“Websites” and “Sitemaps” have been the buzzwords in the Search Engine Submission world for quite some time. I first became aware of them approximately four years ago, after my first brush with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The “webpages” that I was familiar with at the time were, in fact, nothing more than lists of web links. In other words, they were little more than lists of link sources, organized by categories. I had no idea that there was so much more to the process of SEO and submitting websites to the search engines.
What I did know, is that it involved a whole lot of searching. A whole lot of clicking back and forth through dozens of web pages that all had nothing to do with the information I was seeking. I knew nothing about search engine submissions, so I signed up for a few of the “free” sites and began to search for information on how to submit websites. My biggest problem, and one that I think most people who are new to this whole process have, is that most of the available information is for free.
What I found, after using the website's submissions service provided by a company, is that there is actually a step by step guide for submitting your website to the major search engines. Included are a number of web submission packages from which to choose. However, it's important to remember that these do not come cheap. If you are like me and cannot afford to pay the money for these services, you may wish to consider using the free services available.
One of the most basic things you will need to consider is what type of submission method you would prefer. Some people like to use a direct website submission form. This means putting in the website URL, and then placing the name of the website into the submission box. This actually puts the submission box on the first page of Google and is considered to be one of the more powerful submissions. However, if you put in a wrong URL or the wrong name, you may find yourself getting nowhere fast.
The second option would be to use a directory submission service. Directory submissions, as you might guess from the name, are simply a list of other websites that you submit your website to. This can be very effective, as it allows you to target for specific keywords, and thus get higher rankings for those keywords. However, the downside of directory submission services is that they can cost quite a bit. If you only have limited budget to use, this may be the way to go.
A third option is to go with a search submission service. These are companies that submit your website to all of the major search engines on their own. This is done for a fee, and can be beneficial for people who have limited budgets, as the cost to the individual websites may be too great. However, the advantage of using a search engine submission service is that your site will be seen by people all over the world, which can potentially drive up your overall traffic volume.
The fourth and final option is to try and do it yourself. Websites submissions to the major search engines are not that difficult to do, and there are many programs out there that can help you with the submission process. However, doing the submission process yourself can be frustrating, as you will constantly be told that your website does not meet the minimum requirements. This can take a lot of time and energy off of you and is not worth the risk if you are looking to increase your website traffic volume.
The fact of the matter is, even the best submitted websites still fail to show up on the top results of search engines. There are several reasons for this, but the most important reason is that the search engines do not accept them. Every submission has been manually reviewed, and the sites are sent to the ranking pages only after they pass the manual review process. This means that they have already gone through the trouble of being rejected by the servers, and usually come back with an error. This can be frustrating, but it is better than not getting the traffic your website deserves in the first place. So, in order to increase the volume of traffic that you are receiving, you will want to make sure that you submit your website to as many places as possible, but which ones are going to be the most successful?
