It is straight forward and simple to
submit a web site for
free to the search engines and a task that can be done
in a few minutes. However, there are plenty of companies offering
search
engine submission services, these services re-submit your
web site to the search engines periodically for a given time
period. It amazes me that these services exist and amazes me
more why people pay for them.
Google states on its web
master pages that re-submitting your web site to the
search engine does not make a difference to a sites ranking
or to how quickly the site appears in the rankings and
from experience this is also true in Yahoo! and MSN.
Why submit your site to the search engines?
Submitting your web site to the search engine will make
your web site visible to its robot. A search engine robot
is a web spider that runs across the internet, indexing web
pages one at a time, following links it finds on other web
pages. The submission of your web site to the search engine
will inform these robots to index your site. How quickly
the robot indexes your web site depends on the search engine,
so no guarantees can be made.
Once your web site has been indexed the search engine may
rank your site relevant for certain keywords it has picked
up on, although these are not taken from your keywords meta
data. Again, this is not a guarantee and can take months
(especially if it is Google) before your site is visible
to search engine users.
How do you know when your web site has been indexed?
The first indication of this can be seen in your web analysis
tool, usually under the section marked robots/spider visits.
If you do not have such a tool, id recommend installing AW
Stats which is free and will accomplish most peoples
needs, or you can search through your web sites log files
for the IP addresses of the search engine spiders. The main
IP addresses to look out for are:
- Google - will be seen as Googlebot
- Yahoo - will be seen as Inktomi Slurp
- MSN - will be seen as MSNBot
For a more detailed list take a look at
the
web robots pages. Once you have identified the robot visit
to your web site, it is time to see if your web site has been
indexed. To do this you will need to go to the search engine
and type in the following command:
site:www.yoursite.com
Replace www.yoursite.com for the web address of your web
site.
If the search engine returns your web site then it means
you have been successfully added to its index and can be
found by search engine users. However, if your web site does
not appear be patient it may take a while.
How to improve the chances of being indexed?
It is possible although not guaranteed to speed up the inclusion
of your web site to the search engines by having their spiders
find your web site before actually submitting your web site
to the engine. This can be done by having a web site that
has already been indexed link back to your web site.
This can be done in several ways, some are examples are
to have your web site address as part of your signature in
a forum, or by having your web design company give you a
link as part of their portfolio.
In my experience this has helped considerably, and is always
favorable to submitting a web site manually to the search
engines. Although, there is nothing wrong with manually
submitting your web site!
Is using a submission service bad for my web site?
This does depend on how the company submits your web site
to the search engine. Search engines have become good at
distinguishing between manual submissions and bulk automated
submissions usually made from these types of services (sometimes
having different URL’s available), normally when a
search engine detects a bulk web site submission it will
usually process them slower than manual submissions.
What search engines should I submit to?
Be extremely wary of web sites that say they can submit
your web site to 100’s if not 1000’s of search
engines. The majority of these search engines will not provide
you with any traffic and the web site will likely sell on
your email address.
You should submit your web site to the following search
engines:
Submitting your web site to these three search engines does
not restrict your sites visibility as can be seen by this web
site detailing
whom
powers who where submitting to these 3 actually submits
your web site to many more.
Are there any other web sites my site should be submitted
to?
In terms of providing your web site with the best possible
start in life you should be trying to submit your web site
to the following sites:
Conclusion
Search engine submission is about making your web
site visible to the search engine robots. This can be done
by manually submitting them to the search engine via their
own add site URL or from their robot finding you from another
link. Search engine submission services that re-submit your
web site are in the end a waste of money.
Stephen Dean is an expert in Search Engine Optimisation and
Internet marketing. He has recently founded SEO Marketing Solutions
an
internet
marketing company specialising in online marketing for
small to medium size businesses.
