We
have covered the subject of search engine submission or
"submitter" services elsewhere in this site.
The
advice from us when it comes to submitting your site to
the search engines is - "do it manually". We
firmly believe that the majority of automated services
are ineffective. Many make claims that are simply not
true. We suggest that you go to the home page of all the
major sites and follow the links to 'submit your site'
'add your site' or 'add URL' This will not necessarily
improve your search engine rankings, but it will
generally ensure that you are listed quicker. Once your
site is listed you can always use submission software to
submit updates.
Directory
Sites - Directory sites like Yahoo!
Looksmart and The
Open Directory are very important sites. Yahoo!
Directory is important in terms of sheer volume of
traffic. The other search directories license their
search results (databases) for use by other important
search engines. For example, AOL feeds of information
form The Open Directory, as do several other important
search engines. Follow each of their guidelines for
submissions very carefully.
Here
are some tips on getting listed in Yahoo! in the
form of simple statistics: (these are our
observations which have in most cases been supported by
the opinion of other search engine optimization
companies)
-
Yahoo!
appears to reject around 75% of sites that are
submitted to it, and the figures could be more.
-
Yahoo
operates through a large team of editorial staff who
manually assess every submission to their directory
- yes humans not robots!
-
If
your site does not conform exactly to the submission
policies and guidelines then chances are it won't be
given serious consideration and it will just be
'dumped' by the Yahoo editor.
-
They
offer a Business Fast Track service that
guarantees your site will be reviewed within 7 days.
Our site was reviewed well within this time, 2 days
in fact. It then took around 7 days to show up in
searches on their directory.
-
The
Business Fast track service does not guarantee that
you will be listed, just that you will be reviewed.
If you are not listed you will get one chance to
resubmit and that's it. Your money is
non-refundable.
-
Traffic
surveys indicate that around 40% of search engine
traffic comes from their directory.
-
Your
site will be favored if it is rich in original
content and professionally presented.
-
Always
show your full mailing address on your web site, in
a prominent position or 'contact' page linked to
from your home page.
-
Yahoo!
editors appear to favor sites that load quickly and
have intuitive navigation ( it allows them to get
through the site quicker and improve their hourly
rates!)
-
Your
site must be 'finished' - no 'under construct.'
signs or broken page/image links.
-
Your
site should be free from typo blunders.
-
Preference
is given to sites that have their own domain name
and less so to free-hosted sites that share a common
domain.
-
Do
not use marketing 'hype' in your title or
description when completing their submissions form.
Follow
the printed submission guidelines to the letter when you
submit your site. Give careful consideration to the
Title and description which are very important. You need
to plant your 'keywords' in the mind of the editor so
that hopefully he/she will use them when they re-write
your description, which they mostly do. If your site is
about "search engine ranking" then use that in
your Title. Try to keep your description to one readable
sentence that contains your important keywords. If this
means that you use less than your allotted 25 words then
so be it. We try to submit with around 20 words max, and
often closer to 15. Do not use 'hype'.
You
will also notice that the directory listings are listed
in alphabetical order on the company listing pages. Re
name your business "1 Aardvark" to stand any chance of
getting traffic (kidding). Though there is some sense in
using an opening word that contains a number if your
site theme can support it.
Select
your category very carefully and always try to select a
second category, which is an option you will be
presented with as you complete the form. If your site is
a commercial site then you will probably be looking at
the Business and Economy section. A good way to locate
the most appropriate category is to do a search on your
most important search term, then look at the category
trails that come back. Click on the trail that looks
closest to yours then submit from that page. If this
puts you in a section with many thousands of other sites
then consider finding a different category with less
competition.
Once
submitted we recommend waiting at least 3 weeks before
you try to submit again. Only resubmit if you are not
already listed.
If
you have submitted periodically over 2/3 months but are
still not listed, then look at your site and consider
why. Does it fulfill most of the criteria listed above?
If not then you might consider some rework before you
submit again. You could also try submitting through a
'regional' section.
