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The Reality of Search Engine Submissions
by Robin Nobles
Over the last few months, search engine submissions have changed
dramatically. Now is the time to analyze the way we're submitting
our Web pages and to rethink our submission strategies.
Regretfully, I still see people paying big bucks to search
engine submission services who will submit their pages to
thousands of search engines for one "low price."
What they aren't told is that the act of "submitting"
their pages has nothing to do with top search engine rankings.
Even taking a step back, submitting doesn't guarantee indexing.
Fact: The majority of traffic to your site will come from
the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! search engine,
and MSN. Therefore, submitting to "thousands" of
search engines really isn't doing your site any good.
Let's take a serious look at the reality of search engine
submissions. Do we need to pay a submission service to submit
our pages to the search engines? Can the search engines find
our pages on their own, or do we have to pay them to index
our pages? Let's look at the variables and try to save you
some money.
Search Engine Submissions . . . Ways to Submit Your Pages
1. Don't submit! Let the search engines find your pages through
links on other Web pages or Web sites.
To be honest, this is my favorite, most "stress-free"
way to submit to the search engines. Think about it. You create
your Web page and optimize it. You make sure to link TO the
page from another page on your site, such as your site map.
The idea is that when the search engine spiders your site
map, it should find the link to your new page, visit the page,
spider it, and index it. Can I guarantee it will happen? Of
course not. That's why you need to monitor your spider traffic
and your rankings to make sure that the page makes it into
the search engine's index.
Search engine spiders were created to SPIDER the Web. That's
their "job" -- to crawl the Web and index new pages.
I have always found this method of "submitting"
to be the most effective.
2. Submit pages through free add URL pages at the various
search engines.
My main concern here is that the search engines have always
said that over 90% of all submissions through free add URL
pages is spam. I have never wanted my submissions to be lumped
in there with all of that spam.
Therefore, I personally stay away from free add URL pages.
In particular, I never submit to Google through its free add
URL page.
3. Use Overture's Site Match to submit to Yahoo!'s family
of search engines.
Overture's Site Match (http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/bjump/sm.jhtml)
has taken the place of the old Inktomi, FAST, and AltaVista
paid inclusion programs. However, Site Match isn't just a
paid inclusion program -- it is also a cost-per-click program,
with the cost being based on the type of industry you're in.
You pay a flat fee for your site to be reviewed, and then
you pay a cost per click as well. The paid inclusion spider
crawls the page every 48 hours, so you're able to tweak it
to try to get better rankings.
Site Match gets your pages into Yahoo! Web pages, FAST, AltaVista,
Overture supplemental results, HotBot, and more, so the visibility
is certainly impressive. It's important to note that Site
Match pages are shown with the regular Yahoo! crawler results
with no distinction between the two.
If a page is important to you and you're having problems getting
it picked up by Yahoo!'s family of search engines, you may
want to consider Site Match. However, it can certainly get
expensive if you have a number of pages to submit.
4. Do we need software programs or search engine submission
services that will submit our pages to thousands of search
engines for one "low price"?
In a word -- NO!
We've already learned that the majority of traffic comes from
the major search engines. Submitting to the important international
or minor engines through a software program like WebPosition
Gold 3 (http://www.webposition.com/gold.htm) is a consideration.
But submitting to thousands of search engines, many of which
are "free for all" Web sites (pure junk), won't
benefit your site at all.
Save your money!
5. All of this is fine and good, but what if the site is brand
new with no inbound links?
Get your site listed in a directory such as Yahoo! Directory
(http://www.yahoo.com/) or the Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org).
Then, spend some time finding a few sites that will agree
to put links on their sites to yours.
Are there any vertical search engines and directories in your
topic area? Visit Search Engine Guide and search through their
topical search engine directory: http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
So, take the stress-free approach with search engine submissions
and . . .
1) Link to all of your important pages from another page on
your site.
2) Get inbound links from another site pointing to your site.
2) Let the major engines find your pages on their own.
3) Monitor your progress. If a search engine hasn't indexed
one of your pages, make sure to place additional links to
that page in the pathway of the spiders.
Important Note: You may be using an SEO company to handle
the optimization of your Web pages, including your search
engine submissions. Does this mean you're paying too much
for those SEO services? No. SEO work is extremely complex
and time consuming, and a good search engine optimizer is
helping to make your online business a success. The purpose
of this article is to educate you on search engine submissions
in general, since so many people wrongly believe that the
acting of submitting pages will get those pages to the top
of the search engine rankings.
In Conclusion . . .
So many Web site owners and SEOs make search engine submissions
much harder than they have to be. Take a deep breath, direct
the spiders through your Web site to make sure they are able
to find your Web pages, and relax. Let the search engines
do what they do best . . . spider the Web!
About The Author
Robin Nobles is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine
Workshops, where they teach "hands on" search engine
marketing workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com)
in locations across the globe. They also offer Ultra Advanced
SEO Symposiums (http://www.ultraadvancedsymposium.com) for
advanced search engine marketers who want to take their learning
to a new level. They have opened the first networking community
for SEOs called The World Resource Center for Search Engine
Marketers (http://www.sew-wrc.com) and have expanded their
workshops to Europe with Search Engine Workshops UK (http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk).
robin@searchengineworkshops.com
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