Site Submission Refresher Checklist

Author: Joelene Wickens Orlando

Let's talk about why search engine placement is important and to help you evaluate how well your website is actually doing based on your previous submissions. First of all, site submission is the process of implementing your site to a search engine or a number of search engines. Generally there is a form that you complete telling the search engine's spider to visit and index the site you are submitting. Submitting your site to various search engines greatly improves the likelihood that it will appear in the search results when people are surfing looking for specific information such as yours. The question is, how do you know when it's time to re-submit to those same search engines and why you should consider doing so.

Even if your site has been submitted and it's been out there for a while, there are instances where you may need to resubmit again. Especially if you've made changes to your actual web site, any pages within that website, content changes and if you're looking for an improved ranking for your site would qualify for resubmitting. To get the best possible results for your website in terms of submitting and getting the attention that it deserves, follow through this refresher checklist to see if you're on target.

Are you optimized?

Before you even consider submitting your site to various search engines, your website should be fully optimized. What that means is that every search engine has their own criteria and formula in how websites get ranked. In order to optimize and propel the success of your site when it's submitted, you need to look at your site's HTML code or modify your site's HTML before you submit. What's even more important is to get all the information from each search engine you plan to submit to and fully understand as well as comply to every demand they require before you resubmit your website is the way to guarantee a successful submission. No short cuts or half-baked efforts are acceptable.

Still not sure exactly what optimization is all about? Click here to get more solid facts about optimization.

How and where do I submit?

Top search engines have their own standards. Like I previously stated, you need to be familiar with each and every one of the search engines you plan to submit to. Each and every search engine will be different, so be prepared to submit each website differently. To get started, you probably can find that particular search engine's home page to get the information you need to submit your site. Look for labels such as, "Suggest a URL" or "Add my site". Keep record of the date, time and outcome of each of your submissions so you can keep track of where and when you did the submissions. Keep this information on standby at all times since you may need to have this data to send follow-up emails to a search engine's staff. The next question is; where should I submit my website? If you want to get noticed and successfully generate traffic to your site, you should plan on implementing your website to a minimum of 15 major top search engines. Since those top search engines are responsible for about 90% of the traffic, so go with those specific search engines.

How long before I see my website in the search engines?

That all depends on which search engines you submit to. To give you a very general idea on how long it takes to get submitted, here are some time frames from the top search engines

MSN -- 2 Months Google -- Up to 4 Weeks Alta Vista -- Up to 1 Week Fast -- Up to 2 Weeks Excite -- Up to 6 Weeks AOL -- Up to 2 Months HotBot -- Up to 2 Months iWon -- Up to 2 Months

The basics of site submission have been addressed and the major research needs to be done by you depending on which search engines you decide to go with. Don't miss any steps and if you have any questions, take advantage of using customer service to get those right answers before you submit your website to those search engines. If you don't do it right the first time around, it won't get submitted. Use that time preciously to make sure you have all your bases covered. Hopefully your rankings will show improvement this time around.

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Joelene Orlando is a Web enthusiast and a staff writer/consultant for eMarketingAnswers.com with a broad knowledge of topics covering Internet marketing and communication strategies for small business owners. You are free to reprint this article in your web site, newsletter, e-zine or ebook. However, please keep the author's section at the bottom of the article as is.