About LookSmart and Yahoo! LookSmart was the first directory to stop accepting free submissions from commercial sites. Nonprofit sites can still submit for free (if they are valid, tax-exempt organizations), but LookSmart doesn't promise to evaluate the site within a certain time period. Although many people are unfamiliar with LookSmart, it is an important directory to be in. LookSmart powers the search directories of many leading portals including Excite, AltaVista, and MSN. This means if your site is not included in the LookSmart database, you won't show up in directory searches at these other engines.
Yahoo is the largest and most popular directory. It is also one of the most difficult to get into. You have two choices at Yahoo: free or paid submission. When you use the free option, you submit your site to Yahoo and wait (and wait, and wait some more) for a Yahoo editor to evaluate it. In fact, Yahoo's backlog is so large that the directory doesn't guarantee that anyone will ever look at your site.
The paid submission option costs $299 and does guarantee that an editor will review your site within 48 hours. It does not guarantee that your site will be accepted! However, Yahoo does report a much higher acceptance rate from its paid submissions because - in general - higher quality sites are willing to use this option. Search Engine Web Page Submission |
