not recognized by any search engines after 2 weeks

is this unusual?

[santrobi]

When I type my domain name directly into the search box on Google, Yahoo, etc., my site is not found.

I submitted to all the big SEs 2 weeks ago through my host and got confirmation e-mails verifing the submission. I also submitted a sitemap to Google using their guidelines.

I have 2 other unrelated sites that I've never submitted, yet when I type their domain into the searches, multiple pages from those sites appear in the results.

I've read in other posts that sites were indexed in a few days. Should I be worried? Is it possible I purchased a domain name that someone previously abused?

[Csandb]

How many backlinks do you have pointing to the domain? If you don't have any or very few the search engines probably won't index your site. Try getting some links on sites that have a high pagerank and your domain will probably be indexed within a week or two or even a couple days if you get enough links. Backlinks matter a lot more than submitting a site. If you have a enough links the spiders will continue to visit your site through those links and you're bound to get indexed.

[santrobi]

Thanks. I knew that backlinks were important for keyword searches, but I thought my site would still come up if I type the actual domain name. The other two sites I mentioned don't have any backlinks either, yet they show up in the search.?

[Csandb]

Try seeing if there are any backlinks listed in MSN for the sites you mentioned. Google is very selective in what backlinks they list but MSN seems to list them pretty easily. It could also be that backlinks exist that aren't listed in any of the search engines.

[pageoneresults]

Is it possible I purchased a domain name that someone previously abused?

That is a very strong possibility. You could use the Wayback Machine to see if there is any history associated with the domain...

[archive.org...]

Also, two weeks really isn't a whole lot of time to see any activity. You may have to wait a month or two, or even more depending on how you are marketing the site, what type of inbound links you've been able to establish, what type of outbound links. There is so much more to it than just submitting and waiting. :)

In fact, submitting to search engines is a deprecated process these days. The major search engines will find your link from other sites just fine. It doesn't hurt to use the free submit interfaces offered by Google, MSN and Yahoo!, but you're going to need a bit more effort than that.

Have you submitted to the Yahoo! directory? Paid your $299.00 annual recurring fee?

Have you submitted to ODP (The Open Directory Project)?

Have you submitted to any industry specific directories? Those that are specifically targeted to the site?

How many total pages do you have up there right now? Are they all linked together? Do you have a site map in place? Is that site map linked from all pages of the site?

Questions, questions, questions... ;)

[CubsFan]

I've recently received a tip to submit to Google in the following manner:

1) Never use the submit URL and
2) When you type your domain into the search box and it comes back unfound but additionally offers you the 'link' to your site; click the link and bingo! your indexed.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? if this is true it may help your 2 week dilemma.

[tedster]

That certainly may be one way to get googlebot to take a first look. Getting a friend to browse to the site with the Google toolbar active is another approach that some people recommend.

However, getting a first look is not the same as getting into the results and staying there -- so the above recommendations for getting links, directory listings, and so on are more important for the long term and repeat visits.

The Google Sitemap program is the best thing you mentioned doing. Are you getting good feedback from Google about that?