The following are the major search engines/directories that derive the most traffic to your site, and some basic information about them:

AltaVista:
Alta Vista is one of the oldest crawler-based search engines on the web.  Following everyone else's lead, AltaVista has begun their own pay-for-inclusion program. Using their new Express Inclusion, you can submit 500 URLs (individual pages) to their index. Subscriptions must be renewed every six months. After that time, if you do not re-subscribe, your listings will be removed their database.  This is the perfect example of why quarterly submissions are vital!  Search engines can purge their data at any time.

Overture (formerly GoTo):
The value of a an Overture listing appears to have increased substantially with the sale of the Excite portal to InfoSpace. At this time, Excite is returning search engine results directly from Overture.

Overture charges per click and the price is based on auctions for specific keywords and keyword phrases.  For example, if one of your keywords is "southwestern furniture," the amount you would pay for each click on your listing determines where you are listed.  The more you are willing to pay per click, the higher your listing will be.  The thing you need to keep in mind, is that someone clicking on your listing doesn't guarantee that they'll buy your products or services after visiting your site.  The point being that you are going to pay for visits to your site regardless of the outcome.  However, one cannot ignore the role they play in the search results for other Search Engines.

Overture has a "Current Bid Tool" on their site where you can look up what people are currently paying for certain words and phrases.  They have a do-it-yourself feature, and for $99, you can have one of their reps help assist you.

Overture is important because they are featured at the top of results pages on other various search engines and directories:

• Excite: Excite now uses Overture's search engine results, so wherever you are ranked in Overture, you will be listed on Excite. That is the case for both paid bids and non-paid (Inktomi) listings.
• Yahoo: The top 3 Overture results show at the top of each Yahoo results page, labeled "Sponsored Matches." So a #1 listing in Overture amounts to a #1 listing in Yahoo.
• AOL: The top 3 Overture results show at the top of each AOL results page, labeled "Sponsored Links." So a #1 listing in Overture amounts to a #1 listing in AOL.
• Netscape: The top 2 Overture results show at the top of each Netscape Search results page, labeled "Partner Search Results." So a #1 listing in Overture amounts to a #1 listing on Netscape.
• MSN: The top 3 Overture results show at the top of each HotBot results page, labeled "Featured Listings." So a #1 listing in Overture amounts to a #1 listing in MSN.
• Earthlink/Mindspring: The start page for these merged ISPs uses Overture for its searches.
• Dogpile: The top 10 Overture listings are among the first group of listings at Dogpile.com.
• NBCi: The section at the top of NBCi, where it says "Search Marketplace" are all from Overture. If one clicks the “More” link, lower-ranked Overture listings come up.
• CompuServe: The Overture results show as "Premium Web Pages" at the top of each  results page. So a #1 listing in Overture amounts to a #1 listing on CompuServe.
• AltaVista: The top 3 Overture results are listed at the bottom of each AltaVista results page under the heading “Sponsored Listings”. If one clicks the “More Sponsored Listings” link, lower-ranked Overture listings come up.
• Lycos: The top 3 Overture results show at the top of each Lycos results page, labeled "Featured Links." So a #1 listing in Overture amounts to a #1 listing in Lycos.
• HotBot: The top 3 Overture results show at the top of each HotBot results page, labeled "Featured Listings." So a #1 listing in Overture amounts to a #1 listing in HotBot.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer: Overture and Microsoft have announced a similar partnership to be implemented "very soon."
• MSN's BCentral: Overture and MSN have announced a similar partnership.
• Search.com: The top 5 Overture results show at the top of each Search.com results page, labeled "Search Partners." If you click on their link which states "See More Search Partner Results," you will get the top 10 Overture listings (as well as 10 FindWhat results). So a #1 listing in Overture amounts to a #1 listing in Search.com.

Other (non-major) sites which will be using Overture's top listings are 411.com, InfoSpace, Searchalot, Findaroo, CNet, and MetaCrawler.

Google:
Google has gained wide-spread praise for its high relevancy search returns.  It has the largest collection of web pages of any crawler-based search engine.  Google does not charge a fee to submit your site for indexing.

Looksmart:
LookSmart is a human-compiled directory of web sites.  Not only is it a stand-alone service, it also provides directory results to MSN Search and Excite.  Basic Submit is $149, site review in ~8 weeks; Express Submit is $299, guaranteed site review within 2 business days.  A listing is not "guaranteed," but they have a list of Submit Guidelines to minimize your chances of not being included.

Lycos:
Lycos started out as a search engine, but it shifted to a directory model in 1999.  They recently entered into the "pay for inclusion" arena.  Costs are an $18 per year fee PLUS $12 per page that is submitted.  So if you have 20 unique pages that have different content that you want indexed, the cost for the pages is $240. For those of you who can get by with only having your homepage indexed, this is a very good deal!

They still offer a Free Site Submission of one page from your website, but inclusion can take 4-6 weeks (realistically it can be much longer), and there is no guarantee that they will include you at all.

LookSmart:
LookSmart is charging $299 for their "Express Submit" service. For this one-time payment, they guarantee a site review within two business days.

They are also offering a "Basic Submit" service ($149). The terms are the same as for the Express Submit service, but the review time is approximately 8 weeks.  (To make changes to your listing, you can pay $199, and to add a category costs $149.)

Payment does not guarantee listing. It only guarantees a review within the time period which is appropriate. A submitter must still follow the guidelines, and optimization will still be basically the same. They offer no refund if the submission is deemed in non-compliance with their guidelines.

LookSmart is somewhat important because they power AltaVista, MSN, and CNN.com. The top 5 LookSmart listings are among the first group of listings at Dogpile.com.

HotBot:
HotBot is a Terra Lycos site.  When you submit to HotBot, you are physically moved to a Lycos page.  HotBot's directory is powered by Netscape's Open Directory Project, and HotBot uses it own search criteria to rank listings. 

Inktomi:
Inktomi® Search Submit is the easy way to get your site content discovered through Inktomi's extensive network of Web search partners, including AOL, iWon, MSN and HotBot. Search Submit includes your most valuable content in the Inktomi index and keeps the content fresh with 48-hour updates for a one-year subscription period. Current cost is $39/year per page you want included; $25/year per additional page.  Again, this is can get expensive if you have lots of unique information pages on your site that need to stand on their own in the search engines.  On of the nice features of Inktomi is that they reportedly re-index all sites every 48 hours as opposed to many that do it monthly, or every 60 days.

Yahoo:
From Yahoo's site: In our ongoing effort to 1) build a useful, comprehensive web directory and 2) address the needs of people submitting sites to the directory, we have expanded our fee-based Business Express program to cover all submissions to our main commercial categories: "Business and Economy/Business to Business" and "Business and Economy/Shopping and Services." (See their FAQ.)

Yahoo is still arguably the most important directory in which to be listed. The fact that they are requiring an annual submission fee of $299 for all commercial sites is something that appears to be here to stay, and we strongly advice that you budget for this item.