SEO Myth: Submitting Your Webiste to Search Engines

Many "web development" and "search engine optimization" (SEO) companies advertise submitting your website to search engines on a regular basis as a method of increasing your rankings. It will NOT help. Then why are you getting all the spam in your inbox making this claim? Follow the money.

Do I need to submit my website at all?

There is no reason to submit your website to search engines at all. While there is such a thing as submission tools, they don't need to be used. As long as there is a link to your website from another website, they will come and find you in due time. In fact, submitting your website repeatedly could be considered spam by the major search engines. This could actually harm your website's ranking.

Do I have to keep submitting to keep my rank?

Once a search engine has found your website and indexed your content, it will not suddenly disappear if you don't "re-submit" next month. It's there for good as long as nothing major has changed. Many webmasters have a hard time trying to get search engines to drop a listing for a page that no longer exists.

Shouldn't I submit to all search engines?

Even if you did have to submit your website to search engines, there aren't "thousands" of search engines out there like some people would have you believe. There are only about a dozen or so major search engines that provide about 96.5% of all search results in the world.

Don't I have to submit to something?

Submitting to search engines is not the same as submitting to directories or requesting link exchanges. If you would like to get these sorts of listings, you will need to locate the directories and/or potential link partners and initiate contact.