Need help with spidering. All opinions appreciated

[brucec]

I appreciate as many opinions and viewpoints as I can get on this issue.

We were using Submit It! via BCentral, to submit our web site to the major search engines and they kept us up at the number 1 spot for months until Inktomi decided to get greedy and charge per click. BCentral pulled the cord on Inktomi, a good decision in my opinion.

Now, we are nowhere near the top on the major search engines and we are forced to submit once a month. I have a question for you all.

We have purchased over 180 URLs to submit with the new Submit It format. If I only submit one web page, our site map, once a month and as long as it is properly linking to all web pages in our web site, will the Site Map suffice? Will all the other pages linking from the site map also be spidered by the search engines or should I submit each URL in our web site separately?

[jdMorgan]

The Search Engine Submission [webmasterworld.com] forum at WebmasterWorld has been deprecated -- and for good reason. If you have incoming links to your site, it is no longer necessary to submit your site to the major search engines... ever. They will find you by following links. Frequency of submission no longer affects search engine ranking results as long as there are links to your pages from other sites' pages that the search engine robots can find.

There are many threads here on WebmasterWorld that address getting better ranking [webmasterworld.com] in search engines through incoming links and on-page factors. Your time would be better spent pursuing those aspects of search engine positioning.

Jim

[brucec]

Ok, Jim, but what if nobody is linking to us. I work for a gentleman and wants top placement in about 30 keywords.

My question is simply that if I submit one site which links to all pages in our site, will those pages go along the spidering with our one web page, namely the home page and site map?

I am tempted to submit every web page in our site, but I know we can get blacklisted...

[jdMorgan]

If your site map contains more links than your homepage, presents those links in a more compact form and with better link-text, then it'd be a good idea to submit that. Most site maps present a "flatter, wider view" of a site and all its pages, which makes it easier to spider.

It's been more than five years since I did "site submission" so I can't speak to what might get you blacklisted any more -- I'm sure the rules have changed by now. However, if your client wants top ranking, site submission alone is not going to do it. You're going to need links from other well-ranked, relevant pages, plus on-topic link text, good on-page factors (including outgoing links), and a good deal of work to get to the top and stay there.

Best,
Jim

[brucec]

Thanks for your help.

One last question...famous last words LOL...do most of the search engines accept get statement urls with question marks and ampersands?

[jdMorgan]

Most search engines accept dynamic URLs, but they may not spider them deeply if there are too many parameters in the query string. Do a search [google.com] on WebmasterWorld for "seach engine friendly URLs" to research this problem and possible solutions. (And note that WebmasterWorld, while a dynamically-driven site, appears to use static URLs through the magic of URL-rewriting.)

Jim

[brucec]

Thanks, the answer a lot. Our URLs are simply a query to the ID or primary key field of the database table. They usually go no further than one name value pair

So, I guess I should have nothing to worry about