Measuring Your Internet Presence

Once you have submitted your web pages, you must now monitor your Internet presence by verifying your links. Do NOT assume that simply registering your site will guarantee a listing. Expect a varying lapse period between submission and indexing; with Google it can take over a month. If after six weeks your site is not listed, try resubmitting your site. DO NOT resubmit blindly without checking your status first.

There are several ways you can check your site's listing with search engines and directories:

• Search for your URL in the search bar preceeded by "url:" e.g., url: ic.gc.ca
• Search for the specific keywords that you have chosen for your meta tags. If you know that your site is in the database, this is a good method to test how well your site ranks based on the specific keywords that your users will hopefully be using to find your site.