is in a smaller font. You could use the same method to use Yahoo! Submit, or you could use the home page. The category you choose doesn't matter as much, because the editors working for Yahoo! Directory choose the category for you.

2. Yahoo! Search Engine. With your site submitted to the Yahoo! Directory, you're ready to submit your site to the Yahoo! search engine. If you performed your quality link- building work, Yahoo! should be able to pick you up automatically. Otherwise, you can use their URL submission form, which can be accessed by going to search.yahoo.com. Enter the URL you want to submit. You'll probably want to submit only your home page, though you can submit individual subtopic pages as well. When you submit the web page, be sure to include the whole URL including the "http://www." If you don't include http://www, the page will prompt you to enter the proper URL. Also, make sure that you don't submit your site twice, as you may get penalized.

Yahoo! also offers Search Submit. With Search Submit you must pay an annual subscription fee in addition to payment per click. Don't confuse this program with Yahoo! Sponsor Search, which lists your site in certain commercial categories. The monthly fee for Sponsor Search ranges from $5 to $30. These are pay-per-click programs that show ads on the right side of search listing results. You pay when visitors click on your ads. With Yahoo! Search Submit, your site is shown just like other normal search engine listings. However, you do have to pay for it. If you run out of money, you might lose your listing, though sometimes you won't.

Is it worth using Search Submit? It is in the sense that you can get your site indexed immediately. However, it offers no benefit when it comes to your ranking. The payment structure for this program is not as attractive as other pay-per-click programs, since in addition to PPC you also have a subscription fee. For this reason you may prefer to spend your money on Yahoo! Search or Google AdWords. In fact, these are a great way to test the advertising value of your keyword, at least if you want to see results before your site gets indexed.

3. Ask. Ask Jeeves doesn't offer a free URL submission page nor does it offer paid submission. However, the search engine periodically crawls the web, indexing sites on the basis of how many times they appear on other sites. So, again, there's value in building valid links.

4. MSN. MSN Search, also called Microsoft Live Search, doesn't offer free URL submission or paid submission. It uses its bot, MSNBot, to crawl the web in search of relevant sites.

5. AOL. AOL Search is powered by Google's search engine technology. So once you submit your site to Google (which we talk about in the next section), you also get your results shown in the AOL Search listings.

6. The Open Directory (DMOZ). The Open Directory is a special directory built by volunteers that serves as a guide to the internet. The Open Directory is now owned by Google. Many of the most popular search engines, including Google, pull results from and point to the Open Directory, so trying to make your website a part of it definitely doesn't hurt. Plus it's free. The only major problem with the Open Directory is that you won't get a guarantee that your site is accepted, nor can you estimate how long it will take to get a response (if you get one).

To submit to the Open Directory, you need to select the category you want your page to show up on. Use the "Suggest URL" link; it can be found on the category page near the top. You are then directed to a form that requires you to provide your site URL, title of the site, site description, and your e-mail address. It takes about three weeks for your site to show up in the directory, and if it doesn't you can resubmit.