85% of internet traffic is generated by search engines, submitting your web site to all major search engines (like Yahoo, Google) is the most effective way of promoting your web site on the Internet. In order to maintain a search engine placing near the top for your chosen ‘keyword’ it is essential to regularly submit your web site details to these web directories and engines.
Search engines help people find relevant information on the Internet. Major search engines maintain huge databases of web sites that users can search by typing in some text.
To compile their databases, search engines rely on computer programs called “robots” or, more specifically, “spiders.” These programs “crawl” across the web by following links from site to site and indexing each site they visit. Each search engine uses its own set of criteria to decide what to include in its database. For example, some search engines index each page in a web site, while others index only the main page.
Directories are often confused with search engines, but actually they’re completely different. Instead of using spiders to crawl the web, directories such as Yahoo! have real people who review and index their links. The factors that influence search engine rankings simply don’t apply to directory rankings. Instead, directory editors look at the quality of a site: its functionality, content and design. That means that webmasters hoping to see their sites listed on directories have to use very different strategies than for search engine placement.