Search Engine Optimization

How and When Should I Submit My Website to Google?

As soon as you register your domain name, submit

it to Google!

Even if you haven't built your site, or written

an copy, or even thought about your content, submit

your domain name to Google. In fact, even if you haven't

fully articulated your business plan and marketing plan,

submit your domain name to Google.

Don't wait!

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, getting on

the search engines has always taken a long time for

a new site. Even assuming you do everything right, it

takes months before your site is even indexed, and more

months before it starts to rank well. As a rule of thumb,

never expect to rank highly within 6 months of submitting

your site to Google.

The second reason is a recent phenomenon called 'Google

Sandbox'. Many SEO experts believe that Google

'sandboxes' new websites. Whenever it detects

a new website, it withholds its rightful ranking for

a period while it determines whether your site is a

genuine, credible, long term site. It does this to discourage

the creation of SPAM websites (sites which serve no

useful purpose other than to boost the ranking of some

other site).

By submitting your domain name to Google as soon as

you register it, you're establishing a site history

even if the site has no content. By the time you've

built your site, written your copy, and developed the

rest of your content (and written your business and

marketing plans), Google will probably see no need to

sandbox you.

If you wait until launch day to submit your site, you'll

spend a month or two (maybe more) sitting in the sandbox

watching potential customers spend their money elsewhere.

How to submit your site to Google

Don't waste money by paying someone else to submit

your site to Google. It's easy!

Simply go to http://www.google.com.au/addurl.html,

enter your URL (domain name) and a few comments or keywords

to describe your site. Then click 'Submit'.

That's all there is to it. You only have to do

it once, and only for your top level page (i.e. Home

page).

Google's robots will then crawl your website the

next time they're out and about. Of course, they

don't guarantee that you'll be included in

their results.

IMPORTANT: As mentioned above, it takes quite

a while for your site to appear in the search engines.

This is partly because the search engines are big and

slow - especially when it comes to new sites. It

will take a minimum of 6-8 weeks before your site is

indexed.

How to submit your site to other search engines

There are hundreds of search engines on the Internet.

It's a lucrative business, after all! But don't

panic; studies suggest that the top 11 search engines

account for about 90% of web traffic. In other words,

if you have the top 11 covered, there's no need

to submit to the rest.

What's more, at the time of writing, most of the

top 11 don't actually accept submissions. The only

ones that do are Google (described above), Yahoo, and

MSN. Here's a list of the available submit pages.

• Yahoo - http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
• (offers free submission)
• MSN - http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2
• (offers free submission)
• Alta Vista - covered by Yahoo submission
• Netscape - covered by Google submission
• Fast / All the Web - covered by Yahoo submission
• Ask Jeeves / Teoma - at date of writing was
• not accepting new submissions
• Hotbot - at date of writing was not accepting
• new submissions
• Lycos - at date of writing was not accepting
• new submissions
• AOL - at date of writing was not accepting
• new submissions
• Looksmart - at date of writing was not accepting
• new submissions

TIP: My SEO

copywriting and advertising copywriting website, http://www.divinewrite.com, reached page 1 of Google.com for my primary keyword,

"copywriter", without a dollar being spent

on search engine submission. I only ever submitted my

site to the engines that offer free submission.

Do I need to submit my site to other search engines?

As a rule, no.

With an estimated 8.8 billion pages indexed (approximately

76% of the Internet), Google is number 1 when it comes

to search engines. It's argued that once Google

has indexed your site, the other search engines will

follow. Theoretically, you don't actually need

to submit your site to Google either because it's

always on the lookout for new content and will eventually

find your site of its own accord. Google actually states,

"Given the large number of sites submitting URLs,

it's likely your pages will be found in an automatic

crawl before they make it into our index through the

URL submission form." ("Google Information

for Webmasters" - http://www.google.com.au/webmasters/1.html#A1)

Personally, I wouldn't like to take the risk.)

Having said that, it certainly doesn't hurt to

submit your site to other search engines (especially

if you haven't developed any content for it yet).

Conclusion

You don't need to be an SEO expert or an SEO copywriter

to submit your site to Google and the other search engines.

And you don't need to pay anything to do it. You

just need to do it. And if your domain name is new,

you need to do it NOW!

Happy submitting!

You're welcome to publish this article free of charge provided:

- you include the byline

- byline includes a functioning link to http://www.divinewrite.com

- you don't change the article in any way

- you provide a courtesy copy once published

- in doing so you agree to indemnify Divine Write and its directors, officers, employees and agents from and against all losses, claims, damages and liabilities which arise out of its use

* Glenn Murray is an advertising copywriter and search engine (SEO) copywriter and heads copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.