Part of a search engine optimization campaign is search engine submission. Search engine submission is when you submit your website to a search engine so that the search engine can index your website and will know that it exists.
Search engine submission will in no way guarantee you a high ranking on any search engine. It simply puts you in the phone book, not necessarily on the cover. Search engine optimization is a series of techniques that can be employed to increase your odds of being in the top results of a search engine. Again, to even be considered as a top candidate, the search engine must first know that your website is there. One of the ways to guarantee that a search engine sees you is search engine submission.
Eventually, a search engine will find your website even if you do nothing. But, by manually submitting your website to search engines, you are given more options to help potential customers find your website. If you are in a hurry and need to be listed in a search engine as soon as possible, you should think about creating a budget specifically for search engines.
Many search engines are free to submit to, but that doesn’t ensure that they will immediately index your website. Most search engines offer an option to pay to have your website picked up immediately. Investing in Pay-per-click or Cost-per-click campaigns is a popular and relatively inexpensive way to guarantee potential customers will see and visit your website within a matter of days.
If your search engine submission budget is nonexistent, you still have options. One option is to submit your website to directories. Directories are similar to search engines except that they are compiled by humans. A directory submission will probably allow for a short description of your website. This description should include keywords that pertain to your website. It should also be informative without a lot of marketing jive.
The top three major search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN. All three of these offer free URL submission. However, this does not mean that your website will be indexed quickly. If you are looking for immediate listing, you will have to pay for it. Free submission just means that eventually the search engine will index your website. Manual submission to search engines is usually a secondary method to getting indexed. The primary method is through link building.
Search engines follow links. Therefore, it is important that you have other websites that link to your website. Search engines gauge the quality of the websites that link to your website and the quantity of websites that link to your website. Based on these two aspects, the search engines rank your website accordingly. A large amount of quality, relevant links to your website will help you get picked up faster by search engines and rank higher.