Website submission.  What you need to know and what to avoid when submitting your URL.     By John Bolduan RealWebMarketing.com

Everyday when searching for almost anything online, you might see an ad or pop-up for these mass website submission services. You know the ones. They say they will submit to 2000 search engines and on it's face it sounds like it might make sense. I mean, think about all those links, that traffic that might find your website. It honestly makes common sense that the more search engines you submit to must help. Well, here's the truth in one sentence. After this statement, you can stop reading this article if you like. You don't have to do website submission anymore to any search engines as they crawl the web and will find you. These days the major search engines are aggressive and want to have bragging rights on how many pages they have indexed. Now of course I'm only talking about the major search engines as they get 95% of all searchers using them in one form or another. So don't waste your money on submission services because it does no good. When you understand some of the search engines they submit to might be something like search-uzbekistan.com, you'll see what I mean by worthless website submission. 

It's not that I have anything against Uzbekistan, I don't. They are a fine people and helped out the US in the Iraq war and I salute them. It's just that unless your marketing to someone in Uzbekistan, don't bother. Most people in Uzbekistan probably use Google or Yahoo or another major search engine anyway!  

The one thing to make sure is that you're linked from some other website, either one you have established or from a credible directory of sites like DMOZ.org. This will mean that the next time a search engine crawler looks in that directory or website, it will find you too and index your website. Avoid shopping portals where they list everything in the world or link farms, which are made to fool search engines. That's not a good thing.

Instead of focusing on website submission, try increasing your content offering so people will have a reason to visit you again and again. No amount of website submission will be any good unless you have content that people want. If you're like me, you probably don't want to go to a website only to find it thin on the information you want to find. So stop the submission game, save your money and pour it back into your website. 

How long will it take to see results? For a non-established website, you can expect to wait a few weeks to a few months to see the first initial results. After that, it can take a year or two as you improve your site for visitors. It depends on your commitment, and it is just that!

As a company, we typically offer a free website submission to certain directories as part of a complete package someone buys. It's really no big deal. If someone comes along and raves about website submission and how it's going to solve your traffic problems, grab your wallet and run away. You don't need to do those kind of things these days. Be patient, be diligent and make your website a better place for people to visit.