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How to Submit to Search Engines

Most search engines have a form you must fill out to submit your website. You will usually find the link in the bottom of the front page labeled "Add URL." Generally, you should only submit your front page. The search engines will follow links from that page to the rest of your website.

However, if you have important sections of your website that are not directly accessible through the regular navigation, you can submit them. Additionally, if you have a site map (a page with links to all the web pages on your website) you can submit that, too, in order to help the search engine spiders find all your content.

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The easiest way to get your website into the search engines is by having it included in the major directories first, such as Yahoo and ODP. Most search engines will consider a website that is included in the major directories to be of higher value than a website that is not and therefore put a lot more focus on getting such websites included.

SEM caution - beware of over submitting your pages

Did you learn that some pages were already indexed? Do not submit them again. Some people will tell you that you have to resubmit on a regular basis to keep or improve your rankings. This is simply not true, and can actually work against you. If you heavily over-submit to search engines there is a risk that they will penalize your website by excluding it from the index or de-ranking your web pages.

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Have your received solicitations promising that you can "submit your Web site to thousands of search engines and Directories" and you can "easily submit as many times as you want?" Don't fall for this scam.

The reality is that a handful of technology companies such as FAST, Inktomi, and Google, distribute their indexes to a huge number of portals and search engines. If you submit to every front-end search engines that you see on the web, you will essentially end up submitting the same web pages over and over to the same search engine indexes. It's better to focus your efforts on the most important top-tier engines with the best syndication.

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