Do I need to submit my website to search engines?

In the world of SEO, there are a lot of things that can help or hurt your site. Some will improve it slowly over time as you build links and publish content. Others can be done instantly to give your site a quick boost in rankings and traffic. Is search engine submission one of those things? Is it really necessary?

The short answer is no. At least not at this point in time where Google has stated they already have a spider indexing most sites they know about, so new spiders aren’t needed. They also claim their index refreshes every 4-8 weeks which would further eliminate the need for people to submit their web pages to search engines on an ongoing basis.

However, I’ve been involved in the internet marketing industry for several years and I’ve seen a lot of new tactics come and go. Is search engine submission one that has become obsolete, or is it still something we should be doing?

The answer may surprise you: It depends on your site type.

Search engine submission depends on your site type

If you’ve been through the SEO process before for any size website, then you know it can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Even with those challenges, submitting to hundreds of web directories and RSS feeds has become easier than ever thanks to automated tools like XRumer. Those sites are easy to find using Google’s indexing system, yet they offer an incredible amount of link juice which can help build up your rankings quickly. Unfortunately, there are other factors at work these days that make things a little more complicated.

Google’s John Mueller has made a few comments that indicate webmasters can no longer be lazy about link building by submitting to every directory they’ve ever seen. They need to use better judgment and discretion in this area if they want their sites to survive the latest Google updates. Is search engine submission one of those tactics? It may have been in 2011, but it looks like we’ll have to approach it from a different angle today.

John says: “Beyond just using our standard guidelines — which you can find via Webmaster Tools — I’d recommend looking at some of the other optimization guides out there.”

Matt Cutts also said: “Only submit your site through the normal submission mechanisms (for example, only submit your site to Google, Yahoo! and Bing). Don’t create fancier submission mechanisms like separate submit pages or bookmarking buttons that pass extra information.”

Apparently, there are two things you need to look at if you want search engine submission for your site to make any sense. Is search engine submission one of those tactics where I need to do more research before I can determine how effective it is?

While web directories may be easy enough to find with Google’s advanced Webmaster Tools, you’ll also want to take a look at your competition. Is their site listed in all the popular directories? If you’re not competing against other sites then this wouldn’t be much of an issue. However, if you are then it might be a good idea to take a look at the directory listings for those sites. Is search engine submission one of those tactics that can hurt or help your website?

If you find several directories where your competitors have profiles, then it’s worth spending time submitting yours as well. Is search engine submission really necessary if my site is small and not competing against large authority sites? Yes, because even small websites should consider their competition when making decisions like this. Is search engine submission a tactic you need to use on a regular basis? No, but it’s an easy way to gain extra link juice from trusted sources. Is search engine submission something I should do for any site I own? You’ll want to take into account how competitive your market is and whether or not you’re competing against other sites.