Search
Engine Submission Search Engine Submission BasicsOnce your website is live and optimized for good search engine positioning, all your main pages containing Meta tags need to be manually submitted to all the Major Search Engines in the U.S., as well as all the Major International Search Engines. Although not as important as it once was, search engine submission continues to be an integral facet of search engine marketing. Most modern search engines prefer to find your web pages on their own, however, letting them know about new websites and new web pages speeds the process, and if done intelligently and with care certainly won't do any harm… so long as you don't over do it! Search Engines continue to be the number one way people find what they're looking for on the Internet, and failing to submit your URL, to at least the most popular search engines (and directories), is synonymous with having a store front retail business with no signage and no phone book or yellow page listing. Your website submission strategy should always include at minimum, the top dozen or so International Search Engines and Directories. It is estimated that combined, the top 12 search engines receive in excess of 90% of all search traffic. Depending on your target markets, you should also consider submitting your site to other on topic search engines and directories. There is simply no better way to increase the volume of traffic coming to your web site. Important Search Engines SubmissionToday, the most important Search Engines are... Google... Voted four times Most Outstanding Search Engine by Search Engine Watch readers, Google has a well-deserved reputation as the top choice for those searching the web. The crawler-based service provides both comprehensive coverage of the web along with great relevancy. It's highly recommended as a first stop in your hunt for whatever you are looking for. Yahoo... Launched in 1994, Yahoo is the web's oldest "directory," a place where human editors organize web sites into categories. However, in October 2002, Yahoo made a giant shift to crawler-based listings for its main results. These came from Google until February 2004. Now, Yahoo uses its own search technology. MSN... Today, MSN Search is in transition. It provides access to Yahoo listings but not as much functionality in terms of other types of searches that you'll find at Yahoo itself. However, MSN has developing its own crawler-based technology, which is in beta test mode today. MSN is planning other changes that should revitalize the service it offers later in 2004. Ask Jeeves... Ask Jeeves initially gained fame in 1998 and 1999 as being the "natural language" search engine that let you search by asking questions and responded with what seemed to be the right answer to everything. In reality, technology wasn't what made Ask Jeeves perform so well. Behind the scenes, the company at one point had about 100 editors who monitored search logs. They then went out onto the web and located what seemed to be the best sites to match the most popular queries. Today, Ask Jeeves instead depends on crawler-based technology to provide results to its users. These results come from the Teoma search engine that it owns. AllTheWeb... Previously owned by a company called FAST and used as a showcase for that company's web search technology. However, the search engine was purchased by search provider Overture (see below) in late April 2003, then later become Yahoo's property when Yahoo bought Overture. AllTheWeb no longer has a connection with FAST. AOL Search... Provides users with editorial listings that come from Google's crawler-based index. Indeed, the same search on Google and AOL Search will come up with very similar matches. HotBot... HotBot provides easy access to the web's three major crawler-based search engines: Yahoo, Google and Teoma. Unlike a meta search engine, it cannot blend the results from all of these crawlers together. Nevertheless, it's a fast, easy way to get different web search "opinions" in one place. Teoma... Crawler-based search engine owned by Ask Jeeves with a smaller index of the web than its rival crawler-competitors Google and Yahoo. Being large however doesn't make much of a difference when it comes to most popular queries. Teoma's won praise for its relevancy since it appeared in 2000, and some people like its "Refine" feature which offers related topics of interest to explore and the "Resources" section that points users to pages that specifically serve as link resources about various topics. AltaVista... Today AltaVista is owned by Overture, which Yahoo! purchased in July 2003. It is powerful and fast, mainly used for pinpoint searching of narrow topics and people in the news. It is popular, because it successfully narrows topics. AltaVista is one of the most inclusive indices, although not necessarily the best search engine for every use. AltaVista's main or organic results are supplied by Yahoo!, sponsored listings are from Overture, and the directory listings are provided by DMOZ. Open Directory... Arguably the most important directory to submit to. Formerly known as NewHoo and launched in June 1998, The Open Directory uses volunteer editors to catalog the web. It was acquired by AOL Time Warner-owned Netscape in November 1998, and the company pledged that anyone would be able to use information from the directory through an open license arrangement. You should also submit your site to any major International Search Sites that are relevant to your audience. If you're not familiar with or lack the confidence and experience to perform the search engine submission process, leave the submission of your site to important directories such as Yahoo, The Open Directory and LookSmart to the experts. The way you submit your site to these directories can make or break their editorial review of your site and ultimately, your ranking. Companies like SEO Central generally have a lot of experience choosing
the right category for your site and wording your site description
to include as many keywords as possible while avoiding the possibility
of editorial trimming. If you'd like to have your website submitted
by the experts at SEO Central, click
