Search Engine SubmissionBefore you submit your sites to the search engines there are still a couple things you need to do.
First thing you want to do is to create a robots.txt file, the search engine crawlers will search for this when they visit your site, the robots text file will tell the crawlers where they can go and where they can't, also you can use the robots text file to block certain crawlers from visiting your site as well.
A couple sites with some good information can be found below,
http://www.searchtools.com/robots/robots-txt.html
http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/robotstxt.shtml
The next thing you will want or need to do is to create a sitemap of your website, some scripts may already have a sitemap program implemented into their script however there are different types of sitemaps and different search engines use different types.
A sitemap is a page or series of pages containing the name and link of every page on your site, running a game site you could end up with a few thousand pages and links. Thats alot of work creating a sitemap like that - there are programs out there that will do the work automatically and save you alot of time. Some programs are free and some cost money, more information can be found at the link below,
Gamesite Sitemaps
Now its time to submit your site to the search engines, each search engine has its own set of rules for submitting your site to their directory, the major ones such as Yahoo and Google prefer that you hand submit your site and if they find that you used a script to submit your site , they may choose to not submit your site.
There are a few hundred search engine directories out there, I have listed most of the major ones below as well as a link to the submission page and any notes about that directory.
Google - Google is the largest search engine out there, if you already have a Google adsense account you can add your site by adding your sitemap to their Webmaster Tools page in your account, to get there log in to your google account,
If you don't have a adsense account then click on the About Google link on their home page then on the Submit your content link and continue from there. Click Here to get to Google's Home page.
Yahoo - Yahoo is the second largest directory there is. to add your site to their directory you must have an account with them (free), then from their home page click the Suggest a site link in the footer and go from there. Go to Yahoo.Com
MSN Live search - Another search engine, go to MSN.Com and sign up for a free account, once you do so you can add your site to their directory as well, a sitemap is needed as well. Theres also a tool to check your robots.txt file for use with their crawler. Once you go to msn.com enter your website name into the search box and submit it, if your site is not found look for the Webmasters link in the footer to add your site.
Ask - Ask.Com is the next engine you want to add your site to, go to Ask.Com, enter your website name into the search box, and see if your site is found, if not copy paste and edit the line below in your browser.
http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http%3A//www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml - edit the website url to your own url and sitemap location.
Once you add these your off to a good start as these are the major search engines, the next few pages contain more search engines to add your site to. Click here - for the next page.
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