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Search Engine Submissions and Re-submissions...

How Often Should you Resubmit your Pages, and When?

AltaVista  |  Excite  |  Google  |  HotBot/Inktomi  |  Lycos  |  Northern Light  |  Open Directory

Engine-Specific Guidelines and Tips

AltaVista
 Submission URL: http://add-url.altavista.com/cgi-bin/newurl?

Submission Limit per Day: 5 pages or more with their new procedure.
How long does it take to index a page? 2 days to 2 weeks

With AltaVista, rely on the use of links to get the pages in your site indexed. Unless you've made significant changes to your pages, don't resubmit them. Instead, let AV's spider find those changes during its next spider run.

Try submitting your pages using "www" and not using it in the URLs.

AV won't index a site submitted as an IP address. A rep from AltaVista explains, "The spider is doing reverse DNS loopups when an IP site is submitted. You must be registered with Internic and have DNS running to be indexed by the spider."

Does AltaVista have a limit to the number of pages from a particular domain that can be in its index? AV answers, "In reality, the whole site could be indexed with no restriction on depth, except that we have size limitations and stop the spider once the index of the site has a certain size." In other words, they aren't saying. (Is this surprising?)

To check to see if your pages are in the index, enter your URL in the search box like this:

url:yourdomain.com (reveals every page under the root domain)

url:members.prodigy.com/yourwebsite/ (narrows the search to pages within your site, if you're under someone else's domain)

url:members.aol.com/yourwebsite/yourwebpage.htm (finds a specific page at your site)


Excite
Submission URL: http://www.excite.com/info/add_url
Submission Limit per Day: 25 (to be on the safe side)
How long does it take to index a page? A few months

At times, Excite will only accept the main page of your site through their submission process. Other times, it will accept interior or doorway page submissions. There's no doubt about the fact that Excite definitely prefers main pages over interior/doorway pages, however.

Therefore, make use of visible links to all of your important pages off the main page of your site, and give the engine something to index.

With Excite, there's an unwritten "rule" that generally only 25 pages from a domain can be in the index. Of course, like most search engine rules, this one is broken all the time. However, don't be surprised if your site is limited to having 25 URLs in Excite's index.

Because of this rule, pick and choose the URLs yourself by making use of robots.txt files.

Though PositionPro recommends submitting only 10 URLs a day to Excite, Jim Reinhold, Engineering Manager of Excite, says "Our limit is 25 URLs per domain per day."

To check to see if your pages are in the index, enter the URL without the http:// prefix, like this:

www.myveryownwebsite.com/webresources.html

You can also search for the root domain to find many pages from the same site at once. Enter your root URL, such as:

www.myveryownwebsite.com

Google
 Submission URL: http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Submission Limit per Day: 10
How long does it take to index a page? 1-2 months

With Google's supplying Yahoo!'s supplemental index, submitting to Google has become even more important.

Submit all of your important pages to Google. However, with Google's unique way of indexing, your links should be picked up by this engine with no problems. But, why take a chance - submit your important pages.

You can submit up to 10 URLs to Google a day and be safe. "Google doesn't have a number per se," says Stob. "When I first approached them, they asked me to keep it low so we started at 2 per day. They were in the middle of building a new index. Since then we have brought the count to 10 per day."

Stob continues, "Could I submit 50 a day? Probably. Would I consider doing it on a large site? Probably."

With Google, be sure to have other sites link to your Google pages, or those pages may not be picked up in the index.

To check to see if your pages are in the index, search for your domain name like this:

www.yourdomainname.com

Then, click on "Find web pages that contain the term." From there, you can choose "Search within results" to narrow down the search to particular pages.

 

HotBot/Inktomi Engines
Submission URL: http://www.canada.com/search/web/addurl.asp
Submission Limit per Day: 50
How long does it take to index a page? 2 weeks

Note: Your best bet for submitting to the Inktomi engines is to go through their pay inclusion program. For more information, visit: http://www.positiontech.com. If you don't want to pay to submit, your next best bet is to submit to Inktomi through Canada.com.

As you know, Inktomi supplies results to HotBot, Canada.com, iWon, GoTo, MSN Search, and many more search services. To get your site into the Inktomi engine faster, use their pay inclusion program, or try submitting to Canada.com or Anzwers.com instead of through HotBot.

Be sure to submit all important pages of your site to HotBot. Try submitting the same page using different variations of the page. For example:

http://www.HereIAm.com
http://HereIAm.com
http://www.HereIAm.com/index.html

You may find that your sites using the "www" are ranked slightly higher than those without the "www."

When you submit a site to Inktomi, have you noticed that it may be appear in the index for a month or two, then be dropped? Jim Stob explains what might be happening. "Inktomi will analyze a page for inclusion in their index. It may show up for a month or two and then be dropped. It is dropped because Inktomi has not seen it come up in a search and has determined that it doesn't have any value."

So, if the page doesn't get accessed through a search engine, it will be dropped from the Inktomi index?

Stob answers, "Yes for Inktomi, no for AltaVista. Inktomi has two indexes as you probably know.

