Submission Resources

Submission Process
Although people often use the term search engine interchangeably for search engines and directories/portals, there is a major difference when it comes to submission protocols. The search engines (Google, Bing, and others) allow you to simply "Add your URL". On the other hand, to submit to directories such as the Yahoo! Directory, Dmoz Open Directory, and Business.com you have to go to the directory site, select a category, and find the link to their submission form. For the directories, you generally have to complete a detailed form filling in all the blanks of required information.

Search Engines and Directories
Search engines use spiders to index your site. Some search engines are free, while others require you to pay for inclusion. Usually, a search engine's spider will include the pages on your site in its database once you have submitted the request to be added, but sometimes they can't for a number of reasons. They might have problems with frames or image maps on a Website, they might simply miss a page, and so on. Even though a number of spiders constantly crawl the Web looking for sites, I suggest you take a proactive approach and submit all appropriate pages on your site to the search engines to guarantee that all your important pages are properly listed. But before you submit, check the search engine's submission document to be sure submitting more than one page is permitted, because you don't want your site to be rejected. A search engine might also have restrictions on the number of pages you can submit in a single day—perhaps only 5 or 10 pages are allowed to be submitted.

Some of the search providers share technology. Many search engines and directories either partner with or license the use of another search engine or directory's search technology. Being indexed by these engines means your Website is likely to be found in other major search services. The ranking criteria can differ to determine who gets top placement so even though two search engines might use the same database they can provide different search results. For example, some search engines determine how often a keyword appears on the Web page. It is assumed that if a keyword is used more frequently on a page, then that page is more relevant than other pages with a lower usage of that keyword.

Some search engines look for the keyword in the title of the Web page and assume that if the keyword is in the title, then that page must be more relevant than those that don't have the keyword in their title. Some search engines determine where keywords are used and assume that pages with keywords in the headings and in the first couple of paragraphs are more relevant. Some search engines use the number of links pointing to a particular page as part of their ranking criteria. Some search engines use information contained in Meta-tags; others don't look at the Meta-tags at all.

You should learn as much as you can about each of the major search engines' ranking systems and make sure your site is optimized for the search engines before you submit. One particularly useful site with this information is http://searchenginewatch.com.

Directories are maintained by human administrators. Some directories permit free submissions, while others require you to pay—just like the search engines. Popular directories include:

• Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/)
• Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org/)
• About.com (http://www.about.com/)
• Business.com (http://www.business.com/)

When submitting your Website to a directory you can expect to wait a longer period of time before seeing your page appear in their index. In general, you can expect to wait from two to eight weeks unless you pay a fee for an expedited review. In contrast to a search engine, your site's position in directories depends much less on its design and much more on the initial submission process itself. For this reason, you will be asked for much more information when submitting to a directory.

Free Submissions
For free submissions, the search engines have guidelines that indicate how many pages and how often you can submit from a single site. It might be one page in total, one page per day, five pages at a time, or even 50 pages at once. Take the time to read their guidelines to improve your chances of being indexed. Your home page is the most important page on your Website to be indexed, so if you can only submit one page, be sure that is the one.

Paid Inclusion
With paid inclusion you have more control over your destiny, but it comes at a price, which implies the need to create a search submission budget based on your available resources and the submission fees requested by the search engines.

Search engine submissions can be handled manually, where you go to a search engine and submit your Website by hand, or they can be handled automatically by an automated application. It is highly recommended that your search engine submissions be completed by hand. Search engines do not like the automatic submissions, and by doing it by hand you know for fact that a submission has been completed.

All of the submission suggestions assume you are interested in being indexed by the major U.S.-based search engines. If you plan to submit your Website to international search engines or international editions of the major search engines, then you need to take into consideration search engine optimization for specific languages and cultures.

Is Your Page Already Indexed?
Before you submit or resubmit to a search engine, check to see if your page is already indexed. Perform a search using the most important keywords you think people will use to find your page. Also, perform a search using your company name.
If your page is found and you're happy with the results, you need not submit or resubmit. In fact, if you do resubmit, you could end up worse off because you never know when a search engine is going to change its method of determining what pages receive a high ranking— for instance, they might consider your re-submission spam, and penalize your ranking. Only resubmit a Web page if a major change has taken place, where much of the content on the page has changed. If you were once listed, but have been dropped from the listings, wait a few days to see if your Website is re-indexed.

Submitting to the Directories
When choosing categories you want to pick one (or two if the directory permits you to do so) that consistently gets listed near the top of results for popular searches and that accurately represents your Web site. Use the keyword phrases you have gathered to help you identify good categories. If local traffic is important to your business you should look at submitting to the regional categories found on most directories. You can also look at where your competitors are listed in the directory for an indication on where you should be focusing your efforts. The keyword research you performed for optimizing your Website is every bit as important when it comes to directories. You must use your important keyword phrases when filling out the directory submission forms.

Preparing your Directory Submission
When submitting to the search engines and directories, take the time up front to develop the submission material carefully. Organize the information in a logical order in a text file. Then, when you go to submit, you can copy and paste the content to the appropriate fields on the submission form.

The information prepared for each page on the site to be indexed should include:
• URL and Page title
• 7-word, 10-word, 20-word, 25-word, 50-word, and 100-word descriptions for the page (different engines allow different lengths of description)
• List of keywords for each page (based on the master keyword list)
• Description of the ideal audience for the site
• Category and subcategory you should be listed under for the different directories you plan to submit to
• Contact information:

Pay Careful Attention to Titles and Descriptions
When it comes to supplying a page title, a directory typically wants you to restrict it to your company name. In some cases, they will provide you with additional direction on supplying a descriptive tag-line, however, your company name will be required to accurately represent your company or organization. Proper punctuation and capitalization is a must.

Your description should be compelling. When you get your site to appear in the first page or two results of a search, the description is what differentiates your site from the rest. It is the description that entices a prospective visitor to click and visit—or pass by and go to a more exciting site. Always use keywords in your description. Apply the most important keywords first because keywords used farther along in the description are generally given less weight by the major search engines. If possible, use keywords in combination with other keywords, but make sure your description flows naturally. Round off your description with a call to action. It is amazing how many people do what they are told.

Complete Your Site Before You Submit
You do not want to spend your time submitting your page only to find out it has not been added because it is still under construction. Be sure to validate your HTML before submitting. A few of the tools you can use to validate your HTML are:

W3C HTML Validation Service
http://validator.w3.org

WDG HTML Validator
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/