Are Site Submission Services Valid in 2015?

I always say my mailbox is the best inspiration for blog posts and this is a great case in point.

Network Solutions sent one of our clients an email saying that they should submit to their websites to Google, Bing Yahoo and a few other places. And if you didn’t know how you could pay NSI to do this for you. I really hate this type of an email because it’s very deceiving.

First the days of submitting your site to Google are days long gone. I suppose that somewhere there is still a form that you can submit to Google, but there is a really long line if there is. Google has their webmaster tools, now rebranded as search console and inside there is a place to submit a sitemap. That is the proper way to submit your site to Google in 2015. Anything short of this is a waste of money. This shouldn’t be confused with Google local, but that doesn’t seem to be what the email was talking about.

I was also intrigued by Yahoo directory being listed, whereas I dare anyone to go actually find Yahoo Directory. Yahoo seems to still charge people for this but you can’t sign in, you can’t find it. Now this should be mixed up with Yahoo Local which of course if i put in web design houston I may show up in the local listing. But we have had a Yahoo Directory listing since 1998, and that now is gone never to be heard from again.

Bing has a similar set of circumstances as Google, and has a Bing webmasters tools where sitemaps are again submitted and Bing spiders your site. As people ask me about these listing services, I have to wonder what they do with sites that don’t have sitemaps or are too small to quailfy to even rank.

Lastly I want to address directories. In this age of pengin, is it advisable to wholesale submit your website to directories. There was a time when i have about 40 some directories what I could get a link out of and they were good, but we don’t really advocate just blanket signing up your sites anymore. Each site needs to be reviewed, first to see if Google even thinks its a good directory or have they banned or penalized it. You also have to ask yourself if that directory is relevant to what you do. If it is not placement in it is probably not a good idea.

There are also things like Four Square. With that you will need to ask yourself if you have a brick and morter or are you a internet only based business. I personally am not confortable allowing a cookie cutter program or company just submit sites. I see it all too often from big box web hosting companies and I have to ask myself if that is what is in the best interest of the client, or whats in the best interest of the companies bottom line. Either way I think it can have a large negative impact if the site submission is not handled right. I real buyer beware attitude is a must when talking about site submissions in 2015.