Website Submission: Critical Housekeeping For SEO Pros

In today's fast-paced web world, website submissions can be overlooked by some marketing professionals. It's true that there are many other ways to build your link presence and get better rankings. However, doing a website submission is so quick and so easy that even though it isn't the most flashy technique, it's one you should be using on a regular basis. Here, we'll take a look at the basics of website submissions.

What is Website Submission?

Before we can talk about website submissions, we need to discuss what, exactly, they are. A website submission is the process of making sure that search engines or directories know your website exists. Sometimes, it's possible for search engines and directories to find your website on their own, using programs that crawl the web looking for new sites. However, it can be necessary to create website submissions if you want to have your website indexed right away, without waiting for these crawlers to notice you.

Website submission can be either to search engines, which try to find all (or nearly all) pages on the internet, or to directories. Many directories have guidelines for website submissions and only allow certain types of sites to be included in their directory. You should generally avoid any directories with no guidelines for website submission—these directories tend to be very low quality, and links created through them may not even count in Google's search ranking algorithm.

Website submissions to directories with significant requirements for having a website listed there can be much better for attorneys. For example, it's very likely that as part of your membership in a state or local bar association, you already qualify to have your website submitted to an attorney directory. You can ask your bar association for more information on the exact rules for having your website posted if you haven't done this already.

How Does Website Submission Work?

Many people who have never done website submissions before are shocked at how easy it can be to submit their website's content to search engines and directories. Usually, it will take you less than five minutes for each new website submission, as long as you have all the information you need at hand.

Sometimes, it's possible to automate some or all of your website submissions. In fact, website submission automation software is some of the only automated link building software that is largely without risks, at least as long as you're using it correctly. This does make it faster to do website submissions, and it also ensures that you're not duplicating your efforts.

Do I Need to Do Website Submissions to Get Indexed?

Only if you want to get new clients! In all seriousness, it's absolutely critical to make sure that your website has been indexed by search engines. 9 out of 10 potential clients today do web searches to research attorneys when they're looking for a new lawyer.

It's also important that if you're building several websites in order to make sure you have inbound links, that those websites are also being indexed by Google. A website submission automation tool can actually simplify this by submitting several different websites at once to search engines.

Without being indexed, your website will be literally impossible to find through search. That's why it's important to do website submissions for several different search engines. If you only do a website submission for a single search engine, anyone using different types of searches won't be able to find you. It would be like having a city that was only on maps made by one particular company.

How Can I Ensure All Pages are Indexed?

There are several different techniques for website owners to encourage the complete indexing of their website. While you can always just do website submissions of every page by hand or through an automated program, you can also make it a bit easier on yourself. If you have a site index page that is easily crawled by Google and contains a route to every link on your website, Google can do the indexing of all of your pages and directory structure completely automatically.

In addition to creating a site index, you should also make sure that you're building inbound links to new content. Google is always more likely to find and index your webpages when you have it linked by other people. While inbound links can also be automated, creating links automatically is likely to run you into trouble with Google. Unlike automated website submissions, automated link creation is considered a black hat technique primarily employed by spammers.

Some creative internet marketers have even started making inbound links to their inbound links, a practice known as tiering. This enhances indexing substantially in the short and long term.

Creating Inbound Links For Better Website Indexing

If you can't automate inbound links to make your website submissions more successful, due to Google penalties, what can you do? Try creating new inbound links via social bookmarking websites, or through connections on your social networks.

You can also comment on blogs with a link back to the pages that you want to have indexed. While this isn't as fast or easy as a website submission, it's a necessary part of making sure that both your website and the sites linking to it are indexed by Google. Remember, automated inbound link building is not your friend: it's very likely to bring an angry search engine's penalties into your life, and that's the last thing you need when you're trying to improve your online reach.

When Should We Do Website Submission?

Generally, you should re-submit your website to search engines any time you have a significant site redesign that makes the old submission obsolete. This will ensure that Google and other search engines index your new directory structure instead of the old one. It's not usually a good idea to submit your website to search engines and directories when it's still unfinished. This looks sloppy. An “under construction” website may have been understandable in 1997, but in today's competitive online world, it's a joke. Make sure your website is complete and ready to go before you try to have it indexed.