How Often Should I Submit My Site?

<< Back to Frequently Asked Questions Index

The answer is different for each and every search engine.Obviously you need to allow the search engines time to complete their cycle. Submitting the same site or page many times over can lead you the submissions or listings being blocked.

Pages or Sites
For directories such as Yahoo which list sites rather than individual pages, once your iste is listed, you should never submit it again unless it needs moving to a different category, or you are requesting some other change. In this case you should use Yahoo's "change form". New Pages
Whenever you add a new page, it is worth submitting that page to all the indexing engines, but not directories. Similarly if you make major cahnges to a page, it is worth re-submitting it.

Regular Re-Submission
Occasionally search engines drop a page from their listings for some unknown reason, also we have seen cross-linked pages. For this reason it is best to re-submit pages on some kind of regular basis. This may involve creating a routine of resubmitting a proportion of your sites pages each month or even each day. Some search engines will only accept a maximum number of requests for listing from a particular domain within a particular period. Some search engines state this, others don't. if you wished to add 20 new pages, all with similar text, but all with important fifferences, it may be best to submit one per day for 20 days rather than submit them all at once. Again every search engine varies. It's also important not to abuse the generosity of the search engines, so don't submit too frequently, the search engines regard it as a form of "spamming"; ultimately it could get you banned from some search engines.

A Sensible Compromise
Because of the differences between different search engines, it's difficult to be precise about the optimum frequency. As a sensible compromise, we believe that submitting pages monthly is a good plan.
There are bound to be differences of opinion on this subject. As search engines evolve, our own opinion and advice may change. Using our services can allow us to worry about these matters, and leave you free to get on with managing your business, and all the stacks of orders your web site should generate.