Ok, so I started researching some of the other competing companies with my business, and over and over again I kept on seeing statements saying they will submit your site to 250 + search engines. (I seen a much wider and higher range of numbers, but for now I will just keep it at 250).
First they are most likely using some automated software. It is advised that you not have this done with your site. It is always better to have your site submitted by hand rather that have an automated software tool do this for you. The majority of search engines do not like the use of automated software on their sites.
Next what you need to know is what search engines are currently attracting the most visitors, the actual percentage of visitors that each search engines gets. Search engine watch has a great article outlining exactly the top 5 search engines.
| 2007 – 2012 | ||||||
| Total U.S. – Home & Work Locations | ||||||
| Source: comScore qSearch | ||||||
| Search Engine | 2007-Nov | 2008-Nov | 2009-Nov | 2010-Nov | 2011-Nov | 2012-Sep |
| Google Sites | 58.60% | 63.5 | 65.60% | 66.20% | 65.40% | 66.7 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 22.40% | 20.4 | 17.50% | 16.40% | 15.10% | 15.9 |
| Microsoft Sites | 9.80% | 8.3 | 10.30% | 11.80% | 15.00% | 12.2 |
| Ask Network | 4.60% | 4 | 3.80% | 3.60% | 2.90% | 3.5 |
| AOL, Inc. | 4.50% | 3.8 | 2.80% | 2.00% | 1.60% | 1.8 |
So as you can see with the information above, There are actually only 5 major search engines that actually really matter and really the majority of the traffic with regards to search engines will come from the top 3. So be weary of those claims of submissions to 250 + search engines.
Ok, next on the list is paying for resubmissions. If you are already listed in the search engines, then you do not need to pay for a resubmission. The truth is if you are listed in the search engines and you have incoming links to your site, the search engines spiders/robots will find your site no problem at all. If you have logs with your hosting company, just check to see when and what search engine spiders visited your site. For instance, with my site manningmarketing.com, I did not submit my site to Msn (MSNBOT), nor could I at this time, but I have incoming links, and because of those links, MSNBOT was able to find my site with no problem. For the record, as of writing this, MSN currently pulling its data from Yahoo/Inktomi database, and MSN is currently developing their own Search engine. So if you check your logs for the past month or two, there’s a good chance MSNBOT has already visited your site, and best of all, it was free.
Gerard Manning is the owner of Manning Search Marketing and has been working in the SEO industry since 2000. Originally started with Enquiro Search Solutions (now known as Mediative). Was previously a Research Assistant on Inside the Mind of the Searcher that was released in 2005.