AltaVista is an important crawler-based search engine because, while its popularity has dropped over the past year, significant numbers of people still use it to search the web. It also being purchased by Overture, with the acquisition expected to complete by the end of April 2003.

As with the other crawlers covered so far, building links is the best way to get listed for free. However, AltaVista does take submission via the AltaVista Add URL page.

As with the other crawlers with Add URL pages, you need only submit your home page and one or two inside pages. Expect a delay of one month or longer until your pages show up, assuming they are indeed accepted. This is not guaranteed to those using the Add URL page.

Like Inktomi, AltaVista will guarantee to include your pages if you use its AltaVista Express Inclusion paid inclusion program. It will get your new pages listed in about a week to two weeks. As with Inktomi, it's recommended that new sites use the program to get their home pages quickly listed.

The cost is $39 and means that the page will be revisited regularly, for up to six months. As with Inktomi, it's possible that your page could be dropped, if you don't renew. However, again as with Inktomi, this is highly unlikely to happen to a home page.

As with Inktomi, you can also choose to submit many more of your pages through the program, and the fees are less than for your first page. In addition, there's a Trusted Feed program for those who have thousands of pages they wish to pay to include.