Submitting your store to search engines
From Spiffy Stores Knowledge Base
There are hundreds or perhaps even thousands of search engines out there on the web, but the reality is 90 to 95% of web surfers only use a handful of them.
Google, Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go, AOL and Ask (formerly Ask Jeeves) are the most popular right now, and they are all you really need to be concerned with at the moment.
Once you get listed with the main ones, you'll eventually show up in some of the other "less important" engines since many of them are just portals of the more popular ones.
For example, Netscape.com has a search engine, but they pull their results in from Google. So if you're ranked #1 in Google for "blue widgets" then you'll have the same ranking in Netscape for that keyword phrase.
There are many engines that feed from the popular ones so there is no need to go and submit to these portal engines since you're covered under the main ones.
Where to submit
Once your store has at least 15 pages, and is running on you own domain (rather than your temporary .spiffystores.com domain), submit your URL to the big three:
- Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
- Yahoo: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
- Bing: http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx
Please be patient. It may take weeks, or even months for your store to appear, especially with Google. Bing usually adds your site pretty quickly.
To check to see if your store has been indexed, simply type your full URL into the search box.
Search Engines FAQ
Q: My site isn't showing up on Google yet. How can I make it show up?
A: If you have already submitted it, you'll need to wait for Google to index your site before it shows up.
Q: My site doesn't show up for my keywords
A: You should include keywords in your text, and you should have as much information about your products as possible. We have hundreds of articles in our blog that tell you what you need to do to improve your ranking in search engines.
Q: I have updated a page, but Google is showing old information. How can I make Google display my new content in search results?
A: You could re-submit pages through Google's Webmaster Tools, but Google indexes pages according to their own schedule. The more content you add to your store, the more likely they are to re-index pages.
Don't keep submitting!
Many people get anxious while waiting for the search engines to add their online store, and they keep submitting. You run the risk of getting your store banned if you do this.
I know it's tempting, but rest assured that your submission was received the first time!