GOOGLE Website Submit

Properly Submitting your website to the search engines is a critical part of any successful Internet footprint. Each has their own particular procedure. Each is demystified below.

The first step is to establish a FREE Google account. Once the account is ready, point your web browser to Google webmaster central and click [Sign in to Webmaster Tools]. Follow the instructions to verify your website (file upload or meta tag). Verification gives you access to a wide range of helpful information about your website like; Pages with external links, Top search queries, What Googlebot sees, and Web crawl. Set your preferences under [Settings] and choose; target users in the US or worldwide, display your domain with the www, and include your website images in Google Image Labeler (remember to search engine optimize your image titles).

Once your preferences are set it’s time to upload your sitemap. Your sitemap.xml should contain a weighted and formatted list of every page. If you don’t already have one, creating your sitemap is easy with this FREE online sitemap tool. After the sitemap is compiled and uploaded, return to Google and enter the path to it. If the sitemap was uploaded to the root of your website, this will be http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml (if otherwise located, enter that). Be sure the check the status of your sitemap and correct any errors. Updating is done via the [Resubmit Selected] feature on the Webmaster Toools sitemap page.

There is one additional file to create and upload so that we are prepared for when the search bots visit your website.  Point your web browser to Generating a robots.txt file or Manually creating a robots.txt file and follow the instructions.  The purpose of the robots.txt file is to tell the search bots what portions of your website should “Allow” or “Disallow” indexing of content. Google is now aware of your content. Now let’s move to Yahoo.

YAHOO Website Submit

Yahoo also requires you to establish a FREE account. Once ready, point your web browser to Submit Your Site and click on [Submit Your Site for Free] then [Submit a Website or Webpage]. Enter your website address (URL) and login to your Yahoo account if prompted. You should see the following:

Thank you! Your URL has been added to our list of URLs to crawl. Please expect a delay of several weeks before your URL is crawled. Note that in the effort to maximize the quality of search results that appear on Yahoo! and our other distribution partners, we do not add every submitted URL to our search index. Therefore we cannot make predictions or guarantees about whether your URL will appear as a search result.

Now we need to authenticate your website to Yahoo. While in Yahoo Site Explorer, choose [My Sites].  Click on your website address (URL). Here you can check the Authentication Status and Number of Pages Indexed. Choose [Authentication] from the left menu. Follow the instructions to verify your website (file upload or meta tag).

Once your website is authenticated, return to the Yahoo Site Explorer and again choose your website under [My Sites]. Now choose [Explore Site] toward the bottom.  Voila, a full list of indexed pages as they appear in the Yahoo’s organic listings.  Click [InLinks] at the top to display a full list of incoming links to your website.  If the data is blank, simply give the Yahoo bots more time to do their work. The big two are done, MSN Live Search and Ask.com are next after the fold.

MSN Live Search Website Submit

To submit your website to MSN Live Search, no account is required.  Simply point your web browser to MSN Live Search Submit. Follow the instructions and enter the captcha characters from the picture.  Then type the website address (URL) and click [Submit URL]. You should see the following:

Thank you for submitting your URL to Live Search. MSNBot automatically indexes pages that meet accepted standards for content, design, and technical implementation. This change will not be reflected immediately, so please be patient and check back periodically.

Now that MSN Live Search has been notified about your website, let’s finish with Ask.com.

Ask.com Website Submit

We follow a different procedure when submitting a website to the Ask.com search engine.  There is no “submission page” or “webmaster area”.  Instead, copy the link below and modify it for your domain name (URL) and sitemap location.  Then paste the entire link into a web browser.  The act of hitting that address with your unique information is enough to notify the search engine. Here is the link:

http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http%3A//www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

Congratulations! Your website content has now been submitted for indexing to all the major search engines and with your new sitemap.xml file and robots.txt, your content will continue to be “available” for all search bot’s that visit. That wraps up this tutorial on submitting your website to Google, Yahoo, MSN Live Search & Ask.com search engines.

A Note About Paid Search Listings, Mobile, Video & RSS Inclusion

Some of the search engines in this tutorial also offer a variety of paid (business), mobile, video and RSS search listings for those who wish to extend their Internet footprint even further. Visit Google Advertising Programs for AdWords and AdSense.  Visit Yahoo Small Business for Yahoo Paid Search Listings.  Head back to your Google account on Google Webmaster Tools and your Yahoo account Submit Your Site for adding mobile content, video and RSS.

More Reading / Helpful Links

Using Google Webmaster Tools at google.com

Google Redesigns Webmaster Tools from the Ground Up for Spring 2009

Scherr Technology Announces SEO Web Design (search engine optimization)