Paid Inclusion Search Engine Submission
By Lee Shatto 1/11/03

Search engine marketing has changed dramatically over the years. Search Engine Submission used to be (and still is) extremely complicated, but now there is an easier way:

Paid Inclusion Search Engine Submissions

If you want to take the hassle out of submissions and make this task much easier for yourself, use paid inclusion programs. The paid inclusion submission programs are extremely effective and powerful (whether I like to admit it or not – I’m still a firm believer in the free submissions strategy) It has taken me quite a while to warm up to the paid search engine submissions programs. This said, I must admit that the benefits of paid inclusion submissions definitely justify the cost.

Paid Inclusion Benefits

• Substantially faster indexing of web pages: normally 72 hours or less as opposed to 6-8 weeks which is the norm when submitting through free add URL, or passively waiting for the search engine spiders to find your pages on their own.
• With paid inclusion submissions, your pages are re-indexed usually every 24-48 hours.
• A huge benefit with paid inclusion is that you only have to submit your pages once! If you renew your paid inclusion submissions, your pages will continually get respidered and indexed according to each search engine’s schedule.
• Another great benefit of the paid inclusion search engine submission programs is that because your pages are re-indexed on a regularly scheduled basis, you can update your pages and see the results in days instead of months as is the case with free submissions. * Note: And if you accidentally make changes that negatively affect your search engine rankings, correcting the problem also is much faster and simpler.
• Paid inclusion submissions are ideal for dynamically generated sites that would normally have a tough time getting indexed.
• Regular submission results reports are offered by most of the paid inclusion programs.

Okay, now that the benefits of paid inclusion search engine submissions have been outlined, let's examine the affordability of a paid inclusion campaign.

Paid Inclusion Search Engine Programs

The Major Players:

Inktomi
Inktomi provides search results to primary search engines like MSN and HotBot, as well as other lesser search engines

Benefits:

• Paid inclusion submission of your pages to Inktomi guarantee indexing within 72 hours.
• Web pages are spidered and re-indexed every 48 hours.
• Inktomi paid inclusion program is valid for a period of 1 year.
• Reporting is included and details items such as verification of page acceptance; refresh reports; URL validation; and account management.
• Inktomi’s audience reach by providing results to primary search engines is impressive, according to Nielsen NetRatings in October 2002: MSN: 28.1%; Overture: 5.4%; LookSmart: 3.0%; (also provides results to the "new" HotBot)
• Cost? $39 for the first URL, and $25 each for additional URL’s up to 1000. 

Fast

Fast provides search results to AlltheWeb, Lycos, and HotBot

Benefits:

• Paid inclusion submission of your pages to Fast guarantee indexing within 48 hours.
• Web pages are spidered and re-indexed every 48 hours.
• The term of the paid inclusion program is 12 months.
• Reporting is included and details items such as verification of page acceptance; refresh reports; URL validation; and account management.
• Fast allows you to choose between several different programs.
• The Fast audience reach according to Nielsen NetRatings in October 2002, was: Lycos: 4.4%; (also provides results to the "new" HotBot)
• Cost? $34 for the first URL, and $16 each for additional URL’s up to 1000.

Teoma
Results include Teoma, Ask Jeeves, and HotBot
Note: The only way to get into the Teoma index is the paid inclusion submission program.

Benefits:

• Paid inclusion submissions make it into Teoma and Ask Jeeves within 7 days.
• Web pages are spidered and re-indexed every 7 days.
• The term of the paid inclusion program is 12 months.
• Some reporting services are included.
• The audience reach of Teoma/Ask Jeeves, according to Nielsen NetRatings in October 2002, was: Ask Jeeves: 10.3% (also provides results to the "new" HotBot)
• Cost? $30 for the first URL, and $18 each for additional URL’s up to 1000. 

AltaVista
Results are primarily for AltaVista

Benefits:

• Paid inclusion submission will be included in the AltaVista index within 2 business days.
• Web pages are spidered and re-indexed every 24 hours.
• The term of the paid inclusion program is only 6 months.
• Reporting is included.
• AltaVista has an audience according to Nielsen NetRatings in October 2002, of 4.4%.
• Cost? $39 for the first URL, and $29 each for 2-10 URL’s, then $19 each for 11 to 500 URLs.

Note: AltaVista’s paid inclusion submission program is more costly and has a smaller audience than the other search engines have. Additionally, the paid inclusion program term is only six months, compared to 1 yearlike most of the other search engine programs. AltaVista however, is the one search engine that still offers a free add URL submission. Because AltaVista’s free add URL process doesn’t allow mass submissions due to their unique submission process that requires you to enter a submission code during the submission process you have a better chance of a successful free submission than with other search engines.

Total Cost for a Basic Paid Inclusion Campaign

Submitting the main page of a brand new website (or any site) that would have little or no visibility. The total of Yearly Paid Inclusion submissions costs: $142 (for 1 main page). Includes the Inktomi engines, the Fast engines, Teoma, and Ask Jeeves, and AltaVista.

Yahoo!

For those of you wondering, what about Yahoo? Well, with the way that Yahoo! dislays results, most of which are provided Google, the importance of submitting to the Yahoo! directory at a yearly cost of $299 is mostly irrelevant. Also, with Yahoo! having purchased Inktomi , everything is subject to change in the very near future.(An additional benefit of getting listed in Inktomi now!) Currently, paying to be included in the Yahoo! directory isn’t nearly as important as it used to be. Rank well in Google, and you should rank well in Yahoo!.

Hey, what about Google?

Google

Google is the only major search engine that doesn’t have a paid inclusion program. So, the options are to let the spider find your pages on its own through links on other pages or to submit through Google’s free add URL. Or to gain immediate visibility in Google you can Use the extremely popular Google AdWords advertising program which I also strongly recommend and will discuss in detail in a future article.

It is very important to understand the dominance of Google in the search engine realm. Google is by far the “King of the Hill” in the virtual world of search engines and optimizing your site to index well in the Google search engine should be the primary goal of any search engine optimization and registration campaign. Like the old adage “ Build it and they will come” - Rank well in Google and they WILL come!

According to Nielson NetRankings in October 2002, the audience reach of Google alone was 29.2%. Add to that AOL at 19.7%, Yahoo! at 28.5%, and Netscape at 5.5%, and it’s quite easy to see the power behind Google.

Concluding Thoughts

Take advantage of the tremendous benefits of paid inclusion search engine submissions, then undertake the task of submitting your pages manually to each of the major engines. You will then have the best of all scenarios – Immediate gratification and log-term results.

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