If You Could Submit Just One Page To The Search Engines Which Should It Be?

Listen. Some make submitting pages to search engines sound like the fast track to search engine ranking nirvana. Not to mention you'll see offers to submit your site to a scadzillion sites for some low nominal fee.

Yeah right. It's enough to make Pinocchio's nose grow!

Because it's just not true. Basically there are really only three search engines that count. Google snags more than 60% of all searches. Yahoo 23%. While MSN search has less than 10%. Which leaves a bit over 5% for the remaining scadzillions to fight over.

So don't fall for the line those snake oil salesmen would have you believe. You know? That submitting to all known search engines will have the bots lining up like addicts at a methadone clinic to get at your site. With traffic following your high search engine rankings shortly thereafter.

Besides it's not even necessary. Since if you have just one link from a site already in Google or Yahoo those bots will find you. Sooner or later. Making it safe to keep your wallet securely in your pants or purse.

Now I tell you all this knowing there may be one exception. But only for those who insist on submitting out of some sense of leaving no stone unturned.

If that's you, do you know which one page might be the only possible exception to the "It Ain't Necessary to Submit Your Site" rule?

Let me cue up the Final Jeopardy music while you ponder that.

Give up?

Okay, I'm talking about your site map. Reason being your site map points the bots to the promised land of all pages from your site. Or should.

Given that let me make this site map submission thing super quick and easy.

First to insure the bots can't help but find yours, put a link to your site map in the footer of every page on your site. That's right, EVERY page. This way no matter which page the bot lands on first it can't miss your site map. And in turn follow it to all the pages of your site.

But wait. You gotta have a site map to submit a site map, right? Well then, here's a nifty little site map generator that should be good enough to get you started.

http://www.netroglycerine.com/sitemap.html

It gets high marks from me because it works and it is available at no charge.

Here's how it works.

Enter your URL. Click none of the check boxes. Then hit ENTER on your keyboard since there is no start or run key on the page. Then right before your very eyes, in seconds, one general issue site map will appear.

Next "View Source". Cut and paste the code into your page template and away you go. One quick and dirty site map ready for submission. Or you can edit it a tad to clean it up a bit.

Oh and if you aren't enamored with that approach here are some other suggestions. Both free and for fee.

• http://www.site-map.co.uk/build-a-site-map.html using Xenu Link Sleuth

• http://www.searchbliss.com/site-map-generator.htm

• http://www.sitemappro.com/

• http://www.xtreeme.com/sitexpert/

Finally submit your site map page to Yahoo, Google and sooner or later MSN search once it's unveiled. To help with that here's the links:

Yahoo http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request

Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Anyway, whether you use a tool to shave hours off the process or feel compelled to create your site map by hand, submitting a site map is a once and done deal. Do so and sooner or later a hapless search engine bot will be assigned to check out the page you submitted. When it does it will think it hit web pages paydirt and get busy indexing all pages in your site.

There. Now you know which page, if any, to submit where.

Copyright 2004 John Gergye

About The Author

John Gergye shares more ideas like this in his just updated eBook "Traffic From Google in 35 Days". Find out more here: http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/j/tfg35cl.shtml. Or test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml/ and get the free special report "Coming Out On Top".

---

What Makes The Perfect SEO Firm?

SEO companies come in all shapes and sizes. You've got... Read More

The Search Engine Optimization Secret that Everybody Ignores

Search engine optimization is a very critical task in the... Read More

Link Swapping - How to Win the Website Marketing Game in 3 Easy Steps

If you are a webmaster, chances are one of your... Read More

Make Quality Content Your #1 Priority

It is by now a proven fact that content is... Read More

Speed Indexing - 3 Steps to Getting Your Website Listed in Google Quickly

Getting your website listed in Google quickly simply requires that... Read More

5 Extremely Valuable Search Engine Optimization Tips

Search engine optimization is THE most cost effective way for... Read More

Adding Content To Your Site Every Day

If you have been a webmaster for more than a... Read More

How to Develop a Successful ROI for Your Website

Are You Really Measuring for Return on Investment (ROI) with... Read More

How You Can Easily Compile A Gigantic Keyword List

It doesn't matter what kind of marketing you are involved... Read More

Buzzwords vs Effective SEO Keywords

Ever see a website that seems to speak a foreign... Read More

Finding The Best Search Engine

With Billions of pages on the internet how do you... Read More

Make The Search Engines Love Your Site

Most webmasters have no idea on how to make a... Read More

Good Content: The Key To Search Engine Ranking

Good Content: The Key To Search Engine RankingWhat drives visitors... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the amount... Read More

Google Patent Application ? Linking

The recent patent application filed by Google details numerous items... Read More

How to Get One Way Backlinks

Don't be fooled into believing that all backlinks are created... Read More

Keywords are the ?KEY? to a Popular and Profitable Web Site

Keyword Research will reveal answers to 3 critical questions:1. Is... Read More

SEO Expert Guide - Proposition Development (part 2/10)

It is literally amazing how many people start their online... Read More

3 Principles Of Google

When online "Use it. Use it. Use it."Google is our... Read More

Internet Marketing and Search Engine Indexing.

The world of internet marketing is a highly competitive place.... Read More

3.5 Tips To Help You Avoid Becoming The Next Search Engine Outlaw

Want to avoid being blacklisted by the search engines and... Read More

SEO - Get Your Site Out of the Google Sandbox Fast!

Is your new site sitting in the infamous Google "sandbox"?... Read More

The Myth of Guaranteed #1 Ranking in Search Engine Marketing

You've seen the ads: Guaranteed #1 Ranking! There are no... Read More

Promoting Home Business: Tips to Increase Web Site Sales

You've selected an appropriate Online Business Opportunity. That is not... Read More

High Search Engine Rankings - A Long Term Strategy

The last 1.5 years have shown major changes in search... Read More

List Building vs. Search Engine Optimization

It seems the excitement about search engine optimization fades in... Read More

Search Engine Saturation Tool ? A Must Have SEO Tool

Search Engines have become the soul of the Internet. They... Read More

Selecting The Title Of Your Link Exchanges

I want to touch base with selecting the title of... Read More

Blogging, Spamming, and Blog Spam

Email marketing once proved to be immensely effective, but the... Read More

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 5: Internal Linking

Welcome to part five in this search engine positioning series.... Read More

Tales, Fails And Betrayals Of Search Engine Placement Part 1

This is the first of a series of articles about... Read More

Owning Your Category Online - Is Our Website Broken?

"Owning your business category online is more than just a... Read More

Finding Profitable Keyword Phrases

So you have a site concept developed that you are... Read More