FAQ: Search Engine Submission

Do I have to submit my website to Google in order to be found on search results?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:09:41 GMT

I just launched my website and I want to get as much search engine traffic as possible. If I want my site to be found on Google, do I have to submit my site to Google?

You don't have to submit your site to Google in order to be found on the Google search results pages. Some search engines, including Google, Yahoo and MSN (LIVE Search) are crawler based search engines. What this means is that to be included in their index, your pages must be crawled by their automated crawler program that we often refer to as a spider or bot. Googlebot, is the name of the crawler mechanism that Google uses to crawl your pages. It also follows links on your pages, unless otherwise directed, to find other pages on your site or other sites.

If you have a just launched, brand new, website and Google finds a link to your website on a page of some other website, then your website pages will be added to the Google index. This doesn't require any submissions process of any kind at all, and is actually the preferred way for Google to find new page content.

However, if you want to be sure of being crawled, you can manually request that Google crawl your site.

Google encourages us to share our content in a variety of ways, including offering us ways to:

Submit a URL
Submit a Sitemap
or even list your business in the local business center.

Yahoo and MSN have similar tools, allowing us to manually inform them of new content. However, for all crawler based search engines, they prefer to discover your site by following links from other sites.

Non crawler based search engines actually require that your site be submitted to them before they will visit your pages to determine your content.

Lastly, there are numerous directories on which you can freely list your website. Again, these require that you submit your site to them before they will be listed. They will not crawl your site in any way to determine content, you have to inform them of your content at the point of submission. The most influential directories on the web continue to be the DMOZ (Open Directory Project), and Yahoo Directory.

How many search engines are there on the web?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:13:14 GMT

I've seen websites offering, for a fee, to submit your website to hundreds of thousands of search engines. Are there really that many?

It's unknown exactly how many search engine websites there are on the web. Certainly thousands, if you include what are really hobby sites.

95% of all search engine traffic is generated by a very small number of search engines. In the region of 100. However, the majority of that traffic actually depends on only a few truly unique databases, operated by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

For example, the Google index is used for the search results delivered on Google (of course), but also on AOL, and ASK (previously known as Ask Jeeves).

The remaining 5% of traffic coming from largely unknown search engines still accounts for a significant amount of users and daily searches, collectively. Individually, however, they should not form part of your marketing strategy.

How often should I resubmit my website to the search engines?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:24:05 GMT

I've heard that if I want to be certain that my website will continue to be found on the search engines, that I should regularly resubmit my site? Does this apply to all search engines, including Google and Yahoo?

Once you website has been crawled by any crawler based search engine such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, there is nothing to be gained from resubmitting your site to them. They will continue to revisit your site periodically for as long as your site is accessible. You never have to resubmit your site to them again. There are no penalties for resubmitting your site to them, you can use there URL submission mechanisms as often as you like, but to do so more than once is actually pointless.

There are other search engines and directories that periodically drop stale content/listings if they are not resubmitted. The reason for this, more than anything, is to limit the amount of storage required to run the service, but also to ensure only active websites are listed.

Be aware, some search directories will remove your listing if you submit your URL more than once.

Has Google penalised my website for over submitting?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:31:40 GMT

It was taking a long time for my website to appear on Google search results, so I submitted my website to them every day until it was listed. After some initial success, my website is now quite difficult to find? Have I been penalised for over submitting my website?

If you use the website submission tool to submit the URL of your website to Google for crawling, it doesn't matter how many times you use it. You can submit your URL 100 times a day if you want too. It won't make any difference to when Google crawls your website, but you won't be penalised in any way unless you use some kind of automated tool or software to achieve the submissions.

Does Google penalise websites for over submitting? No, not at all. However, the effort you expend on submitting your website to Google and worrying about being penalised would be infinitely better spent on improving the content on your website. After all, it's the content that will bring you traffic and visitors, not the submissions.

