This site is not affiliated with the Excite search engine. Search Engines are databases that can store millions and millions of pages. These pages are most often collected by robots, that search the World Wide Web looking for sites. These databases can be searched by asking for a few selected keywords. Sometimes they will return thousands of possible pages.
Directory return a list of categories.
First of all, never submit your site until it is complete. The site must include meta tags for description and keywords, proper front end code for engines that do not use meta tags, as well as functional titles. For help with these, drop by Search Engine Watch. Once your code is finished, then submit your site to the engines. There are many companies that will do this for you, for a fee of course.