Submit your URL to Search Engines

Nearly 95% of the web uses the top 3 search engines online-- MSN, Yahoo and Google. Submitting to these 3 search engines is an excellent first step in your SEO campaign, but it does have its drawbacks. 

1. It's too easy. You can't just submit and expect easy traffic! If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. Submission won't get you anywhere in the long run, but if you have no incoming links to your site (and won't be getting any), than site submission might be the way to go.

2. Some SEO experts have said that submitting your site to search engines may "sandbox" it, which basically means be put on time-out for a little bit.

3. It may actually hurt you if you submit your site more than once. This hasn't exactly been proven, but it's a good idea to submit just once if you're going to do so.

Google and MSN quite easy to submit your site to, and do not require an account. Yahoo, however, requires an account. This is easy to set-up and only takes a few moments. There are other search engines that you can submit your site to also, like Gigablast, Jayde, and more. ASK does not currently have a URL submission page.

Why submit your URL?

Submitting your URL might be a good idea if your site, blog or store is new or having trouble indexing in the search engines. This will let them know that you exist. Search engines find your site through links. The more links that point to your URL, or web address, the more important your site looks to the search engines. Links that point to your site are called "backlinks."

Backlinks

Backlinks are necessary for your site to succeed. Google and other search engines view links pointing to your site sort of like votes. The more votes, the higher you will place in the search engine results. A link from a high authority site is worth more than one from a low ranking site. 

Backlinks are also a good source of traffic. There are many ways to get traffic from backlinks, and there are some ground rules that you should follow when trying to get backlinks...

• Don't link your site to obscene sites, search engines will penalize your site!
• Don't use link farms...these are sites that exist primarily to contain random links to other websites. Search engines hold NO value to them and even penalize the sites on link farms.
• Don't spam! It's not worth it, and it will ruin your reputation with search engines and consumers.
• Try not to facilitate many reciprocal links. Reciprocal links are when two sites place links to each other's site on their own, hoping for a traffic exchange. Unless the sites are related and are both the same topic, this is not a good idea and is a no-no in Google's guidelines.
• Make something worth reading! Don't just base your entire page of web content around what you think the search engines want to see, or bye bye visitors.
  

A web directory is a collection of legitimate links to other sites online. These can be good and bad. Why? Because some of these web directories are "anything goes" and allow any site to submit. Do you want to be lumped into a directory with the worst collection of websites you've ever seen? NO! And neither does Google.

You should check any web directory you were considering by examining the quality of websites in the directory. Any good web directory will authorize each submission by a person. Upon review, the site will be accepted. Some directories are free, while most do cost money. You gain a backlink and good targeted web traffic by using a web directory. You should also check the PageRank of the main page of the site that you are submitting to.

Google Base is an excellent way to increase your sales and visibility quickly, easily and effectively. Google Base features online products all over the web. Your direct competition could wind up being a company as large as Amazon or Wal-Mart. Google Base is continuing to grow in popularity for sellers and buyers alike.

Sellers sales can increase dramatically, depending on how many items you have, how your ad looks, and how good your image and product quality are. Google Base requires a data feed to upload items. If you sell on eBay or Amazon, you can download the free Google store connector to publish your items.

Submitting your URL will help get your site crawled, however you must still build relevant links to get traffic to your site. The best way to do this is through good content!

What's the second most important thing? Regularly adding content to your site. You can do this by adding a blog to your site, or adding new pages of content.

Submitting your site to the search engines is only the first move in your SEO campaign. The more traffic that flows to your site through search engines and backlinks, the higher your page rank will be. Now it's time to create some backlinks! The more, the better! Just make sure they are relevant and spam-free.

Here are some ideas:

• Social Bookmarking like Digg, Delicious, Redditt, or StumbleUpon. Increase your network, add your favorite sites, and visit other sites and you'll gain a little traffic and maybe if you're lucky some backlinks!
• MySpace or Facebook. Create a page that will attract attention, entertain the viewer, and clearly state where you want them to visit.
• Visit Forums and partake in the discussions...really participate! Add some value to the conversations and offer your opinion. Try to help some other people, and they'll in return help you!
• Create a Hub here on HubPages! Just make it a good one! Be sure to not submit too many links to your own page or it will be flagged! Limit linking to your own domain, Hubpages penalizes for overuse of linking to the same domain, even across different hubs of yours, so only sprinkle these in once in a while.
  
• Use email marketing. Create an email signature that will include a link to your page. Update your friends whenever you have something new to share with them and encourage them to visit!
• Article Marketing. Readers love to read articles. Write about what you are an expert about! There's a link at the bottom of most online articles, and this is your chance to promote your site and create a powerful backlink.
• Start a Blog. Yes, everyone has one, and you should too. Blogs are easily and quickly indexed by search engines. If you place a blog on your website, your site will be indexed much faster since you'll be updating it often. 
• Help Someone Else. What is your expertise? Share those valuable pieces of knowledge with people in forums, on blogs, here on Hubpages, or on your website. People love tutorials, and they love to link to them. People notice when someone helps someone else, and it will come back your way eventually.
  
• Don't Stop Creating New Content! This is the #1 biggest area of why most online ventures fail, because they give up and leave things alone. Come back and add to things you've already created. A blog is a great way to do this. Remove outdated links, update your pages, and create new ones. Make pages outside of your website that promote it (but remember--no spamming!).
  

You could be trapped into a Google "sandbox" if you submit your site more than once. To let search engines know you exist, try adding more links to your site after your submission, or creating a site map. Make some changes to your website or page so your page looks new and fresh!

Add the Google Toolbar to your web browser to enhance your overall web experience and to keep tabs on your website! You can quickly check the number of backlinks your site has with the click of a mouse, or check your current page rank status. Page rank is the number Google assigns your page in order of importance, "0" being the least, "10" being the highest. Don't obsess over your page rank, as it changes constantly! Also, sometimes the only thing you can do to improve your page rank is to wait it out...older URLs have a better chance of being found by Google and having a higher page rank! In the meantime, work on building up those links and adding great content!

Learn more about Ebay SEO to increase sales here!