The Truth About Search Engine Submission Services

Since I offer a search engine submission service you could reasonably expect I might try to hype this service with unrealistic promises like so many others do, but that's not my style.

I'd rather not sell you something than to sell you something and have you be disappointed. The submission service can definitely help, but it's not a miracle and it's not instant web popularity. It's also something you could easily do yourself.

No Guarantees

Search engines and directories can take from several weeks to several months to index a site. A submission does not guarantee inclusion any more than site optimization guarantees a high ranking. Of course, optimizing your site greatly improves your chances of both inclusion and good rankings. Optimizing your web site is something you can do for yourself as well. I offer SEO Lite and SEO Pro for those with more time than money to spend at it.

How a Submission Service Works

Many search engine submission services only submit sites using submission software. Submission software has it's purpose, but it's ill-advised to use it for submission to the major search engines. The major search engines are special because the overwhelming majority of your search engine derived traffic will come from the top 4 or 5 search engines. Additionally, some search engines reject automated submissions. For these reasons, submitting to them should only be done manually.

I too use software to submit web sites to the minor search engines, niche search engines, and minor directories—but I always submit sites to the major search engines manually. Services that offer to submit your site to a large numbers of search engines most likely use submission software too, but they may not submit your site to the major search engines by hand. That's a crucial point.

If you have a couple hundred dollars for the software and are willing to pay the database update fees, and if you know the search engine rules and optimization, you could submit your own site and offer this same service. If not, you might be wise to trust it to someone who does.

Whether it's me or someone else you trust isn't the important point. The important point is that you do not get taken in by false promises and dubious practices. Below are the things you should be aware of when it comes to search engine submission services.

Artificial Link Popularity

Be vary wary of submission services that recommends link farms and other artificial attempts are creating link popularity. Rather than boost your link popularity, participation in a link farm is more likely to result in your site being penalized or banned.

Regularly Scheduled Resubmissions

Another questionable practice is the offer to resubmit your site on a regular schedule. It's a selling point because it seems like you're getting more for your money. I don't offer that because I don't believe it's a good practice, and I don't practice that with my own sites.

If you resubmit your site and haven't made any updates, the search engine could take that for spamming and lower your ranking or remove your listing. Or, if you have a good listing, resubmitting might cause it to fall. Resubmitting on a timetable is unnecessary if you do it right in the first place. You should have a valid reason for resubmitting, such as having made a substantial change.

Besides all that, once your site is indexed the search engine spiders come around regularly to check for changes and new content anyway. The more updates and additions you do, the more often they tend to come around.

Volume Hype

We'll submit your site to thousands of search engines—bah humbug! The shear numbers are nothing but hype. Only a handful of search engines are vital, a couple dozen more search engines and directories can be important, and after that the rest will only bring a trickle of traffic.

Enough trickles do add up to a small traffic stream, but it's not like you'll get tens of thousands of hits instantly. The most valuable part of my submission and analysis service is the site analysis, not the submissions. After all, what good is it to submit your site everywhere if it's not optimized for good placement? Just being in the search engine's databases doesn't do a lot of good if your site is found deeper than searchers travel through the search results.

FFA Pages

Free-for-all link pages make up the vast majority of the numbers when anyone is talking about submitting your site to thousands of search engines. FFA pages used to be a good source of traffic. Now they are of no significance whatsoever.

Automated submission software ensures that FFA pages are swamped with links. You'd be lucky if an FFA link lasts more than a few hours. It will bring you a lot of spam if you like that, because most FFA page owners offer them so they can email a quick thank you and then launch into a sales pitch for something or other. This is called reverse marketing, and FFA reverse marketing doesn't work very well either, in case you're thinking of trying it. Don't waste your time and money, it's a suckers game.

Guaranteed Placement

Some submission services offer a guaranteed top ranking. Dozens and dozens of them say they can get you a top listing, but there are only ten top listings so a lot of them must be . . . shall we say, overstating their ability. They can't all be right. You may get a top placement temporarily, then disappear when it's discovered spam tactics were used. Search engines may even ban your site.

If your site is penalized or banned you're worse off than when you started. It's hard to get back into the search engine, and even harder to get a good ranking once your site has a strike against it. Think in the long term, and do not participate in illegal techniques or practices.

Guaranteed placement usually means one of three things.

The keywords you get a top placement for are so obscure you'd have gotten them anyway, but they are also so obscure they won't bring you any traffic.
They buy an advertising spot for your site, take a screen capture of your placement, then pull the advertising. If needed, they can produce the screen capture and are legally off the hook unless you have a written agreement that the top results are for organic search results, not paid placement.
They are completely unethical and ignore your refund requests once they have your money.

No one can guarantee a top placement because the search engines control the placement, and they keep their ranking algorithms top secret.

Are All Submission Services Bad?

Of course not, there are many ethical submission services. The good guys will give you realistic expectations and won't make fantastic promises they know they can't keep. They'll submit your site to the major search engines manually, and will warn you about the dubious value of FFA pages, but give you the option of submitting to them or not.

In Conclusion

I hope you've learned a thing or two, and can appreciate an honest report on search engine submission services. Whether you choose my service or not, at least if you go elsewhere you'll have some understanding of what's behind the hype. As I said before, I'd rather not make a sale to you than to have you be disappointed.

I do recommend you submit your site yourself. However, I know some people detest the tedium, or don't have the time, or have better things to do, or simply prefer leaving it in the hands of someone that knows the ropes. If you fit into one of those categories, or have another reason for not wanting to do it yourself, I'll be glad to take your money and do it for you. :)

You can learn more about my site analysis and search engine submission service here.

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