Good or Bad: Automated 75,000+ Search Engine Submissions

[MattKP]

Okay whats the deal with programs like Trellian or websites offering submission services to 75,000 search engines & directories..

Does using it real do anything / help?

I could see if it was directories then it would be link backs, but just crappy search engines that dont get traffic? I dont know if I see the benefit...

What do you people think.

[GoLinks]

IMHO It's a waste of time,

something I ran into just yesterday - http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/articles/search-engine-positioning/submissions.htm

I agree with the most of it, yet I do think that manual submission to big directories is worth the effort, mainly for new, linkless URLs.

[Nacho]

A search engine has 3 primary forms of capture:

1) Task oriented feed, where the search engine company tells what urls to go get.
2) User feeds URL with a basic form submission.
3) A search engine spider (or crawler).

IMO, search engine spiders are getting much smarter these days and finding just about everything there is out there (some better than others). Perhaps first time submission will continue to have its usefulness, but for sure not the case with the need for resubmission. Search engines need to do its functions correct or else improve them. Let them do the work, not you.

[Kal]

Hi Matt and welcome :)

The major problems with these type of "submit" services are:

1) There are only really 10 or so crucial engines/directories that you need your site included in. Five if you are only worried about market share.

2) The remaining 74,990 engines/directories they claim to submit your site to are generally low quality home-made versions of the ODP or else FFA (Free For All) link factories that will do your link popularity more harm than good to be associated with. Google calls these "bad neighbourhoods". You don't want your site associated with these

3) As long as your site is linked to from another indexed site, the crawler engines will find your site without you even needing to submit it!

4) Often these programs use automated submission software to submit your site. At best these can be ignored by engines. At worst they can be a drain on the engine's server resources.

5) You should retain sole control over what engines/directories your site is included in. There are plenty of resources in here about where to find high quality relevant directories, particularly regionally specific or niche market directories that you should be submitting to. Check out the thread Directory Submission 101 (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2783&highlight=Directory+submissions). Very very few submit services will do this for you.

[KeywordMonkey]

Have to agree with all of above - avoid these services.

They spam sites with your URL, submit to pointless (ie no traffic/PR) sites and often result in your email being spammed or your site crawled for email addresses that then get spammed.

Avoid.

[MattKP]

Your responses backed up my gut feeling on the whole thing, I had just never really looked into it. Sounds like a service to rope in the suckers.