Do search engine submission services really work?

If, like me, you’ve got a somewhat “out there” email address or two, you’ve probably received some of those annoying spam emails offering services to promote your website by submitting it to “thousands” of online search engines. For some icing on the cake, they may even “guarantee” a top 10 listing as a bonus. Or perhaps you’ve come across a website which offers – for a small fee – to do the same thing: submit your website to all the major search engines plus another thousand you’ve never heard of or never visited.

So do these submissions work?

In a nutshell, no! While it’s quite possible to notify the search engines – and this includes the big ones such as Google, Yahoo et al – of your new web site, in reality it accomplishes very little. Unless of course you actually use one of these services in which case it will lighten your wallet a little, if that’s any sort of accomplishment.

Some myths debunked:

Submitting your site will not increase your rankings, nor will it help to get your site indexed quicker in the search engines. In fact, in the time it takes for your website to be submitted, processed and finally spidered you may as well take a long holiday. The best way to get your site indexed is to have incoming links to your site from other web sites. That way the search engines will quickly follow the links and come to your site: naturally. The major search engine spiders (also known as bots) are out there every day trawling content, and it’s much preferred to be discovered naturally by them. It’s kind of like a search engine hearing about your site through word of mouth rather than cold-calling. Another myth is that you should continually submit your site, over and over again. At the very best, your submissions will be ignored. However, a worst case scenario is that the search engines will think you are spamming them, and a penalty will be imposed on your website: anything from lower rankings to a complete ban (all though this is unlikely, as it could be used as a way to harm your website’s effectiveness by your competitors). So if you are considering these services: don’t. Save your money for proper search engine optimization and marketing services.