How to Submit Your Site to Search Engines
By Kalena Jordan
Before You Begin
Before you can start to submit your site to search
engines, you need to make sure it is ready for indexing.
Use the following checklist to be absolutely sure your
site is submission-ready:
~ Are all pages complete? (No "under
construction" pages)
~ Are all links valid? (No broken or dead links)
~ Are all pages optimized?
~ Are all pages search engine compatible?
~ Have you used Robots.txt or Robots META
Tag to prevent pages you want hidden (e.g. shopping
cart) from being indexed?
~ If your site is an e-commerce site, is your
ordering process or shopping cart functional and tested
for bugs?
~ Are you prepared to handle a sudden influx of
traffic and/or sales?
~ Have you tested your site for usability?
Submission Data
To make your job of submitting easier, you also need to
prepare a text file or spreadsheet listing the following:
1. Your site's main URL
2. The URLs for other pages on your site that
you will be submitting
3. Your site's Title (the name of your site you
want listed in engines. This is usually your company
name e.g. Atlanta City Tours or Acme Widgets)
4. A short description of your page/site content
(10-20 words)
5. A long description of your page/site content
(30-50 words)
6. A list of target keywords for your page/site
7. Name of submitter
8. Email address of submitter (we suggest using
a real account you check regularly, but one where you
have strict controls over incoming spam email - you will
receive some spam as a result of your submissions!)
9. Address and contact details of your company
(some directories ask for this)
It is particularly important to keep track of the email
address you use when submitting your site, because
some directories, like Yahoo for example, require you to
cite this address if you want to make changes to your
listing later on.
I like to use a text file created in Notepad for the
above, but some people prefer to use a Word doc or a
spreadsheet. It's up to you. Remember to utilize your
target search keywords as much as possible when
creating your site descriptions. Or you can use parts of
your optimized Title and META tags, as long as you
don't go overboard stuffing keywords and making your
site description spam-like.
The site submission information I might prepare for a
fictional Miami florist would look something like this:
1. www.funkyflorists.com (fictional URL for
demonstration purposes only)
2. www.funkyflorists.com/page1.htm,
www.funkyflorists.com/page2.htm etc
3. Funky Florists of Miami
4. Florists in Miami, Florida creating wedding
bouquets, floral arrangements, tributes and displays for
gifts and special occasions. Online ordering available.
5. Funky Florists Miami create beautiful wedding
bouquets, floral arrangements, tributes and displays for
all occasions, including weddings, Valentines Day,
parties and corporate events. We arrange florist
deliveries throughout Miami and right across Florida. We
are one of very few florists in Florida to offer a personal
floral service, delivered anywhere, anytime.
6. Florists Miami, florists Florida, wedding
bouquets, wedding flowers, wedding roses, Valentine's
Day roses, sympathy gifts, Mother's Day gifts, funeral
wreaths, flower deliveries, floral arrangements, birthday
gifts, wedding decorations.
7. Kalena Jordan
8. webmaster@funkyflorists.com
9. 12 Fictional Street
Fictional Town, Miami FL USA
Phone: (00) 555 55555
You should also create a spreadsheet or Word doc
listing all the search engines you plan to submit your
site to, their URLs, a comments field (for chosen
categories etc) and a date column. Then as you submit
to each site, you can check it off on your list, writing
down the date submitted.
You could even create another date column for when
your site appears in the search engine so you can
gauge how long the submission took to become active.
It's important that you keep track of this information so
that you don't accidentally resubmit to a search engine
or directory that you've already covered. If you are
submitting to a search engine using a paid submission
option, always make note of your receipt number in
case you need to follow up.
Next month we take a look at how to submit to
directories, including Yahoo! and the Open Directory.
The above article may be re-published as long as
the content remains unchanged and the following
paragraph is included at the end of the article,
including the URL link:
As well as running her own SEO business, Kalena
Jordan manages and tutors at Search
Engine College, an online training institution
offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable
self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and
Search Engine Marketing subjects.
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Greetings Readers!
Hope you had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year!
We've had an unusually busy year so far and it feels
like this is the first week I've had time to stop and draw
breath. Every time I scheduled a free day to publish
this newsletter, something cropped up that demanded
my attention. Don't ya hate that?
