Submitting Your Small Business Web Site to Search Engines

The submission process for directories such as Yahoo and Google is not exactly simple. There are instructions for submission on the directory site, and generally you need to fill out and submit a comprehensive form. Getting listed in a directory is a manual process that used to take months.

Search engines have automated robots and spiders that comb the Web looking for new sites. Chances are they'll find you and add you to their database. You can also submit to search engines, but the process is not consistent from engine to engine. You'll need to contact each one individually or consult an up-to-the minute reference to find out the exact submission details.

You're free to submit to search engines yourself, or you may opt to use a service to automate the process. You can also go with a combination approach, submit yourself to specific search engines, and then automate the rest using Web-positioning software or one of the many Web-site promotion services available online.

If you do it yourself, there are several things you should keep in mind when submitting to search engines:

• Don't Spam. Once you submit your main URL, submit other important pages in weekly intervals and in very small batches. Be sure you don't submit more than 10 pages per day. Search engines are notoriously sensitive to spamming.
  
• Test. Once you've submitted your site to a search engine, check back periodically to see how your listing is ranked.
  
• Resubmit. Each time that you make substantial changes to a page, resubmit it to the search engines. It is also a good idea to resubmit your entire site every three months or so.
  
• Monitor. Monitor your Web-site listings regularly. Sometimes your listings can disappear or develop some kind of error causing broken links. When you find a problem, resubmit the page.