Internet Marketing for Small Business > Search Engine Index


Being Indexed by a Search Engine

When someone says your website is in the search engine index, it means your website is available in the search engine and can be displayed in search results.

Great my website is in the Index.. All done!

Not so fast. You'll hear scam marketing websites talk about guaranteed indexing or inclusion in the search engines. They'll make it sound like this is the end-all goal of search engine optimization. The truth is getting indexed is easy. Getting your website to actually rank for keywords is something totally different.

94% of Search Engine Users end their search on page one of the results.

Think about that for a moment. That means that if you are on page 2 of the search results (#11-20) you are only exposed to a maximum of 6% of the total search volume. Not good. If you are on page 3 or beyond that number becomes unimportant.

The fact that you are indexed does not infact mean your website is ranking for any keywords. Infact it may not even rank for the company name depending on the level of optimization. Being indexed only means that the search engine has your website in it's database and knows your website is out there.

That's a good first start, but then the real work begins. From there on it will take a solid Internet Marketing Strategy and a Search Engine Optimization campaign to see results with your website.

Slow Down, I'm not even Indexed yet.. how do I get there?

Well the worst way to proceed is to hire a search engine submission service. These are companies that are living in the Web 1.0 world, and have outlived their usefulness. I was recently speaking with the owner of one of these companies at an SEO conference who admitted that submission itself is fairly obsolete. In his opinion search engine submission still retains an aura of credibility (though that is fading) and for that reason it drives traffic to his business website. Once a customer signs up for their inexpensive service, they go for an upsell on search engine optimization and link-building campaigns.

So what exactly is the problem with these services? Simply put, search engines will discover your website naturally through the process of a search engine optimization campaign. When you submit your website for inclusion in a search engine index, it can take up to 6 months for your website to be reviewed for inclusion. Some search engines even charge you for a priority listing.

Remember your "listing" doesn't actually mean you will rank for anything important that will bring traffic to your website.

On the other hand, through search engine optimization your website will become exposed to search engines naturally and included much faster. It's even possible to be indexed within a day if your website has backlinks from the right website.

Simply put search engines use automated programs called spiders or robots to crawl websites in their index. If one of the websites in their index has outbound link to another website it's likely to follow that link and discover that website on it's own. Popular websites can be crawled by one of these spiders multiple times a day, while less popular websites may be crawled once a month or less.

Save your money, put your website out where a search engine can see it, and you will get noticed.