by Website or Blog Submission to Search Engines refers to the process of informing search engines about the existence of your website or blog and requesting them to index your web pages. This is an essential step in getting your site listed in search engine results pages (SERPs). When you submit your website, you’re essentially asking search engines to crawl and index your content, making it accessible to users who search for relevant keywords.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to submit your website or blog to search engines and the benefits of doing so:
How to Submit Your Website or Blog to Search Engines:
- Create and Verify Ownership of Your Website:
- First, you need to create a Google Search Console account (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools) if you don’t have one already.
- Add and verify ownership of your website using one of the available verification methods. Google Search Console provides detailed instructions on this process.
- Submit Your Sitemap:
- Once your website is verified, access your Google Search Console dashboard.
- Click on the property (website) you want to submit.
- In the left-hand menu, go to “Index” and then “Sitemaps.”
- Click the “Add/Test Sitemap” button.
- Enter the URL of your sitemap (usually “sitemap.xml”) and click “Submit.”
- Submit to Bing and Other Search Engines:
- While Google is the dominant search engine, it’s also a good idea to submit your site to Bing Webmaster Tools and other major search engines like Yahoo.
- Create an account on Bing Webmaster Tools and follow their submission and verification process.
- Some search engines may allow you to submit your site directly, while others might require you to use a sitemap submission method similar to Google.
Benefits of Website Submission to Search Engines:
- Increased Visibility: Submitting your website ensures that it is indexed and appears in search engine results when users search for relevant keywords. This increases the visibility of your site to potential visitors.
- Faster Indexing: While search engines eventually discover and index new content on their own, manual submission can expedite the process, especially for new websites or time-sensitive content.
- Improved Search Ranking: Search engines use indexing data to rank websites. By submitting your site, you provide search engines with structured information about your content, which can positively impact your search rankings.
- Monitoring and Insights: Search Console tools like Google Search Console provide valuable insights into how your site performs in search results. You can monitor keyword rankings, click-through rates, and potential issues that need attention.
- Index Control: You have more control over what content gets indexed. You can submit specific sitemaps that prioritize important pages, helping ensure they are indexed promptly.
How Website Submission to Search Engines Works:
When you submit your website or sitemap to search engines, you’re essentially requesting their bots (also known as spiders or crawlers) to visit your site. Here’s how it works:
- Crawling: Search engine bots follow links from one web page to another, crawling the content on those pages. When they encounter a link to a new website, they add it to their queue for crawling.
- Indexing: During the crawling process, the bots analyze the content of each page, including text, images, meta tags, and other elements. This data is then stored in the search engine’s index, a massive database of web pages and their content.
- Ranking: Search engines use complex algorithms to determine the relevance and quality of web pages for specific keywords or search queries. Based on these algorithms, they rank web pages in search results.
- Displaying Results: When a user enters a search query, the search engine retrieves relevant results from its index and displays them in the SERPs, usually in order of perceived relevance.
By submitting your website or sitemap, you’re essentially providing search engines with a roadmap to your site’s content. This ensures that your site is crawled, indexed, and made available to users searching for related information, products, or services. Regularly monitoring your website’s performance through tools like Google Search Console allows you to identify and address any indexing or ranking issues, ultimately helping your site reach its intended audience.
Top 10 popular search engines
Top 10 popular search engines, along with information about when they were founded, who founded them, and the initial names (if applicable):
- Google:
- Founded: September 4, 1998
- Founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin
- Initial Name: Backrub
- Website Submission: To submit your website to Google, follow these steps:
- Create a Google Search Console account.
- Verify ownership of your website (typically by adding a meta tag or uploading an HTML file).
- Add your website property to Google Search Console.
- Submit your sitemap in the “Sitemaps” section.
- Bing:
- Founded: June 1, 2009
- Founders: Microsoft Corporation
- Initial Name: Live Search, Windows Live Search, MSN Search
- Website Submission: To submit your website to Bing, follow these steps:
- Create a Bing Webmaster Tools account.
- Verify ownership of your website.
- Add your website by entering its URL.
- Submit your sitemap in the “Sitemaps” section.
- Yahoo:
- Founded: March 2, 1995
- Founders: Jerry Yang and David Filo
- Initial Name: Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web
- Website Submission: Yahoo Search no longer accepts direct website submissions. Instead, Yahoo uses Bing’s search index. So, submit your site to Bing, as mentioned earlier.
- DuckDuckGo:
- Founded: September 25, 2008
- Founders: Gabriel Weinberg
- Initial Name: DuckDuckGo
- Website Submission: DuckDuckGo uses various sources, including Bing, for its search results. So, submitting to Bing can indirectly help your site appear in DuckDuckGo search results.
- Yandex:
- Founded: September 23, 1997
- Founders: Arkady Volozh and Ilya Segalovich
- Initial Name: Yandex
- Website Submission: To submit your website to Yandex, follow these steps:
- Create a Yandex Webmaster Tools account.
- Verify ownership of your website.
- Add your website property.
- Submit your sitemap in the “Indexing” section.
- Baidu:
- Founded: January 1, 2000
- Founders: Robin Li and Eric Xu
- Initial Name: Baidu
- Website Submission: Baidu primarily serves the Chinese market. To submit your website to Baidu, you may need to engage with a Baidu Webmaster Tools account, which requires a Chinese mobile number for registration.
- Ask.com:
- Founded: 1995
- Founders: Garrett Gruener and David Warthen
- Initial Name: Ask Jeeves
- Website Submission: Ask.com no longer accepts website submissions directly. It’s best to focus on optimizing your site for other major search engines like Google and Bing, as Ask.com also draws search results from them.
- AOL Search:
- Founded: 1983
- Founders: Marc Seriff, Steve Case, and Jim Kimsey
- Initial Name: Quantum Computer Services
- Website Submission: AOL Search no longer operates as an independent search engine. It now relies on other search engines for results.
- Excite:
- Founded: 1994
- Founders: Graham Spencer, Joe Kraus, Mark Van Haren, Ben Lutch, Ryan McIntyre, Martin Reinfried, and Vinod Khosla
- Initial Name: Architext
- Website Submission: Excite is no longer a major search engine. Focus on optimizing for current search engines like Google and Bing.
- Lycos:
- Founded: July 2, 1994
- Founders: Michael Loren Mauldin
- Initial Name: Lycos
- Website Submission: Lycos is no longer a prominent search engine. Concentrate on optimizing your site for other contemporary search engines.
To submit your website to these search engines, you typically need to create an account with their respective webmaster tools (if available), verify ownership of your website, and follow their submission guidelines. Most search engines provide a user-friendly interface with clear instructions on how to add your website and submit sitemaps for indexing. Make sure to regularly update and monitor your website through these webmaster tools to ensure optimal performance in search results.
