Before you submit your site to search engines, it is imperative that you establish links from other relevant websites to yours. Some engines are known to drop pages after a couple weeks if they find no other domains linking to your site. Google has stated that it will not index a site that does not have at least one external link pointing to it.

Links from major directories such as Open Directory, LookSmart, or Yahoo will help. However, you should also get links from other Websites that are complimentary to yours. Link exchanges are not enough. You must have more links (from relevant pages) coming into the site than are going out.

Beware of link exchange programs. Most of the time they are indiscriminate. The search engines are wise to this trick. If you end up with a bunch of irrelevant websites linking to yours, some search engines will consider it spam and ignore your website.