You Want Your New EBay Store or Website Indexed by Search Engines Fast at Little or No Cost?

Most website owners, and even experienced webmasters, have had to deal with the frustration of internet invisibility while waiting for indexing by search engines. Many have tried ineffective link exchanges and banner swaps with little success but, ultimately, they know it's indexing by the major search engines that will make all the difference to a site's genuine hit rate.

There are numerous services for $100 or more that 'guarantee' you quicker visibility. Sometimes this simply means receiving relatively few sponsored link placements with the search engine while normal indexing takes place.

But there is a very low cost technique to gain faster indexing that can be incredibly successful.

As founder of the website directory NetStoreSearch.com let me explain how.

Do you know the difference between a search engine and a directory? Well, if you have a website and you are looking to increase your hits, you need to know the difference.

A search engine sends out automated codes, often called 'spiders', to crawl the Web looking for new sites and update information on previously indexed sites. Basically these spiders find new sites by following the link addresses they find on "known" sites and these new sites are indexed regardless of any direct manual site submission to the search engine website. Once the spider finds and indexes your website it will be included in search results.

Probably the best-known search engine today is Google. Other leading search engines are Yahoo! and MSN. While it is obviously a good idea to submit your site to these search engines manually it is quite possible you will wait for months before they come crawling. But if you just get a link or two from a related-topic page on another website that's already been indexed you could get 'spidered' in days! A listing in a high-quality directory under a relevant category can often be just the ticket. A search engine spider visiting the directory can follow your link as it's on a relevant topic page and, therefore, index your site.

A web directory is basically a catalog of websites, divided into categories. Generally, directories are edited by humans, who review new sites and decide what category they belong in. Directories don't send out spiders. All of the sites in a directory have been submitted by someone, usually either by the site owner or by one of the directory editors.

There is no guarantee that a particular directory editor will include a site simply because it's been submitted. If they don't think a Web site meets their standards, they can (and will) reject it. You may also find yourself waiting a long time for volunteer editors to get around to reviewing your site after you submit it to a free directory. But, before you start complaining, just keep in mind how much you didn't pay for the service in the first place! Therefore not every directory will necessarily be successful in getting your site 'spidered' quickly and it will pay to try a few and get to know which ones respond quickly.

The aim of most directories is quality. They may not list as many pages as the top search engines, but all their listings have been reviewed and categorized within the scope of the sites interest. Thus directories make it easier for people to find high quality sites related to their chosen topic.

Directories are extremely useful for providing valuable inbound links to your web site. You should realize that one good directory link can be all it takes to get your site spidered by the search engines, sometimes within hours. But in time directory links can also improve your ranking with the engines. Put simply, the more your link can be found on the internet, the higher your site will rank and the more hits you will receive meaning you can climb even further. So, as you can see, success leads to more success but you have to start the process yourself.

Our directory at NetStoreSearch.com is a catalogue of online stores and ecommerce websites. The stores may be independent, hosted at eBay or even at one of the lesser known auction venues. The directory is searched by increasingly refined product categories so a lead directed to a store is likely to be very well qualified. In addition we make sure the stores listed with us have their links properly laid out in the path of the search engine spiders whenever they visit.

Few specialized directories are free to get listed in, but, for webmasters on a strict budget you will be amazed what just a few dollars can achieve to attract that friendly 'spider'!