How to choose a submission service

Why you may need one

Submitting your web site manually to top search engines may sound like a good idea... if it has five pages. If your web site is large, manual submission will take too much time. Deep submit (submitting every page to each engine) will mean that to submit only ten pages to top ten search engines, you will need to do 100 submissions!

Manual submission to top search engines is still recommended for the home page and other pages that you think will score high .

What should I consider when choosing a service?

• Your budget.
  If your marketing budget allows it, choose a service where people that specialize in search engine optimization and submission will do the submissions for you. These services can be quite expensive.
• Your preferences.
  Choose what you're most comfortable with. Some people prefer the ease of online submissions, while others like the security of software programs.
• Reviews.
  Search the web for reviews of the software in question. Look for testimonials and guarantees, such as "your site will be indexed or we will resubmit every week." These promises from reputable companies show confidence in the product, and add security to your investment.

What features should I look for when choosing a service?

Basic Necessities: (crucial features)

• Search engines and others.
  Look for services that will promote your site to top and country-specific search engines. You may also want to pick a service that submits to thousands search engines, or you may want to go with only the most important ones. Never use software or an online service submits to directories.
  
  You may also want a service to allow submissions to link pages, award sites, classifieds and so on.
• Deep Submit.
  If your software is asking you for the URL of every single page, you may as well do manual submission. Choose a service that wills spider your site automatically (either from the web or your computer). This will save you time and make sure that every page is submitted. Check how many URLs are allowed for each service.
• Reports.
  It's important that the service you choose logs every submission. Reports should be printable, and easily accessible. This feature adds security to automatic services by letting you confirm the submission status of each page.
• Verification.
  Look for a service that verifies submissions automatically. This will help ensure that all pages are submitted properly.

Optional luxuries (nice, but not crucial)

• Re-submissions.
  Some web site submission services add value to their packages with re-submissions. Since both your content and search engines' algorithms change, you may want to resubmit your site every so often.
• Search engine readiness check.
  Though this option isn't necessary if you did all the optimization carefully, it can still be useful. Readiness checkers make sure that your HTML is valid, that links are working properly and that your pages have titles and Meta tags.