Have you also noticed that your rankings fluctuate in HotBot or other engines? Stob explains, "Rankings will alter by the hour with some engines. If you lose the spot for more than two weeks, you should be concerned."

To check to see if your pages are in the index, use their Check URL form:

http://www.hotbot.com/help/checkurl.asp

Or, visit HotBot's main page and choose the "Advanced Search" button, which is on the left-hand side of the page. The SuperSearch page will appear.

Find the Location/Domain box toward the middle of the page, and enter your domain without the "http://www" prefix in the domain box. You can choose other variables, such as the page depth and the number of search results you'll be shown. Click on Search.


Lycos/FAST
 Submission URL for Lycos: http://www.lycos.com/addasite.html
Submission URL for FAST: http://alltheweb.com/addurl.html
Submission Limit per Day: 50
How long does it take to index a page? 20-40 days (in FAST)

With both Lycos and FAST, you can safety submit all of your important pages, even though both engines are "deep crawlers" and should find the links on their own.

Try omitting the "www" when submitting your pages to Lycos.

To check to see if your pages are in the index, search for your root domain, such as:

thisismysite.com

Some of your pages will usually be listed. If not, search again, but leave off any suffixes, such as ".com" or ".edu" like this:

thisismysite

Northern Light
 Submission URL: http://www.northernlight.com/docs/regurl_help.html
Submission Limit per Day: 50
How long does it take to index a page? 2-4 weeks

Though Northern Light prefers that you submit just one page to the engine, you can submit your interior and doorway pages, and you should.

However, as with all engines these days, make good use of hidden links on your main page to other important pages of your site.

To check to see if your pages are in the index, search for your domain like:

yourwebsite.com

Then, choose More Results from this Site.

In conclusion

When submitting to the search engines, play it safe. Don't submit over and over again, and look at each engine's submission guidelines carefully. If you're going to err, err on the side of being conservative.

 

ODP (Open Directory Project)
Submission URL: http://www.dmoz.org
Submission Limit per Day: 1
How long does it take to index a page? 4-8 weeks

Over the past few years, the Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org) has boomed in importance.  Why? Because it provides directory results to Lycos, HotBot, Netscape, AOL Search, Google Directory, and the list goes on and on.

Simply put, submitting to the ODP means that even if you can't get your pages indexed by Lycos, HotBot, or AOL Search, you'll still have a presence in those engines, thanks to the ODP.

So, what is the ODP? The Open Directory Project, also known as DMOZ, produces a comprehensive directory of Web sites by relying on a team of thousands of volunteer editors.

Top Ten Suggestions for Getting Your Site in the ODP

1. Spend some time cruising the ODP and choose the best subcategory for your site. If your site is in a language other than English, you'll need to submit to the World category.

2. Create a businesslike and professional title and description using your important keywords. Be honest and sincere.

3. Complete the submission form accurately and completely. Make sure that the URL is listed correctly.

4. Submit your main URL in the best subcategory. If you have an interior page that stands on its own and has a lot of relevant information, you can try submitting it into a second subcategory.

5. List a "last updated on <date>" note on your site, but only if it's been updated very recently.

6. Make your site the best it can be! Do all graphics load? Are there any broken links?

7. Make sure that your site is easy to read with good color choices and an adequate sized font.

8. If you have special requests, contact the editor of that category by clicking on the editor's name at the bottom of the category page.

9. When writing to an editor, BE NICE! Do you honestly think an editor will go out of his/her way to fulfill a special request if you send a nasty note? No!

10. When writing to an editor, state your request simply and quickly. Then, list your URL, the title of the site, a description, and the category (the complete path where you want the site listed). Don't make editors guess or have to figure out the category themselves. And, don't "demand" that your site be listed as cool!

Top Ten Things to Avoid

1. Don't submit in upper-level categories, such as Sports: Basketball. Instead, submit to the proper and exact subcategory, such as Sports: Basketball: Officiating and Rules: Basketball Hand Signals.

2. Don't just list keyword after keyword in the title or description. And, don't use an abundance of marketing hype in your title or description.

3. Don't create a description that goes on and on and on. A few sentences are fine, but don't make it any longer than that.

4. Don't put your title and description in ALL CAPS.

5. Don't submit your site until it's ready for traffic and has recently been updated. Sites with a huge "under construction" sign on the first page and little else aren't ready for traffic.

6. Don't submit pages of your site to every single category that you can possibly think of that halfway pertains to your site. Keep in mind that the editors write notes to other editors about certain sites. The last thing you want is for a bunch of editors to make comments such as, "too many submissions," or even worse, "spamming the index."

7. Don't submit your site every single day (or every other day) until it's accepted. If your site isn't indexed in three weeks, then submit it again, taking time to submit it properly.

8. If your site is only one page, work on it some more. Build original content! Create some interior pages before you submit.

9. The ODP has really gotten strict about affiliate URLs, and those submissions are generally rejected immediately.

10. Be careful about using technology such as flash, shockwave, etc., that requires the editor to download an addon in order to view the site.

Keep in mind that ODP editors are "volunteers" who aren't paid, and they're very busy people. Make your submission easy to accept and you'll get in. Make it difficult for the editor and you're out.


 

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