Search Engine Submission: Questions & Answers
This following information is provided to help answer some of the most common questions asked about our Search Engine Submission Service. If you have any other questions at all, just give us a call or complete our cal back form and we will call you back at a convenient time.
Q
What is a search engine?
A
Internet users often use search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Bing etc…) to find websites matching their search criteria. The user enters words or phrases in the search area, and the search engine produces a list of related websites from an index. Search engines becomes aware of a new site to visit and add it to their index when that site is submitted.
Q
Why should I submit my web site?
A
Submitting your website to a number of search engines increases the odds of potential customers finding your site through traditional online searches. Search engines are one of the least expensive and most successful forms of online marketing. If you’re serious about reaching new visitors, submitting your site to search engines is essential.
Q
Why should I submit every month?
A
You want to keep your website registration current. Pages with links to websites can sometimes move older links to the bottom of the list, and resubmitting each month can help put you back nearer the top. Search engines have a tendency to drop or lose sites from time to time. Resubmitting monthly ensures your site won’t get lost. Some web sites offer “What’s New” sections. Each time you submit, your site gets added to these lists.
Q
Which search engines and directories do you submit to?
A
Our service submits to the major search engines and several hundred link pages. Give us a call and we will send you the complete list of search engines we will submit your site to.
Q
When will I see my site listed on search engine sites?
A
After successfully submitting your web site to a search engine or directory, it’s up to those organizations to list your site. It usually takes 6-8 weeks before your site appears on major search engines.
Q
Why can’t I find my site on any search engine after 8 weeks?
A
The most likely reason that you cannot find your site is that it has a low ranking in the search return. This may be because your site is not fully optimised for the keywords you selected. If you are interested in our full Search Engine Optimisation service, give us a call.
The easiest way to determine if your site is in the search engine’s database is to enter the full URL of your website. For example, enter site:www.your-domain-name.com in the search box of the top search engine Google (www.google.com) and you will see all the pages that Google has found.
Q
What are the best keywords to use?
A
The best way to determine your keywords is to step out of your shoes and imagine yourself as one of your customers or prospects. How do you think these people will search for sites like yours? What keywords do you think they will enter into the search engines?
Create a list of all of the words that apply to your business, including your business name, product names (both brand and generic names) and the names of the geographic regions you serve. You may also want to consider variations of these words (such as “dog, dogs, doggie, etc) and common misspellings of important keywords.
When developing your list of keywords, you should consider all of the possible keywords your customers and prospects may use. Spend a few days thinking it over. Ask a few of your customers what keywords they would use. Build as large of a list as possible, while still keeping the keywords relevant to your business. Once you have a complete list, you can then rank the importance of they keywords to determine which are the most important to your company.
Q
Do you add keywords to my website?
A
Yes, before we submit your website to the search engines each month we add up to 25 keywords to your home page for you. We then submit the same 25 keywords to the search engines.
Q
Why do you limit me to 25 keywords?
A
Some search engines will only allow us to submit 25 keywords on your behalf. We limit your keyword list to 25 keywords to ensure that you select keywords that are the most relevant to your site and that will help generate the highest ranking in the search returns.
Q
What is a meta tag?
A
A meta tag (or tag) tells the search engine what your site is about. The major search engines will review your site and read your meta tags to determine categories for your site. Meta tags tell the search engine your site’s title, description and keywords. Without these tags, it’s difficult for your site to achieve a high ranking on many major search engines.
Q
Do I need meta tags?
A
Yes. If your site doesn’t have meta tags, you’re missing potential traffic. A web site without meta tags is tough for a search engine to place correctly.
Q
What meta tags do you add to my website?
A
We add three main meta tags:
Title:
The title is probably the most important part of your site to evaluate, as it is the most frequently searched component by search engines. It should state exactly what your site is about and include your most important keywords. An example of a good title would be, “XYZ Interior Designs – Decorating UK homes” or “John Smith – Personal Photography Blog”.
Keywords:
The meta tag keywords should be those words or phrases that you think people will use when trying to look for a site like yours on search engines. The right keywords for your web site should be specific enough to describe your website’s focus, yet general enough for potential customers to use as search criteria with search engines. Not all search engines use the meta tag keywords, but there is no harm in including them.
Description:
Your web site description should be a 20 word summary of the content of your site. This description should contain some of the keywords and should avoid marketing jargon. An example of a good description would be, “A full service provider of interior design services: decorating, painting, furniture and colour schemes for your home.”
Q
Other companies submit to 2,000 search engines. Why do you only submit to 100 or 400?
A
We’ve seen these offers, too. How many search engines do you go to when you’re looking for something on the Internet? Submission companies that offer 2,000 submissions are simply sending your web site to small niche directories. These pages may no longer exist and in many cases were set up to collect e-mail addresses to use or sell. Be careful if you’re using one of these submission services. In the web site promotion game, quality wins over quantity.