Submit to Search Engines

Based on what the crawlers can find, they will match your information, or content, with what people are looking for on the web. If their keywords match your website’s content, one of your web pages will be seen and hopefully visited.

People pay a lot of money and spend loads of time trying to rank high on the search engines, especially Google. But the first step is your introduction to the SE – your site map. This will explain how to submit this to a Search Engine.

Steps

Creating Your Sitemap

  1. Start by going to xmlsitemaps and enter your full website address and click “Start.”
  2. Grab what you need. There are two primary sitemaps you can download: XML Sitemap for search engines and HTML Sitemap for your website readers. Click the link to download your sitemap. Finally, upload your new sitemap to the “public_html/” folder. Your sitemap is ready for the search engines and your readers.

Submitting to Google

Because this is the biggest search engine, we’ll start here. If you haven’t opened a Google account yet, now is the time.

  1. Go to Google.com and click “Sign In” in the top right-hand corner. Click “Create an account now” and give them your current email address, a password you want to use, select your location, verify you’re human and click “I accept. Create my account.” after reading all the fine print Google has to offer in their Terms of Service. You’re in!
  2. Sign-in to your Google account. Then click “My i-Google” to “My Account."
  3. Go to “Webmaster Tools.” If you don’t see this option, use this link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
  4. Click on the “Add a site” and type in your domain name, for example www.mywebsite.com.
  5. Verify that you have access to your website by entering some code to your home page. You can verify later, but Google will not allow you to submit your sitemap until your site has been verified.
    • It’s easy to do and they offer an example of where to place their code. Enter the code on your .index page and save. Go back to the verification page and click “Verify.”
  6. After your website has been verified, you can click “Submit my Sitemap” near the bottom of the page.
  7. Simply click “Submit a Sitemap” on the next page and a drop down box will allow you to enter your extension , i.e. www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap and click the “Submit Sitemap” button. That’s it! Google knows you exist! Whew!
  8. You will receive a message that your sitemap has been submitted. Google will also track any updates you make, so it’s not necessary to submit multiple times. Maybe once every six months or so; everyone has different opinions here.

Submitting to Yahoo!

  1. If you don't already have a Yahoo! account, make one here.
  2. If you already have one, log in. Then go to this page.
  3. Enter your URL (http://www.mywebsite.com) and click the “Submit URL” button.
    • That’s it! Finished! Again, it is not necessary to submit your sitemap to any of these search engines multiple times. They update as often as you update, so no worries.

Submitting to MSN/Bing

  1. Go to http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx.
  2. Here you have to prove you’re human by entering their characters. Then type in your URL and click the “Submit URL” button.
  3. Finished!

Submitting to DMOZ

DMOZ (directory.mozilla.org) is the mother of all open source directories. Although you can get by if you never have a link with them, it is definitely a nice feather in your cap! This particular directory has people who volunteer to review websites that wish to be in the DMOZ directory. This means high quality websites that offer value to the web get through the pearly gates, and those that offer junk and ads just drift off in a black hole. This process is slow, but thorough. Before submitting to DMOZ, it’s recommended you build up some value, i.e. content that would interest your readers. If your site can capture the visitors, then there’s a chance it may make a DMOZ editor smile approvingly.

  1. Check this link for the fine-print details: DMOZ.org.
  2. Make sure your website has legal content, is not a duplicate site, is appropriate for most audiences and is not full of affiliate links.
  3. Check www.dmoz.org to see if you may already be listed.
  4. If you’re new, skip the search and instead check out the categories. Here you will find multiple categories that can help pinpoint where your site fits in. Try to narrow it down as much as you can for better results.
  5. Once you’ve found your place in DMOZ world, go to the top of the screen and click “Suggest URL”. If you don’t see the button to click, chances are that the category is still too broad or is no longer accepting submissions. Narrow your path or choose a slightly different one until you see the “Suggest URL.” button displayed.
  6. Take some to read their guidelines, it’ll save you a lot of time and heartache! From there, simply enter your regular URL (http://www.mywebsite.com), the title of your site (usually the name of your site or company), a brief description (30 words maximum), email address (preferably from your website) and their character code to ensure your humanity. Then click “Submit.”
    • This process can take a while, maybe even 3 – 4 months. Don’t worry about re-submitting for at least six months. By then your website will be full-fledged with valuable content.



Related Articles

Sources and Citations

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Submit_to_Search_Engines&oldid=363128"