Getting Your Web Site Listed In The Search Engines

Getting your web site listed in the search engines – particularly in a top 10 spot – is tricky business. Every day we get questions from readers who are totally confused about how they can get their web site to show up in the search engines.

With that in mind, we'll briefly review the different choices you have for getting your web site listed…

* Use A Free Submission Service

Avoid the free submission services! Basically, free submission services offer to submit your web site to as many as 500 of

the top search engines for free! And while that may sound like a great deal to the inexperienced site owner, the truth is

that if you use a free submission service, you’ll pay! It will cost you traffic and sales that should have been yours!

Why? Because every search engine is different! Each engine has a different "rule book" (algorithms) that it uses to decide

where your web site will rank. As a result, free submission services are useless because they submit the same information to

every single engine. This is of no value to you!

* Use A Low-Cost Automated Submission Service

Low-cost automated submission services offer to submit your web site to as many as 900+ search engines for a minimal fee ($40

- $80).

Automated submission services like this will automatically submit the same set of information to ALL of the search engines.

So your web site gets submitted to 900+ search engines… without being optimized for their individual requirements!

You’ll be lucky to secure a spot in the top 100, never mind the top 10!

You should also be aware that these services often promise to resubmit your web site to the search engines on a periodic

basis. Again, while this might sound good on the surface, you need to critically analyze the offer.

What if you already have a top spot in a particular engine? Resubmitting your site may cause you to lose your place. What’s

more, because each search engine has different rules and regulations governing resubmission, you risk being accused of

spamming and having your site banned!

Personally we would not recommend this route. You will be far more successful manually submitting your site, using a

professional search engine consultant, or using software that will optimize your submission individually for each search

engine.

* Do It Yourself By Manually Submitting Your Web Site Information To Each Individual Search Engine

This is one of the best ways to submit your web site to the search engines. You visit each search engine separately, and

manually submit the information for each web page you wish to have listed. By doing this, you will be sure that you have met

the specific requirements for each of the individual engines -- a key step in securing a top 10 ranking!

*Use A Professional Search Engine Consultant

The services of a professional search engine consultant don’t come cheap. However, they are extremely effective and worth

considering if you can afford it.

Search engine consultants will educate you and work hand-in-hand with you to maximize your exposure in each search engine.

They know all of the latest tricks and techniques for securing a top spot, and will show you exactly what you need to do to

optimize your web site for the best possible ranking.

If you can afford it, we recommend hiring one of these "top notch" search engine consultants to submit your site to the

search engines. They are not cheap, but they will take care of everything from designing your keywords to providing a written

report 90 days later to let you know where your sites are ranked.

* Use Submission Software

Here’s what you need to look for:

Software that guides you through the important process of choosing keywords and descriptions that will generate maximum

traffic for your web site. (Choose the wrong keywords, and you can really harm your ranking…)

Software that takes the information you input and prepares an individual submission form for each search engine. Make sure

that each search engine receives the exact information it requires… without you having to submit to each engine separately!

However you decide to submit your web site to the search engines, we advise you to take your time. Don’t rush in and make

mistakes that could destroy your chances of securing a top ranking. Remember that search engines receive thousands of

requests every day from people who want to make changes to their listing!

These requests are at the bottom of any search engine's priority list. In fact, you will have more success completely

removing your listing and starting over than you will trying to change it.

It is absolutely critical that you take the time to submit your site the right way, the first time.