Your Question: Are manual submissions better than automated submissions? If so, what are the major search engines to submit to? How often should we be resubmitting our site, and how often should we change keywords, etc?
Shari’s Answer:
My quick-and-dirty answer to the first question is — it depends. In some instances, automated submissions work well. In other situations, manual submissions are best.
Human-based search engines (directories)
With the human-based search engines, I highly recommend manual submission because every directory is unique. Each directory has a different hierarchical structure (i.e. category layout), and each one has its own set of submission guidelines.
For example, one directory might allow 40 characters in your title. Another directory might only allow 25 characters in your title. Some directories allow longer descriptions than others. Therefore, carefully research each individual directory before submission to ensure that you are following the individual guidelines.
Note: For directories, the title refers to the title of your web site, not the content between your <title></title> tags. Nine times out of 10, the title of your web site will be your official company name, which most directory editors will look for on either your About Us page or Contact Us page. The description does not refer to the meta-tag description but rather a unique description that a professional search engine expert or copywriter has written for you.
Spider-based search engines
With the spider-based search engines, both automated and manual submissions work well.
In an ideal situation, you should only have to submit the Home page from your site, and the search engines should be able to find the rest of the pages on your site from a single submission.
However, the search engines are not perfect, and pages do get dropped from search engine indices periodically. Web developers also do not always create search-engine friendly navigation schemes. Thus, some other optimization strategies (such as paid inclusion, trusted feed, or pay-for-placement models) should be a consideration.
I highly recommend a spider-based submission service that has direct partnerships with the major search engines. A spider-based submission service can detect when a page has been removed from a search engine index and automatically resubmit the page in a non-spam manner. It can also detect when a page has changed on your site and resubmit any pages with modified content. Ultimately, a spider-based submission service saves web developers and marketers considerable time and money.
The most important thing to remember is not to submit to subscribe to an automated submission service that the search engines do not approve of. Unfortunately, what happens with many automated submission services is that they submit thousands of pages at a time, whether or not (1)new pages have been added, or (2) current pages have been modified. Many automated submission services do not follow the search engine submission guidelines, which is why partnerships with search engines is a big plus.
When to resubmit
Only resubmit a page to the crawler-based search engines if (a) you have added a new page to your site, (b) the content of your web page has changed significantly, or (c) the page has been dropped from the search engines.
A significant change is not a simple change in a title or meta tag. Or even a single word on a page (unless it’s a typo). Rather, a “significant” change usually involves adding or deleting a paragraph of content, and adding or deleting a product photo.
Major search engines
When you review your site statistics software, you usually find that only a small handful of search engines deliver qualified traffic. Therefore, do not waste your time with companies that claim to “Submit your site to 1 million search engines!”
These are the search engines I commonly submit to:
Yahoo
LookSmart (pay-per-click directory)
Open Directory
Business.com (business sites only)
Zeal (non-profit or informational submissions only)
About.com
Google
AlltheWeb.com (FAST Search)
Inktomi
Teoma / AskJeeves.com
AltaVista
Notice that I didn’t mention Lycos in this list, or MSN Search. Reason? Many search engines supply search results for multiple sites. For example, submitting to Lycos.com is not necessary if you have submitted your site to AlltheWeb.com.
But I don’t only submit to the major search engines. For truly targeted traffic, submitting to specialized directories and sites that scour the Invisible Web is a must. The Invisible Web reliable information service providers that are not available to general-purpose search engines. One Invisible Web directory I highly recommend can be found at:
http://www.invisible-web.net/
Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Watch also has a comprehensive Search Links section for specialty search engines.
http://searchenginewatch.com/links/
Search Engine Watch also has links to international (non-U.S.) search engines. More on international search engines next week!
Shari Thurow is Marketing Director at Grantastic Designs, Inc., a full-service search engine marketing, web and graphic design firm. This article is excerpted from her book, Search Engine Visibility (http://www.searchenginesbook.com) published in January 2003 by New Riders Publishing Co. Shari can be reached at shari@grantasticdesigns.com.
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