Please remember that Google is a crawler based search engine. It will likely crawl your site eventually whether you submit your site or not. Once it has, it will periodically crawl your site again for the liftetime of the website, without any further intervention from you. You must therefore concentrate your efforts on ensuring your website has lots of top quality content for it to index. The more unique and genuinely intersting content you have on your website, the more likely you are to achieve the success you want on Google.

So, you won't be penalized by Google for submitting your site to often. However, you also won't benefit from it in any way.

Concenrate on your content!

I want my website listed on Google. Should I bother with any other search engines?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:42:57 GMT

I'm really only interested in seeing my website appear in the search results on Google. Why should I bother submitting my website anywhere else? Is there any benefit to a "global submissions" programme?

Given the volume of search traffic that Google accounts for, it's clear why the principle concern for all webmasters to have their website appear well on Google's search results pages. So much so, that other search engines and directories are rarely considered at all.

You should consider every search engine and directory as a marketing opportunity. Yet another place to broadcast your site to the world. All publicity is good publicity, as they say. You should also be aware that Google, and others, make an effort to track the level of traffic your website is receiving and from where that traffic originates. Therefore, the more websites, search engines, and directories that your website appears on, the better.

Your main concern should be in writing truly great copy for your website, in order to attract links from other websites and social sites. However, it makes sense to market your site as widely as your budget permits.

Why is the DMOZ (Open Directory Project) so important?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:46:57 GMT

Frequently I read about how important it is that my website be listed in the DMOZ, and that it will improve my ranking on Google search results. Is this true?

The DMOZ (Open Directory Project) has traditionally been important because it's edited by volunteers with an emphasis on accurate, quality listings. Great care is taken to ensure that listings are accepted into the correct and most appropriate category within the directory, with a total absence of superlatives or marketing language. Therefore, all listings in the directory are considered to be reliable, and relevant.

Whether or not a listing for your website in the DMOZ will improve your ranking in Google has been debated for years. Our experience is that it's unlikely to impact your PageRank (Google PageRank system), but it does appear to improve your placement in the search results a little.

Either way, it's another excellent marketing opportunity as the ODP database is used and shared by thousands of webmasters, and directories, including Google. When submitting to the DMOZ, take care in selecting the best category for your site and in the description you offer of your site. Make sure you read and understand the submission guidelines before attempting to make any submission.

Do I need to pay a specialist to perform the search engine submissions for my website?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:35:03 GMT

Whilst it's not expensive to pay a specialist to submit my website to the search engines, is it not something I could easily do for myself? Would I need potentially expensive, specialist software?

There is no reason why any Webmaster could not handle the submissions for their own website. It's not a complicated task at all. All search engines and directories have a submissions form where you can submit the URL of your website.

For example:

There are of course a great many others, so it can feel like a tedious task. Many people that pay for search engine submissions, do so just to save their own time and sanity. There are also some free search engine submission services available on the web, but these services cannot and do not attempt any kind of submission to the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo or LIVE Search, so you really do get what you pay for in these cases. Nothing of any consequence.

Software is readily available to help you with search engine submissions, some of it is even free. However, these packages still require you to do a lot of the work yourself, but they attempt to help with the process.

If you choose to pay for a search engine submissions to be done for you, the expectation is that the specialist doing the submissions has experience of not only where to submit your website, but also how to ensure your submissions are accepted, e.g. DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, etc. The specialist will also know which search engines not only permit, but promote automated submissions, and of course which one's don't, and where relevant, the frequency for resubmission.

For a business website, it makes sense to have someone experienced handle the submissions for you. However, for a personal / hobby website, why not expand your knowledge and experience by handling it yourself.

How can I get my site into more than one category on ODP and Yahoo Directory?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:13:13 GMT

I've noticed that some websites have multiple listings on both the ODP (Open Directory Project), and Yahoo Directory. If thats allowed, how can I do achieve the same for my website?

Indeed many websites have multiple listings in the ODP and Yahoo Directory, as does our own website. If you feel your website could justifiably and correctly appear in more than one category, then you need only to suggest the site for the other categories, in the same way that you did for the original listing.

As a general rule, neither directory will allow your site to be listed in more than 3 categories.

