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How to Submit Your Blog to the Search Engines

by Sid Hale

Getting your blog noticed by the three major search engines is the first step to get "same day" spidering, and very quick indexing of your blog pages. Submitting your blog to the search engines is very similar to submitting your website, but you should be aware of several differences. Knowing these differences can help you get your blog indexed (and spidered) more quickly. NOTE - this may seem a little overwhelming the first time you read it through, but most of what follows only has to be done once and I'll give you "shortcuts" for the repetitive tasks. You'll need an account to submit to Yahoo or Google, but the account is free. Submitting to Google Google doesn't allow direct submission to its blog search. Instead, (whether you're submitting a blog or a website), you should create and submit a Google Sitemap. This only needs to be done once and then all you have to do is keep your sitemap up to date. If you're using WordPress, you can install the Google Sitemap plugin. This plugin will automatically create and update your sitemap and notifies Google every time you add more content to your WordPress blog site. If you don't use a blogging software that generates sitemaps, you can create your own. Google offers plenty of free tools for creating sitemaps. Here's where you can submit your sitemap to Google. Since Google doesn't allow direct submission to its blog search, you will need to make sure that you submit your site to feed directories that Google pulls results from for its blog search, and then make sure you ping these sites when you update your blog (see Feed Directories & Ping Services further down). For a ridiculously low one-time cost, you can use Feed Shot to submit your site to some of the major blog directories. Then you only need to ping to Feed Shot to update it at these directories. Submitting to Yahoo When submitting to Yahoo, you need to submit your site feed instead of a sitemap. Here's where you can submit your blog to Yahoo. Instead of submitting your site, submit your feed url. You should also add your blog feed to your My Yahoo page. This can get your blog added faster and will get your blog included in Yahoo's version of blog search. Submitting to MSN MSN, the third of the big three search engines is completely different in the way that you need to submit to get your blog included, but don't ignore it. As popular as Google is, I currently get far more traffic from MSN Search once my sites are indexed by them. You can submit directly to MSN to be included. You don't need an account, but you will need to submit manually because they've implemented a "captcha" image to discourage automated entries. There is an alternative that will help you get your entire blog included in the MSN site results. Submit your blog to Weblogs. If your site is included in Weblogs, it should get picked up by MSN as they draw a lot of their search results from this news site. Feed Directories Besides submitting your blog to the top three search engines, there is one other type of site you should submit to. Feed Directories are popular with other content sites, as they provide aggregated RSS feeds that are often used to supplement a site's content. Getting listed in a feed directory can result in your feed being displayed on other sites, with links to your posts and articles. Of course, first you have to find those directories and submit your blog to each of those (much like submitting to the search engines). Ping Services are a major time-saver for this task Ping Services Since your last step to quick, high-volume traffic is to ping your blog every time you post to it, you need to use Ping Services to reduce the drudgery. (note - WordPress can automatically ping a list of Feed Directories or Ping Services every time you add content to your blog) Ping Services http://www.pingomatic.com http://www.pingoat.com Ping your blog each time you update, but before you ping your blog for the first time make sure that you glance through their list of blog directories. You want to make sure you have submitted your blog to each of the directories listed. Once you've taken this step in your promotion, move on. Write press releases and articles and submit them to press release and article directories. Build links. Successfully promoting your blog or website depends on consistent promotion. By automating the pinging from your blog, a large part of this promotion will happen automatically as a by-product of posting to your blog - as long as you set up a regimen of posting regularly. Promote regularly, and you will see results.   About the Author: Sid Hale is the owner of several successful websites including ad-CLiX.com and Info-Syndicate.com, and is co-creator of  jvAlert - a membership site for facilitating high-level Joint Ventures. Join thousands of subscribers who benefit from our highly informative iMarketing iNsight ezine. Stay up to date on the latest developments, tips, techniques, strategies and expert interviews by joining us now. Feel free to browse the archives!