In our series of How to Avoid Search Engine Stumbling Blocks, we have covered as many aspects of possible. Here are some more
Invalid submissions
Submissions to major search engines and directories can be rejected for minor rule infringement (e.g. title submitted not matching actual site title). There could be a URL syntax problem, missing file, incorrect registration, slow or unstable connections, invalid email address links, incorrect categories, HTML errors, and so on.
Make sure you have uploaded the pages to your website before submitting them. Submitting a page that does not exist or submitting with a typo in the URL is a mistake often made.
As many search engines use directory information as well as their own to provide results, exclusion from a directory can be disastrous. 20 to 40 percent of applicants who submit their websites to Yahoo get rejected with no refund of their submission fees. Don't forget that Directories use human beings to review your website and decide if it has sufficient "quality" before they will list it.
Search Engine Random Errors
Search Engines are managing a database of hundreds of millions of pages, and sometimes submissions are lost through technical errors and bugs.
If you've followed all the "rules" and are still not listed, then re-submit.
Once your page achieves a desirable ranking, it's best not to continue submitting it. You risk the engine re-evaluating the page and possibly reducing your ranking.
Submission Limits
Never exceed the recommended limits for submission. Check with individual search engines, as some will ignore all submissions for the same domain if this rule is broken.
Keywords relevance, position, frequency and context
Keywords and phrases are an important factor in how search engines (and directories) rank website results, because they indicate a website's relevance to a particular search term. Search engines look at the position, frequency and context of keywords, on the page itself as well as in the META tags, to measure relevance.
If your website content does not conform to search engine criteria for the frequency and spread of keywords in your web pages, you can be penalised for either keyword spamming or insufficient keywords to make the page relevant.
Learn more about Keywords for Websites
Automated Submission Software
Don't trust the search engine submission process to automated programs and services. Some of them are excellent, but the major search engines are too important.
Submit manually so that you can see if there are any problems reported.
Index Time
Allow enough time to become indexed. Search engines sometimes list this on their submission page, but these times are often inaccurate or out of date.
Average index times often range from one to eight weeks depending on the engine.
If you opt for Paid Listings, you will be indexed within days.
Index Times Can Vary
Sometimes engines will index sites every 30 days fairly consistently and then suddenly stop indexing most sites for several months. This can be frustrating, but it does happen.
Generally a major engine will not go more than three to four months without refreshing its index.
If you're wondering if others are experiencing trouble getting indexed on a particular engine, try asking around. Subscribe to search engine discussion forums, where you can find valuable feedback and information on search engines.
You may already be Indexed
You may already be indexed and not know it. How to determine if a page or domain has been indexed varies from one search engine to another, and it's often difficult to tell for sure whether your pages are in fact in there. You could be there (i.e., indexed) but be buried near the bottom.
Searching on a keyword that applies to your website will only work if you have optimized your pages for each search engine.
Try this Index Visibility checker
If you are already indexed, and want a higher search engine ranking, you need to review your website to identify changes required to improve your ranking.
Page Limits
If you have many pages indexed but are having a hard time getting new ones recognized, be aware that there are limits.
Each search engine will only spider so many pages of your website. This may range from a few dozen or three to four hundred depending on the engine.
Google is one engine that tends to crawl deeper into your site. However, how deep they go may depend on factors like your link popularity. Sites with higher link popularity are deemed "worthier" of more thorough indexing.
Spam
If you have ever used any questionable techniques that might be considered an overt attempt at spamming (i.e., excessive repetition of keywords, same colour text as background,) an engine may ignore or reject your submissions.
If you're having trouble getting indexed in the expected amount of time, make sure your site is spam-free.
Learn about more search engine stumbling blocks on these related pages:
Avoid Search Engine Submission Stumbling Blocks
Website Design and Construction Stumbling Blocks
Website Content Stumbling Blocks
Navigation and Inbound/Outbound Links Stumbling Blocks
Web Hosting and IP Address Stumbling Blocks
Unacceptable Techniques for Search Engines
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