Cabinet Office
This checklist should be used by web managers and developers to ensure that their website or an individual document is promoted as widely as possible on the Internet. There are two mechanisms for searching the web - search engines and directories. A search engine uses software variously referred to as - robots or spiders - to visit and collect information from new and updated websites and to maintain searchable databases of web resources. Directories are structured lists of categories maintained by human editors. However, the distinction between search engines and directories is not always clear-cut. Many services (for example Yahoo! and Google) combine the features of both search engines and directories.
Regular search engine registration is important and your search engine entries need to be checked on a regular basis. To keep informed of developments in the search engine community consider subscribing to the Search Engine Report at:
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http://searchenginewatch.com. [External link]
There are also many commercial services that will undertake managing search engine and directory submissions on your behalf. They usually refer to their activities as website promotion so there is some scope for confusion. If you are considering employing such a commercial service, care should be taken to establish exactly what it is they are proposing to do for you.
Examples of search facilities (submission pages)
Examples of directory listing facilities (submission pages)