Many bloggers and website owners find it hard to get their sites listed on major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and others. Having your content listed on search engines is very important because this is where people go to look for topics they find interesting. Even if your site doesn´t show up in the top search results, being listed is vital for building an internet presence around your content in the long run.
Actually, getting listed in major search engines is pretty easy. If your site has been around for a while and you already have a steady flow of visitors, chances are you´re already listed. Simply type your domain name or the URL address of your site in the search field of Google for instance, to check if your site comes up in the search results. If not, simply follow these simple steps to have your content listed.
Most major search engines have a submission page for manually submitting your work to the search engine in question. To find these pages, simply look for links that says something like “Submit Your Link”, “Add URL” or similar. You can also search for the submission page directly at the search engine using search phrases like “add my site to Google” or “add URL to MSN”. There are also several commercial website submission services available on the internet who will submit your site to many search engines at once.
Submitting your content is useless if the search engines can´t find your site or if it´s not search engine friendly. Search Google or Yahoo! for the phrase “Search Engine Optimization” to find a lot of articles on the subject on how to prepare your site for the search engines.
As always, building your website or blog around good, quality content is important for both being and staying listed. Choosing the right keywords for your site and using them properly in your content is also important to have your site indexed in the correct category so that people can find it. If your site is about “Video Games”, don´t plotter the content text with references to “board games” or “online poker” for instance which are games that are not directly related to video games.
Once you have submitted your site to several search engines, or if you have used a website submission service, it can take up to 8-10 weeks before your content is listed, so be patient! However, if your site is already being linked from other web pages on the internet and you receive some visitors from these links, chances are it will be much faster. Good luck!
