Chapter 8. Submit URL

After reading Part II, you now know that some search results are actually ads from search engines that sell paid placement programs to companies. You also know that other listings are "organic" (or "natural"), which means a search engine spider has crawled the web and retrieved site pages for its database (or index). When a web surfer performs a keyword search, a crawler-based (or algorithm-based) search engine ranks the pages within its database based on keyword relevancy.

To get your web site's pages into the organic area of search results, you have one of two options:

• Pray, then wait for months or years hoping that spiders find your site pages

• Pay a "come hither" fee, which guarantees spider visits to each page you submit

If your web site has less than 500 pages, then you'll use Submit URL to tell the search engine spiders which pages to visit and include in their databases. This program is sometimes referred to as Add URL, Direct Submit, or Site Submit. It's recommended that you submit your home page and site pages that have good content for your human visitors .

Rankings achieved through paid inclusion programs aren't marked as sponsored ads. They're often called "Web pages" or "Results." Look at MSN Search in Figure 8.1 as an example. In a query for " welding services," the organic listings begin at position #6 (first page) and are entitled "Web Pages." Keep in mind that both Submit URL and Trusted Feed inclusion programs (discussed in the next chapter), as with Pay-Per-Placement (PPP), provide search results to distribution partners including MSN Search.

Figure 8.1. Organic rankings achieved in MSN Search through paid inclusion are listed under the "Web Pages" heading.