Getting a good listing on the major search engines is kind of the Holy Grail of Internet marketing, and it's not always obvious how to do it.

There are ways to improve your chances of getting listed, but it's important to keep your expectations in line. If you are selling CDs online, there isn't much you can do to get listed above Amazon.com in most search engines, except maybe to name your Web site Aggressive CDs, since some search engines list sites alphabetically within a category. In general, there is a limit to how quickly you can move your site up against a long list of competitor sites. But check out these tips to help get you listed and to identify which categories you want to be listed under, to avoid being lost amid hundreds of competitor sites.

Search engines vs. directories

Getting your home based business listed on search engines and directories requires slightly different strategies.

Tips of encouragement

1. Be patient. Realize when you start that you will not get listed right away. Most of the search engines and directories can take four to eight weeks to list your site. You can speed up the process at Yahoo! and LookSmart by using their fee-based services.

2. Be persistent. If you don't get listed after the first eight weeks, don't get discouraged. It's pretty common. Submit your site again; persistence pays in this game. It'll save you time if you keep copies of the information you submitted to each engine. Many of the search engine submission services like bCentral's Submit It! or Submission Pro! will save the information for you. If you have disappointingly low hit rates the first time out, check out the search engine tips on sites such as Submit It! or Search Engine Watch, and tweak your submissions before resubmitting.

Tips for listing on directories

With directories like Yahoo! and LookSmart, always remember that real people are reviewing your site. Try to put yourself in their shoes. They need to quickly decide whether your site looks interesting and somehow "good enough" to be listed, and whether it is a good fit for the categories you've chosen. Try the following:

1. Pick the appropriate category. Make sure the primary category you propose for your Web site fits your site's front page extremely well. Choose a category that clearly matches what is on the front page of your Web site so the reviewer can quickly look at your site and have no question that it's appropriate for the category. The person reviewing your site can choose to change the category, but he or she is just as likely to reject you if the match seems a bit off. For example, if your front page features printed invitations for all occasions, you'll have a better chance of getting listed in a broader category like "Printing: Invitations and Announcements," than in something more specific like "Wedding Invitations." If you also want to get listed under wedding invitations, in this example, you can either list it as a second category (Yahoo! allows two alternative category suggestions) or create a separate Web site to highlight your wedding invitations and submit it separately.

2. Spruce up your Web site. The directories are all about trying to put together what human beings feel is good and interesting on the Web. The better your Web site looks, and the more interesting or useful it is, the better your chances of getting listed. If the major directories reject you more than once, consider overhauling your site to improve its look or content.

3. Submit to the geographic section of Yahoo! Yahoo! has regional listings (for example, you can search for "dry cleaners Minneapolis"). If your home based business has geographical relevance, consider making one of your two alternative categories a geographical listing.

4. Avoid sales jargon in your site description and title. The directories dislike sales jargon. Again, put yourself in the reviewer's shoes: She or he is trying to create an objective listing of the best sites offering your product or service.

Tips for listing on most search engines

Search engines such as Alta Vista, Excite and Inktomi use algorithms and rules to scan your Web site and decide where to list it. Each search engine has its own criteria and processes, but the following tips are useful for most of them.

1. Choose keywords that match how customers speak and search.
2. Be a big fish in a small pond.
3. Create pages with a specific focus.

Tips for "special case" search engines

A couple of key search engines operate differently than the others. Google is probably the most important since, as of August 2000, it replaced Inktomi as the provider of search results for Yahoo! While Yahoo!'s primary results continue to come from its own directories, the secondary results now come from Google.

Google's search engine looks at how many sites link to your site, as a proxy for how popular or interesting your Web site is, and uses the results to rank your site in its search results. The type of sites linking to you also is important. A link from a popular site (i.e., one that has many others linking to it) counts for more than a link from a wallflower site that has few linkers of its own. Direct Hit uses a similar approach. To improve your listing on Google, and indirectly on Yahoo!, try the following:

1. Develop reciprocal links.
2. List products or services with online malls.
3. Build online press coverage.

The other special case search engine is Overture.com, which operates on a pay-for-placement basis, where you pay only for customers who actually click on your listing. The highest bidder gets the first listing. Depending on the categories you choose, you can be first bidder for as little as a penny per click (e.g., door knockers). But for hot categories with high-priced items (e.g., diamonds), it can cost you $1.80 per customer clicking through to your site. At that price, your site better do a pretty good job of converting lookers into buyers. The good news about Overture is that it gives home based businesses some control over where they are listed. The bad news is that fewer people search at Overture than at places like Yahoo! and AltaVista, where you have less control of your placement. Still, it's worth checking whether currents rates at Overture make sense for your home based business.

After the first time

After you get your site listed with the major search engines, don't forget that you need to stay on top of the listings. It's worth checking monthly or even weekly to make sure you're still on each site and haven't been pushed down the list by aggressive competitors. If you fall off, you can resubmit, and submission services such as Submit It! or Submission Pro! can help by automatically resubmitting for you.