The Reality of Search Engine Submissions

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!