AltaVista
Alta Vista uses Meta Tags when indexing a web site. It is also case-sensitive, meaning that typing in "cars" and "CARS" will give you different results. Make sure you keep this in mind when completing Meta Tags. Spelling is important. Use relevant keywords.
Excite
Excite considers the words in the Title of your webpage. Excite can take up to 4 weeks to index your web site, so check it frequently. Make sure your keywords are relevant.
Hotbot
HotBot takes advantage of Meta tags within your HTML code. Try to use unique words or phrases, because this will help push your page higher in the relevancy rating. Title words should be descriptive and relevant. You may want to use them several times nearer to the top of the page.
Infoseek
Infoseek uses Meta tags as well. It is not difficult to be listed in Infoseek. You can see the results immediately using their RealTime URL Indexer. Regarding Meta tags, use words that you think people would be using to find sites like yours.
Lycos
Lycos does take Meta tags into account. However, they weigh the full text of your document more. So make sure you repeat keywords near the top of your page. Also, use as little punctuation as possible. If you do so within the title, Lycos will not list your page.
OpenText
Open Text takes word frequency into account. The summaries they provide in the listings come from the start of the document text.
Webcrawler
Webcrawler adds new listings to their database every 2 to 3 weeks. You can check to see where your page is at: http://www.webcrawler.com/WebCrawler/Status.html
Yahoo
As Yahoo is a search directory, they are the most choosy in selecting pages to list. You want your page to be interesting, unique, and to fall within one of their category listings. In addition, they process all requests by hand, so it make take some time for your site to be listed. Your title and comments are most important.
