Should You Submit Your Website To Search Engines? Nah!

Until recently, the answer was a resounding “Yes,” but times have changed.

Not too long ago you had to submit your website to search engines yourself or pay a company to do it for you. There are times you may want to do this, for example, to be listed in a search engine that covers a niche market, like travel or hobbies. But for general searches, if you are on the top three, Google, Yahoo and MSN, then people will find you. While many people, including myself, use other search engines like Dogpile and Ask Jeeves, most people use the top three.

Some of you may be asking, “Hey, Jeff, why do you still offer this service if it doesn’t do anything?” Because some clients demand it. Listing with search engines was important for years, and that old habit is hard to break. Especially when everyone gets several e-mails a day saying, “Hey, you need my listing company to put your website on 100 zillion search engines.” I try to educate people, but you can lead a horse to water…

So, if submitting your site to a search engine doesn’t do anything, then how do you get listed with them? Search engines now rely heavily on spiders, crawlers and bots to find new websites and additions to existing ones. They do this by following links on other sites that lead to your site, and following links on your site to find new pages. Therefore, you need to have lots of links on your site and lots of links on other sites that point to your site. It’s best to have relevant links. That is, links that relate to your site. If you focus on writing, then you’ll want other writing sites linked to you instead of say motorcycle sites.

One way to get links pointing to your site is to have articles that you submit to article bank sites. Your articles need to contain a resource box, a little blurb about you and your site that contains a link to your homepage. If you don’t know how to write articles take a look at some of the articles on writing that I have at http://www.creativecauldron.com/articles.shtml. You can also find a list of article sites in my article “Website Promotion In A Nutshell” at http://www.creativecauldron.com/WebsiteNewsletterArticles.shtml

Be sure to post these articles on your site too. You should add at least one article a month, and more if you have the time. Having good content on your site makes it more important to search engines, so you will rank higher.

Another good way to have links pointing to your site is to write press releases about your site/company and have links to your homepage in the press release. Submit each press release to relevant web sites and industry reviews. You can learn more about writing press releases from my report “How To Write A Press Release” at http://www.creativecauldron.com/mybooks.shtml PRWeb http://www.prweb.com/ offers free online press release distribution. You should check them out.

You can also do what I do, which is to share my knowledge and experience on forums and bulletin boards. Just be sure to have a signature box, with a link to your homepage, appear with each posting.

Now, one place you do want to submit your site to is directories. These are sites that list websites by categories. These categories can be anything from website design to fishing. What makes directories so nice is that the categories make finding a specific type of website very easy. So listing with them is a good idea since many people look for websites on directories, and you must list your site on them because they don’t send spiders out across the web to find your site. To find directories go to Pheedster at http://www.pheedster.com/directories.php They list enough directories to keep you busy for weeks. Some directories charge a fee to list your site, others don’t. Only you can decide if you should pay or use only free directories.

So, the way to get your site listed on search engines now takes work. You have to create good content, get links on your site and have other sites link to you. It takes more time and energy, but using the above techniques will result in more visitors to your site.
About the Author
Are you looking for a writer or website designer? I make the process fast, easy and affordable. Call me NOW to find out what I can do for you! (928) 600-5400 http://www.creativecauldron.com/

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