Search Engine Submission Programs: Yay or Nay?

[aaronmp2003]

I have tried out several search engine submission programs, just to see what they are all about, including Internet Business Promotor, Dynamic Submission, and Web Position Gold. I didn't buy any of them, as I'm not sure if they are worth the value, which brings me to the subject of this post.

As near as I can tell, they are a very convenient way of keeping track of your search engine ranking (although that's a guess, since the trial versions are lame), as well as keeping track of keyword density, meta information/density, etc. Then there are also the submission tactics themselves, which again are hard to quantify without paying for the program.

My general thoughts are to NOT pay for something if it is just going to be a "convenience" for me, and only to shell out the cash if the program will do something that I can't do manually. However, that being said, I have a HUGE list of search engines that I submit to (I hit the "little guys" regularly), and it takes a very long time. Add to that the fact that in some of the smaller search engines, I would like to submit specific keyword-enhanced pages in addition to the main page, and the time factor becomes even more evident.

So, given that submission is equal to a large time investment, do you think these programs are worth the price? Most of them range from $79 to $150 dollars for a single user license.

-- Aaron

[cbp]

I never waste my time submitting to search engines - manually or by a program.

CBP

[dmcgill]

Being a search engine owner myself, I say that the auto submitters are not good. You end up with tons of spam from many ffa sites and classified ads, the big ones, (search engines) don't usually accept your submission done that way and overall, they have never done anything for me. I remember some time ago, I bought a software called addweb. I used it once and got so much crap back I had to change my email address. Nay.
Dmcgill

[seo guy]

As a professional SEO I can honestly say I NEVER submit a clients site to a search engine unless they specifically ask to be in Teoma paid inclusion. All the rest can be spidered quite easily if you build high PR backlink relationships (Or buy them) gets you into the index pretty quick anyways.

If you are submitting though, make sure you take the manual route, much higher success rate and besides do you want to trust your listing to an program?

[seo guy]

Oh and hey DMC where you from in BC? Im in Nanaimo on Van Isle :D

[dmcgill]

Hey, fellow VI guy, Island locked and all!! I don't know who to be mad at the ferry corp or the union. About 50 50 right now.
I'm from the other end, Way up North. The island doesn't end at CR you know. We are located in Port Hardy.
PM me. Maybe we can work together.
Dmcgill

[cyanide]

nay -loud and clear !!

In fact the biggest search engine around(Google) frowns upon these programs and could get you banned.

Certainly, doing it manually is alot more time-consuming, but I usually have a list of SE's and directories starting from the most important.
Start with those. Alot of the smaller Se's are pretty useless. Although submitting to directories are usually a good idea.

Keep in mind though, that with most, you only have to do submit once. It's not necessary to re-submit every month

[bfranson@ebizmark.com]

You need to put your time and effort into PPC management, link campaigning, and manually listing to the right sites and directories (dmoz.org to begin with). The fruits of search engine marketing are not obtained through these mass submission programs although I saw a benefit from these products at one time. Times have changed. Don't forget about your code and natural listing code manipulation techniques.

[greeneagle]

Good advice bfranson

We do occasionally us SubmitWolfPro (out of Australia) but we always exclude GOOGLE and of course ALL FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFA Links!
Ken

[aaronmp2003]

Hey everyone.

Just wanted to clarify here that the programs that I am talking about are NOT mass-submission programs. In fact, the program that I am leaning towards the most actually opens up the website submission page inside the program, pre-fills out the fields, thens asks me for confirmation before actually doing the submit. Basically it's just a time saving short cut to the submission page for a lot of websites, but I still get to pick the websites.

I don't believe in mass submission programs and never have. I"m aware that they will get you banned from some search engines, so I don't even consider stuff like that.

My question here is about programs that help you to automate the submission process, but still allow you final say before anything is actually submitted.

Also, there is the tracking portion of these programs that is also of interest to me. I could manually check my website's status in each search engine, but that would be very time consuming. These types of programs check all of them at once, then spit out a report of the results.

So, the basic question here isn't about whether or not to mass submit, it's about whether a nicely done software program that assists with the submission and tracking process is worth the money to save the webmaster the submission and tracking headaches.

Thanks again, everyone.

-- Aaron