If you’re just starting out and trying to learn SEO basics then you might see a lot of low-end search engine optimization companies claiming to be able to submit your website to “200+ freakin’ search engines!!!!!!!$#$%!!!!” Don’t hire any of these companies. The fact they’re saying this proves they don’t know what they’re doing.
First of all, chances are they might “submit” your site to 200+ search engines, but whether you’ll actually end up in all 200 is dubious. Second, are these the search engines you want to be listed in, or are they spammy, unethical search engines that will only result in you getting tons of spam emails and no real traffic? Third, any SEO professional worth their salt knows very well that in general there are only three search engines that matter; Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, in that order. Oh, did I say three search engines? I meant one. Google. Ok, that might be an overstatement, but if I had to choose between a company that claimed to submit your site to 200+ search engines of unknown quality vs. an SEO company that claimed to be able to get you ranked in Google I’d go with the latter.
But you know what, you don’t even need to hire an SEO consultant to get listed in the search engines. Here are three fairly simple, do-it-yourself methods for getting listed and ranked in the most important search engines.
1. Paid directories. If you’re willing to spend anywhere from $50-$1,000 you can pay to be included in a host of SEO friendly web directories that will get you started.
2. Site maps. Google and Yahoo! have a feature called “sitemaps” that allows you to upload a file that lists all the pages on your website to make sure they can see all the pages on your site, and submission of your sitemap is completely free if it you do it yourself. Or you can do things the easy, pay a little money, and XML Sitemaps will do all the work for you.
Google Sitemaps
Yahoo! Sitemaps
Microsoft
If you have a brand new site I’d recommend submitting your site map via Google and Yahoo! (can’t find a place to submit it to MSN since they claim they’ll just find it on their own), but SearchEngineLand.com says all the search engines will discover site maps whether you submit them or not.
More info on site maps:
My Advice on Google Sitemaps – Verify, but Don’t Submit
Sitemaps and Spidering
Sitemaps & URL Submission
The Right Way To Think About Site Maps
Search Engines Come Together on Sitemaps Auto-discovery
3. Incoming links. Or you could totally ignore paid directories, uploading your XML sitemap, and just get a few incoming links from other websites that are already indexed in the search engines. I’ve always found this to be the fastest and most reliable way to get a new website indexed. Of course it requires that you find a way to get the links. My SEO firm happens to manage a lot of other web properties that are already indexed so it’s pretty easy, but if you’re just starting out and this is your first website it might require a little more work. Some places to start are message boards or forums, free directories, and blogs that cover your industry.
I like what you’re doing with the articles, but if I may, I have a few things I’d like to respond to. It’s really not that great of an idea to say that Google is all that matters, especially if your client has an international focus. Sure, Google is about 60% of the market right now, but that still leaves many millions of users out there. Also, engines like Ask.com are growing very rapidly and it would be silly to turn your back on them.
On the other hand, if you’re optimizing for Google, you’re pretty much optimizing for all engines. In my experience you don’t really need to target a specific engine. If you just use sound, proven SEO tactics, you’ll find yourself ranking well everywhere, and you really shouldn’t have to submit yourself to any engines. Sitemaps are great though, and I fully agree that those should be created.
So yeah, keep up the posts, but I think in your desire to promote MWI (which is totally fair for you to do) so heavily, you kind of push things a bit far.
Nice blog, by the way…
It’s as you say, there are other search engines out there, but if you focus on Google the others tend to fall into line. For example, my company has a #1 ranking in Google for “utah web design” and also has a #1 ranking on Ask.com for the same term, even though I have never given Ask.com a second thought, and in fact haven’t visited the site in several years until just now.
As for the international focus, there may be something to that, although not having much in the way of international SEO experience I am ignorant in that space and my comments are limited to my primary experience doing SEO for US based companies marketing to US based customers.