Currently, for any site that does not use spamming techniques, there is no problem getting listed for free in Google, Yahoo and other major search engines. Your site will simply be crawled by their bots and automatically indexed in about two weeks time. However, if you want to be absolutely sure that all pages of your site are quickly indexed, you might want to submit your site to pay-for-performance search engines. If you do, you should decide on two important components of the paid submission process:
- Paid submission budget
- Order of submission to pay-for-performance search engines
Paid Submission Budget
Paid submission is not cheap (at least for an average site owner). Therefore, it is not be wise to begin the process without first thinking about your budget constraints.
The minimum budget is $299 for a one-year listing in Yahoo! human-edited directory (http:///). Being listed in Yahoo! Directory is a sign that you have a good web site (otherwise, human editors would not list you) and search engines pick up on this sign giving you higher rankings. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for sophisticated searchers to search for your site through the directory (and with increasing spamminess of organic results, this trend is likely to become much stronger).
Next, we should factor in some PPC advertising. With proper keyword selection it can be affordable for any site owner. The good thing about PPC is that it protects you from long organic re-indexation periods, and seasonalities by providing a steady stream of traffic. It is advisable to use PPC advertising before you get good organic rankings. After this, the best course of action would be to assess the whole mix of organic and paid search engine traffic, and to implement a wide-ranging search engine marketing strategy. To get started, you will need about $50 for the first month of Google AdWords advertising, and $50 – for Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture). Therefore, if you decide to get into the field of pay-for-performance search engines, your initial budget should be like this:
|
Yahoo! Directory Listing (1-Year, one-time) |
$299 |
Order of Submission
An often-overlooked factor is the order in which you should submit your site to search engines and directories. It is essential, however, to submit your site to directories before submitting to search engines. The point to remember is that search engines give high value to links from directories (assuming that a site is considered worthwhile or even hand-picked to get into a directory) so it is advisable to have some links from directories before submitting to search engines. There can be different orders, but we offer you the following sequence:
- Yahoo! Search Marketing – http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/– If you are serious about paid submission, Yahoo! is your first and arguably most important stop. Yahoo offers several pay-for-performance solutions, with Search Submit and Directory Submit being the major one. Yahoo! Directory Submit costs $299 and gives you a yearlong listing in the directory (after approving your site). Yahoo! Search Submit incorporates numerous paid submissions acquired by Yahoo (Overture Site Match, Altavista, AllTheWeb, and Inktomi) and ensures your submission to Yahoo! and all of its partners, re-indexes your content every 2 days, and gives you a daily report about the performance of your organic keywords. Search Submit costs $49 for the first site; if you add more sites, the price will be lower.
- Vertical Search Engines and Directories – Some people say that the vertical search engines are the future of the search industry. Search Engine Guide has an excellent listing of vertical engines and directories in different focus areas (http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html). Submission to vertical search engines is often paid, that’s why we mention them in this section. However, you might find a lot of verticals that offer free submission. Also, see if there are any yellow page directories that might be appropriate for you – such as regional directories, or even yellow page directories in your focus area (such as a restaurant yellow pages directory).
- Pay-per-click Advertising – this is an essential element of a pay-for-performance strategy. The two dominant players are Google AdWords(http://adwords.google.com/) and Yahoo! Search Marketing (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/). Obviously, costs-per-click vary with different keywords and sectors, but $50/mo for each and careful keyword selection will be enough to give you a good start. Another PPC advertising provider you might be interested in is LookSmart with its Small Business Listings program (http://listings.looksmart.com/). With LookSmart you pay flat $0.15 cost-per-click (no auction-style bidding); the price increases if you get more than 5000 clicks and the exact increase is based on your product’s category. LookSmart results feed Lycos, Mamma, and CNet search.
- Submit Search Engines – after getting some foothold, link popularity, and steady traffic with paid search, you should submit your site to regular search engines using Seo Software.