How much does it cost to be listed in the ODP and Yahoo Directory?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:22:58 GMT

I've heard it can be expensive to be listed in Yahoo Directory and the ODP. What are the costs involved in getting listings in these important directories?

Listings in the ODP (Open Directory Project) are completely free. There is no paid inclusion or priority submissions mechanism for the ODP. The directory is edited by a worldwide group of volunteers. At the time of writing this FAQ, there were already over 70,000+ editors. The aim of the directory is not to commercial, but for quality accurate listings.

Yahoo Directory on the other hand, was once an entirely commercial directory. Until 2002, listings in the directory involved an annual subscription, although paying did not guarantee your submission would be accepted, only that it would be reviewed within 7 days. Now, however, entry is free but it can take many weeks for your submission to be reviewed.

My Google ranking has dropped, do I need to resubmit my website?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:20:38 GMT

When my website was first picked up by Google, we ranked highly for a number of our most important search terms. Since then, our rank has gone down. Do I need to resubmit my website in order to get the better search engine results again?

It's not uncommon for new websites to achieve top results when they are first indexed by Yahoo and Google, but for the results to gradually drop off over the next few weeks. We know that the search engines favour new / fresh content, but it's unusual for any new website to consistently do well from first launch. It takes time for a site to establish or attract inbound links, traffic, and indeed trust. With Google, the period of time from first indexing a site until it starts to do well in search results is often referred to as "the sandbox" effect.

Google have claimed there is no such thing within their algorithm, but have also said that it's entirely understandable why so many people believe there is such a sandbox. However, it's just the standard algorithm at work. A new site has little or no quality inbound links, probably little traffic, and no trust rating - such as from site longevity.

Therefore, resubmitting your site to the search engines is not going to make any difference. What you need to do is work on your content to improve it, and build on it. Offer as much new and genuinely interesting content as you can in the hope of attracting those all important inbound links, naturally. If you can, offer something unique on your website that sets it apart from your competitor sites.

A famous man, Earl Nightingale, said in his famous book "The Strangest Secret" that, "...to increase ones sales, one merely has to increase ones service". Similarly, if you want to sell less, just reduce your service. The same thing applies to your website as regards the content. If you want it to do well on the search engines, including the all important Google, you must increase your offering - it must stand out from the rest.

Take every opportunity to add and improve your content.

Which is more important to submit to, search engines or directories?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:46:56 GMT

I want my website to rank highly on the search engines, but I keep hearing about submitting to lots of directories as opposed to submitting to the search engines? Is there a difference?

The crawler based search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and LIVE Search actually don't require you to submit to them. They prefer to discover your site by crawling pages they already know about, and finding links to yours. As a result, it is often argued that it's better to spend your time submitting your website to as many search engine friendly directories as possible.

If your looking for the biggest bang for your buck, submitting to directories is the way to go. Particularly the ODP (Open Directory Project), and Yahoo Directory.

There are many thousands of search engine friendly directories on the web today, many of which are free to be listed on. Get busy seeking them out and submit your listings!

Do I need to add meta data to my pages before submitting to the search engines?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:51:06 GMT

I've built my new website and I think I'm ready to submit it to the search engines and start getting traffic. Do I need to add meta data like descriptions and keywords before I submit?

There are lots of ways to improve how your site is found on the search engines, often referred to as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and creating effective titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords go a long way towards this. However, it's not essential. You can submit your site without them.

If your using a specialist search engine submission service such as our own, we will check that at least your home page includes these and report back to you on any suggestions we might have to improve how your site is picked up. In particular, we would suggest it's important to have good titles for your pages.

Each page of your site should have a unique title that describes the content to be found on that page. If you can also include a meta description then all the better. It too should be unique to the page and describe in slightly more detail the information to be found on the page.

If you take time to prepare the titles and descriptions for your pages, your pages have a much better chance of appearing well in search results.

How long does it take for my site to get indexed after it's been submitted?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:07:02 GMT

I had my website submitted to the search engines 2 weeks ago, but I still can't find it on either Google or Yahoo? Why is that and how long does it take to get listed on Google and Yahoo?

