subject: Website Submission: Five Common Myths About Search Engine Submission [print this page] Search engine submission is a matter that often mystifies those who are new to the Internet. It is natural to scratch your head and wonder how you will get your website listed on the major search engines. If you ask someone how to go about getting your site listed you are likely to hear many misconceptions about search engine submission. You may even be taken for a ride and end up needlessly parting with some hard earned cash. So, before this happens to you let's examine some of the most common myths surrounding search engine submission.
1. Search engine submission is a very important matter
It would indeed seem that you submitting your site to the search engines is of utmost importance. After all, if your site is not in the search engines then how will anybody find you? Sure, you have to be included in the search engines but that doesn't necessarily mean that you will have to actively "submit" your site. This is because search engines use their "spiders", or robotic search programs to scour the Internet looking for new pages. If another site, that is already included in the search engines, links to yours, then when a search engine spider visits that site, it will follow the link to your site and gather your information.
So, if you are building a new site make sure that you get some links to your sites from already established sites. Ask your webmaster, your friends, other organizations and complementary sites for links. This will be enough to get you listed in the major search engines. You may still want to submit your site to make sure, but consider the other points before you go ahead
2. There are thousands of search engines that you should be listed in
"Get listed in 300,000 search engines" read the headlines for some submission advertisements. If you look at the traffic logs of most websites you will see that the lion's share of traffic comes from a handful of search locations, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves. There just aren't thousands of search sites on the Internet. So, don't pay money to be listed on these sites. Oftentimes, the sites referred to in these advertisements are seldom-visited free-for-all links pages. If you get listed on such a page you will not get much traffic, but you will get a lot of spam.
Concentrate on the major search engines and don't worry about the non-existent phantoms referred to in the advertisements.
Website Submission: Five Common Myths About Search Engine Submission
