Submitting to Search Engines
Tips for Getting a Website Listed in Search Engines
Having trouble getting your Website listed in the search engines? Here are some tips that can help your Website get indexed fast.
If you have a brand new Website, the first thing you are going to need to do is get traffic to your site. The best way to get traffic is to get your site listed in the search engines. Of course, this is obvious, but what is the best way to get your Website listed in the search engines? Should you submit your site directly to the search engines? Or perhaps use a submission service?
Website submission services may be ok with a few search engines but not with Google. According to Google, they don’t recommend that you use a submission service to submit your Website to their index because most of these automated queries violate their terms of service. It is better to submit your site via the Add URL page.
I don’t suggest using a Website submission service to submit your site. This may have been a viable solution in the past, but today’s search engines are smarter and know an artificial submission when they get one, plus, it’s not going to get your site listed any faster.
All the search engines generally have a page on their site, where you can enter in your Website information and URL for inclusion in their index. Normally, only the homepage URL is all that needs to be submitted because the search bot will scan all your pages from that one URL. On the submission page, you will also probably see a statement saying that it can take up to 2 – 4 weeks before your site will be listed. Using this route, the search bot will visit your site and eventually list it in the index.
Another way, and probably the fastest way to get your site listed in the search engines, is to get a link from another Website pointing to your Website. The reason this works so well is because if you have a link from a Website pointing to yours, and that site is already indexed in the search engines, chances are that the search bots visit the site regularly. Now, because search engines follow links, the search bots will find your link and visit your site, crawl your pages, and presto! your Website is indexed.
I’ve seen Websites get indexed in a matter of a few days to a week using the linking method. So if you are having trouble getting your site listed in the search engines, definitely give this a try.