You must remember that the crawler based search engines such as both Google and Yahoo, operate on entirely their own schedule. There is no way to influence that schedule.

How long will it take to be "indexed", as opposed to listed, will really depend where the crawler is at the point where you submitted your request for your site to be crawled. If the crawling cycle had already started, you might have to wait until the next cycle, which could be up 4 - 6 weeks away. If your lucky, you could be included in the cycle thats just started and your site will be indexed in just a few days. In honesty, it's entirely down to luck where the crawler is in it's cycle, as to when your site will be crawled.

Patience is definitely the key!

The good news though is that as in the Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come". The crawler based search engines will eventually discover and crawl your website no matter what you do.

Can you guarantee how quickly my site will be indexed by Google?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:08:00 GMT

Some companies that offer search engine submission claim they can guarantee listings on Google within as little as 24 or 48 hours. How can they do this?

You have to read very carefully what's being offered. It's impossible for anyone, or any company, to guarantee when or how quickly your website will be crawled by Google and added to their index. Any company that claims they have some special tool, or relationship with Google, that the guarantee is based on is flat out lying.

Other companies offer to get you traffic from Google within 24 hours. That's something quite different. They are talking about PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising using Google Adwords. This practice is frankly deceitful and dishonest, unless they confess they are talking about PPC. Unfortunately, most play tricks with the words they use claiming "you won't be asked to pay any Pay-Per-Click charges". All this means is that they are paying for the ad servings out of your subscription to their so called service. You might also find that the traffic you get is actually them clicking on the ads they've placed.

PPC is a good thing, and proves highly successful for a great many websites. But it has nothing to do with search engine submission, or the natural search results - organic listings.

Can Pay Per Click replace the need to submit my website or improve my rankings?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:42:31 GMT

I've just launched a new website and have started a Pay Per Click Google Adwords campaign to ensure I get traffic immediately, prior to my site being indexed. Will the PPC campaign negate the need to submit my website, or improve my overall rankings?

Many companies use Google Adwords PPC campaigns at first launch of a new website to ensure the traffic they need. Many companies continue with PPC even once the site is indexed and ranking highly, and why not? If it generates more revenue than it costs, keep it going.

What's important to realise though is that PPC, whether it's on Google, Yahoo or where ever, has no impact whatsoever on the organic index. It won't get your website indexed any more quickly, it doesn't count towards your inbound links. Your organic listings will be totally unaffected by any and all PPC campaigns you engage in.

Think of PPC as more of a complimentary marketing medium. If using PPC, especially for the first time, be sure you have a way to track the success or failure of the campaign. Otherwise you won't know if it's a wise investment thats making you money, or a terrible investment that's hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate.

I'm not bothered about search engine traffic, should I still submit my site to the search engines?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:00:19 GMT

My company offers quite a unique product, typically by invitation only. I don't think search engine traffic is going to be important to us. Do I still need to submit my website to the search engines?

No one is ever required to submit their site to the search engines. It's an entirely optional task. It is however unusual for an commercial organisation to turn away potential new business, which is what search engine traffic is. If someone has found your website as a result of a search they did on Google, the chances are they have some interest in what you have to offer. If you're getting inappropriate or irrelevant enquiries from web users who found your site through the search engines, then you need to give more consideration to the content of your website because your message isn't clear.

If you actually don't want any search engine traffic at all, then use a robots.txt file in the root of your website to disallow your site from being crawled or indexed. You can disallow crawling and/or indexing of any part of your site in this way.

e.g.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

The above instructs all search engine crawlers not to crawl any part of your website. Not all crawlers will obey the instruction, but the major search engines will; Google, Yahoo, etc.

If your website is just for fun; perhaps a family website or something for a hobby you pursue, then perhaps you will have no interest in search engine traffic either way. Search engine submission in this case would definitely not be a productive way to spend either your money or your time. The crawler search engines like Google will more than likely find your site and index it in time anyway.