Where To Submit:

I would recommend submitting your home page to the major search engines individually, at least initially. However, there are several services that do groups of them for you - and is a big time saver for the rest of your site. The following is one of my favorites: FreeWebSubmission.com. I have always deselected Google, though, since I submit to them manually through the Google website. I submit my web pages to the following search engines manually (without a special tool) just to ensure that it is done.

Submit to Google

Submit to Yahoo

Submit to MSN

You will need a Yahoo account to submit to the Yahoo search engine. And don't fret if you don't see immediate results. Your site should normally exist in MSN within about 6 weeks, in Yahoo in 8-12 weeks, and in Google within about 3 months. (You will not likely get much search results from Google for the first year though - but hold out and keep working on the other tricks. In the long run, Google will normally give you about 60 - 70% of the search engine traffïc if you follow these methods.)

Also, if you have the Alexa toolbar installed, navigate to your website and clïck on the "info" button on the toolbar. Then you will have to fill in information about your website. Once this is registered, you will start seeing how your website's Alexa rating looks. There have been some rumors that Google considers the Alexa description in its searches - so make sure it is relevant to your website as a whole and has at least one of your keywords.

You should also submit your website to DMOZ. This is a massive directory that is republished in several other websites. It is managed by humans, and is therefore considered to be of special relevance by other search engines. I strongly recommend reading all their rules before submitting - and follow them closely. Make sure that you try to get listed in only one category - the most relevant one for your business. It can take a month or two to get listed, but it really helps with your backlinks and overall relevancy as a website..

A Linking Strategy

Alright, now, we're going to discuss the one, quite possibly most important element to ranking well in Google - the # of incoming links. Google has been giving more and more importance to what they call their "PR" - short for Page Rank. The PR is based on a scale of 1-10 and the higher it is, the more incoming links you have.
The PR is determined by the number of INCOMING and OUTGOING links you have. You should have the maximum number of incoming links.
See, Google's theory is that by having a site link to you, that website is basically "voting" for you - that site is telling Google:
"Hey, I like that website, it has good content, I feel comfortable sending MY visitors there, so should you..."
The more sites that tell Google that, the more willing Google is to send its’ traffic. So, bottom line, recruit incoming links.
NOTE: A linking strategy is VERY important if you want any chance at making it to the Top 10 page on Google and then staying there...