here for more information. Search Engine Submission SoftwareThere are many software programs and online tools for submitting your webpages automatically to the search engines. You should use these programs with care, as more and more search engines punish excessive submissions. We've all seen them, companies that use website submission software to simultaneously submit to hundreds and even thousands of search engines, directories, and FFA sites. In three short words… Don't do it! Most modern search engines recognize this automated software and ignore those websites using it, and worse yet, you may be banned from future URL submissions. Don't mess with it, it just isn't worth the risk. I'll say it just one more time... It is estimated that combined, the top 12 search engines receive in excess of 90% of all search traffic. Alta Vista claims as much as 98 percent of the submissions made at its Add URL page are spam (including links to irregular doorway pages) or webmasters adding extreme numbers of webpages on a daily basis. As a result of this AltaVista has implemented a cumbersome system that blocks automatic submissions altogether! It's always best to submit pages to the major search engines by hand, and the fact of the matter is this… If you choose to use submission software to submit your website, you don't have control over your website titles and descriptions and you can't optimize each submission for each specific search engine and directory. Always submit by hand, it is the best way. With some search engines, like Google for example, if your web pages are interlinked appropriately, once your website is found it's unnecessary to submit the rest of the pages. Given time, the search engine spiders will find them. In fact most modern search engines put so much emphasis on Link Popularity and Content, that if there are quality websites linked to you, you will be found, even without going through the submission process. When doing manual submission, you may find Pandia's search engine
submission resource page helpful. It contains links to relevant
search engine submission forms, help files, pay-per-click and paid
inclusion services, and more. Search Engine versus Directory ServiceIn the world of cyberspace, there are two different types of search tools used…
Knowing the difference between the two, and how to utilize them, will help make your search more enjoyable and more productive. Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, they are definitely not the same animal. The fact of the matter is, the world of Internet Search Engines and Directory Services can get pretty confusing, because the difference between search engines and directory services is narrowing… at least from the perspective of the end user. To learn more go to The Difference Between a Search Engine and Directory Service. Never Re-submit Listed PagesSome experts recommend that you resubmit your pages on a monthly
(or even weekly) basis. Don't! The search engines may consider this
spam and give your pages a lower ranking. If the page is listed,
leave it alone. Only resubmit if you've made substantial changes
to the page or it can't be found in the index.. and even then it
can often be better to wait for the spiders to re-index. Checking your RankingThe time it takes before being revisited by a search engine to refresh its database varies, with from two to four weeks being about normal. There are two main exceptions:
The nice thing about being re-indexed more frequently is that you can evaluate the effect of your optimization efforts sooner than later and it allows you more time for experimentation. If you make changes in your coding in an effort to improve search engine positioning and it doesn't work as expected, you can correct it without loosing a significant amount of traffic. Website RankingYour website rankings should be monitored at least monthly. If you see a drop in position, tweak your optimized pages to compensate for the drop, and if your URL has disappeared completely from a search engines or directories database, re-submit it manually. Pay attention and be careful when re-submitting your website, make absolute certain that it isn't already there, because you don't want to be penalized for over-submission. If you have a site with a large number of pages, or many sites, checking your ranking for all relevant keyword phrases may be very time consuming. That's where search engine submission and ranking software packages can actually come in useful. They search the various search engines for you, and produce easy to read reports on search engine positions and trends. You have to be careful though. Search engines like Google and AlltheWeb
don't like it when webmasters gobble costly bandwidth in this way.
Spread your requests over time (some search engine submission packages
will do this for you), and reduce the number of keyword phrases
you check. Understanding the Major Search EnginesIntended to help you understand the relationship between the leading search engines and directories, our Search Engines Guide provides links to other pages, each focusing on a specific search engine or directory. Each of these search engine/directory pages provides search capabilities within the relative search engine/directory database so you can search your keywords or site name. Each page also provides background information, a description of what that particular search engine/directory looks for in determining ranking, links to Add URL pages and more. It's critical your site be found in all the major search engines and directories, and this series of informative pages and links will help. Learn how the different search engines and directories relate to one another (who powers and provides content to who), and learn what it takes to ensure good positioning within them. Remember, just registering with a search engine or directory service is not a guarantee of inclusion. You have to have exceptional content, realistic keyword density, and your SEO efforts must be specifically tailored for each individual submission if you want to position yourself ahead of the competition. Search Engine Optimization, contrary to popular belief, is not an easy thing to do well. The sheer volume of competition within most fields makes it virtually impossible to get to that elusive number one position without taking every factor into consideration. Another major consideration that has to be kept in mind is, a website must not only be optimized for search engine spiders, it has to remain optimized for the visitors or user of the site as well. What good is a website that ranks number one in all the major search engines if the traffic isn't converted to cold, hard cash. Better positioning and improved conversion can only be achieved through the implementation of logical design and linking structure. Many issues have to be taken into consideration and a fine balance maintained. It's not simply about keyword location, weight (absolute & relative), density, proximity, frequency etc., although keyword targeting is very important indeed. It's about keeping a realistic balance between the techniqueal
elements of search engine optimization and the intuitive needs of
the end user… that's the real key to success in SEO
and Marketing. Sponsored ResultsYou can buy your way to the top, it's true. There are a number of search engines providing such services, the major ones being Overture, Google AdWords, LookSmart and (in Europe) Espotting. The amount you have to bid to get to number 1 position in the Sponsored Results varies from search engine to search engine and from keyword phrase to keyword phrase, as does the minimum bid. If you think the major search engines are too expensive, test your skills at one of the smaller pay per click search engines. For example, Kanoodle will give you 5 bucks US worth of clicks for free. Andrew Goodman of Traffick has written a fine introduction to Google
AdWords, an ebook that also includes some general advice that might
be used when submitting pages to all pay per click search engines.
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