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Is search engine submission a waste of time?
September 3rd, 2009 | by Peter Cullen |Do you need to submit your website to multiple search engines every month?
Do you wonder if you need to submit your website to the mass of search engines every month or every few months? Are you being led to believe that if you do this your visibility in the search engine will improve?
I’m surprised to see that there is still a perception that submitting a website to the search engine is a good thing.
What is the best method you can use for search engines to find and index your website ona regualr basis?
Firstly, finding your website. Should you submit your new or updated website to Google or Yahoo or Bing. Is this the best method of being found and indexed?
Search Engine Submission
I would suggest that the best way to be found by the search engines is to be found naturally. If a search engine comes across your website as part of a natural crawl it’s instantly going to give you more creability.
If you’re going to directly tell the search engines about your website, I’d upload a sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Center. This method of alerting the search engines to your website and content is far more effective than just submitting your website URL.
Once a search engine knows about your website, their crawlers will automatically come back, you do not need to resubmit to their index.
Question – Do you need to submit your website to multitple search engines?
Answer – No
There are only 3 search engines you need to concern yourself about – Google, Bing and Yahoo and with the propoased merger of Yahoo and Bing that number will soon be 2. These 3 search engines cover 98.86% of the market according to the latest data from Stat Counter Global Stats and they feed most other smaller search engines.
The key to getting your website indexed at regular intervals is to add new content at regular intervals. Adding new pieces of good content every few days can have a dramatic impact on your visibility.
Don’t worry about submitting your website to the search engines, focus on good content and the search engines will find you.
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11 Responses to “Is search engine submission a waste of time?”
By Leon Quinn on Sep 4, 2009 | Reply
Here Here – content is king..
By Stuart Noton on Sep 7, 2009 | Reply
Agreed, good article. You may want to ensure you have a sitemap.xml in place complete with a re-indexing regularity switch . Once found by G, Y & B they’ll know when (or if) to come back to check for fresh and exciting new content!
By Liz Gallagher on Sep 8, 2009 | Reply
I usually submit a brand new website to the major search engines once. I believe this gets them into the line-up for indexing faster than waiting for the bots to find them on their own. Once in the search engines, I do not think there is a need to re-submit. I do use a Google XML sitemap to ensure that Google comes back to visit on a regular basis.
By Kimberly Yow on Sep 8, 2009 | Reply
I agree. I have found that the combination of submitting a sitemap, having relevant content and placing keywords strategically works very well!
By Peter Cullen on Sep 8, 2009 | Reply
@Stuart, thanks for dropping by and commenting
@Liz, I think it’s better for the search engines to find a new website through it’s crawlers than submitting it directly, gives the search engine immediate context, expecially if it’s a quality backlink.
@Kimberly, thanks for your comment
By Neale Gilhooley on Sep 9, 2009 | Reply
Hi
It only takes a few seconds so I do it anyway – once only, plus it’s actually much easier to do it and to tell the Client you ahve done it than to explain why you are not doing it. But I am surprsied that you feel it is a waste of time. What about DMOZ? That must still be worthwhile?
By Peter Cullen on Sep 9, 2009 | Reply
@Neale, Yes DMOZ is worth it – obviously takes a long time to get in, but definitely worth submitting.
In terms of wasting your time submitting a URL to the search engines, I just think there are better ways of handling how they find out about your new domain. In terms of client communication, I see a lot of web designers blog about their latest work, a much better way for the SE to pick up the new domain.