The search industry has kicked off a busy year too, it
seems. What do you think of the brand spanking new
MSN search? I must admit I'm pretty impressed so far.
I'm also enjoying playing with Google Local Search. As
each new feature rolls out and the industry comes of
age, it seems I'm still excited by search, even after
nearly 9 years in the business. And it seems that the
media is pretty excited these days too, judging by
the number of interviews I've done this year for articles
and cover stories on the search industry. Maybe this is
the year I'll be so famous that Google will make an
enormous offer to buy my company *sigh*. A girl can
dream can't she?
Speaking of famous, I've been star spotting in Bellingen
this week - Russell, Nicole and Geoffrey (yes of course
I mean Crowe, Kidman and Rush!) were all here in town
with a huge entourage of important looking people
carrying clipboards and glued to cell phones, ready to
start shooting their new movie "Eucalyptus". Until Russ
pulled the plug that is. It seems the script isn't ready.
Or Russ didn't like the way he was handed his coffee.
Or something. No matter, the hype was fun while it
lasted and I'll be glad not to hear Russ' helicopter
taking off and landing every 5 minutes.
That's it from me for another month. Got a burning
question about search engine marketing or site
promotion in general? I want to hear from you.
Email me via the link at the bottom of this newsletter
and I'll try to post your question and my answer in our
next issue.
Enjoy this issue and remember to visit Search
Engine College to check out our fun online courses
in various search engine marketing subjects. Our first
tutor-led courses for the year will be commencing soon
so don't forget to register early and secure your place!
Till next time - wishing you high rankings...
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| FAQ1: Dreamweaver | | | Dear Kalena
My focus is on SEO and SEM but I want to be able to
create professional and search engine friendly sites.
One of the expenses I'm considering is a site creation
tool like Dreamweaver. I wanted to get your opinion or
recommendation if it's not too much trouble.
thanks
Aaron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hi Aaron
Regarding Dreamweaver - I have not used it but I have
many colleagues that do. From what I understand, it is
the best choice if you are going to build graphical web
sites or sites using Flash. For the record, these type of
sites are generally not search engine friendly, because
search engines require text-based information and can't
read Flash or graphics. But if you made sure the site
included plenty of body text, you should be on the right
track.
I can also highly recommend Microsoft FrontPage. I've
been using it successfully for 7 years and it is very
simple for beginners to use, particularly if you buy a
companion instruction manual such as "FrontPage for
Dummies". Hope this helps! | | |
| FAQ2: META Keywords Tag Dead? | | |  Hello Kalena
A colleague of mine insists we don't need to use a
META Keywords tag in our site code anymore because
all search engines ignore it. I had thought it was still
important to include. Who is right?
"Confused"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hi "Confused"
Technically, you're both incorrect. While not utilized by
search engines to the extent it used to be, the META
Keywords Tag is still indexed by a couple of search
engines and so is worth including within a site's HTML
code if only to provide those search engines with as
much information as possible about site content so
they can index it correctly. But it is certainly not an
important tag and you can safely exclude it from your
code without concern.
You'll find which engines still support the META
Keywords Tag here. | | |
| Exclusive Discount Offer for SEC | | |  As a valued subscriber of The Search Light, we
are pleased to provide you with an exclusive discount
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choice at Search Engine College.
The coupon will give you a 15% discount on
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CLICK HERE to receive your coupon! | | |
| FAQ3: Stolen META Tags | | |  Dear Kalena
My company is in competition with a larger firm and
that firm recently copied our entire META tags,
including our brand name, and put it in their site code.
Is this illegal? What can we do to stop them?
Chantelle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hi Chantelle
What you've described falls under a relatively new area
of the law. What your competitor is doing may or may
not be deemed "illegal", depending, amongst other
things, on whether the content of your META Tags
contains registered trademarks.
Even if it does and you decide to sue for copyright or
trademark infringement, your competitor may still win
the case, depending on whether they can prove they
have a right to use those terms or that they weren't
being used in a deliberately deceptive manner.
More information on U.S. based META Tag lawsuits and
their outcomes can be found here.
I would urge you to seek legal advice on this issue and
in the meantime, perhaps have your lawyer send your
competitor a "cease and desist" letter explaining your
objection to their use of your copied code and brand
name. Best of luck! | | |
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