Search Engine Submission
Submission to the search engines is the next step in web promotion once you have created an optimized website that contains relevant content, proper navigation and design components, as well as tags which adhere to your carefully researched keyword search phrases.
There are two types of search engines, spiders or robots and directories, and each has its owns set of rules.
Submitting your site to search engine robots / spiders / crawlers
Search engine submission is the process of listing your web site with the search engines out on in the internet. Listing your site with a search engine does not guarantee any sort of placement, but it is an important step to take once you have optimized your web site. When a search engine robot indexes your site, they take your indexed information and apply it to the accompanying algorithm for ranking your site.
Submitting your site to directories
Submitting to directories is slightly different than submitting to robots. The site submission process is based on the fact that humans rather than algorithms maintain these directories and rank your site manually.
The directories are divided into hierarchical sections, with a volunteer editing each section.
When you submit your site to a directory, you must locate the section best suited for your site and submit from that page, along with additional information describing your site.
This is where your promotion profile comes in handy. When you have your cleverly worded descriptions already worked out, it makes the submitting process go faster.
Two of the biggest directories are Yahoo and Open Directory (aka ODP or Dmoz).
Targeted Directories
It is a very good idea to also submit your site to search engine directories that are relevant to your market. While many of these specific directories want to list your site for a fee, there are many free directories out there.
You will need to do some research in order to locate these free targeted directories. One method is to do a search on keyword phrases that are similar to your keyword strategy in a search engine. Many times, these sorts of directories are listed in the results.
Similarly, if you go to a directory, there are often reference sections within your category that list targeted directories.
Locating free targeted directories takes some persistence, but they are out there.
The Waiting Game
Once you have gone through the submission process, it takes a while to see the fruits of your labor. There are many web sites out there that have to be indexed along with the one you have just submitted. It can take anywhere from 3 to 8 months sometimes to see your results.
It is a good idea to check once a month to see if you have been indexed, and if you are not seeing results by the 2 months, then resubmit. There is no penalty for submitting too many times to the search engines.
Regarding directories like Open Directory, if you don’t see your site indexed after a month then resubmit to them, but don’t over do it, since you are dealing with human editors, and not crawlers.
Just remember to be patient. Search engine optimization is a process that takes time!
