Submitting Your Site to Search Engines

Search engine marketing, coupled with search engine optimization practices, is a great way to grow your business online. Once you develop your site with search engine friendly content and you have your design in place and your keywords selected, it’s time to submit your site to the search engines themselves.

Search engine submission is the process of registering your site with the search engines, similar to getting your phone number listed in a phone book. Listing your site with the major search engines will help you ensure that your optimization efforts were worthwhile. Although your site may be noticed by search engines on its own, you can ensure that you appear in search results by taking the time to get listed.

Free Submission
You can submit to all of the major search engines for free, but that won’t guarantee that they’ll be picked up or appear on any searches. Free submission only guarantees that the search engine knows the site exists. To go the route of free submissions, look for a “Submit Your Site” link on the search engine site and fill out a submission form. It can take up to 12 weeks for your site to be indexed.

Paid Listings and Services
Most major search engines accept paid listings, a unique form of online marketing that ensures your site will be listed near the top of search results pages. Paid submissions probably are the most efficient way for site owners to quickly gain visibility, and they're a great long-term advertising method for those looking to generate continuous online sales.

Search engine submission services like Submitnet submit your site to as many search engines as possible. For a fee, the service automatically submits your site to multiple search engines each month. This can help take some of the legwork out of the process for you, but it may not guarantee a quick listing. There are also software programs available that you can use to handle the submission process, like Trellian’s SubmitWolf, Dynamic Software’s Dynamic Submission, and WebTrends’ WebPosition Gold.

Submitting your site to search engines is the easiest way to ensure that they’re aware your site exists and that users can easily find your site. Submitting your site to search engines puts you on the map, but designing and optimizing your site will help make sure people find it. If you take the time to do each part of the process correctly, your chances of successfully growing your business online will increase dramatically.

Helpful Links:

Learn how to submit your site to Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Directory

Learn about paid listings with Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions

Learn how to submit your site to Google

Learn how to submit your site to MSN Search

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