Search engine submissions: Are they needed?

i got some spam...I mean a very nice business letter...no, I mean spam...that offered to submit my blogs to 2000 search engines each and every month.



All they wanted was the low low price of $39.95 US funds.



I stared at the spam e-mail for awhile and thought to myself, "My blogs are all listed in the major search engines, and I never submitted them. I got in them for free too!"



First of all, there is no need to ever submit your blog, or any website for that matter, to a search engine. If there is even one link to your blog, from an already listed site, your blog is already indexed.



If you have the Google Toolbar installed, and the PageRank indicator is anything but grey, your blog is included in Google's search engine.



If your blog is in Google, it's also very likely in Yahoo and MSN Search as well. It may take a bit longer to get into Teoma, but it will be there very shortly too.



These clowns who are offering to submit are taking money for nothing. The idea of resubmitting each and every month is simply appalling. There is absolutely no need for it.



They will try to argue the case that not all of your pages are indexed. That is not true. The search engine spiders will crawl deeply into your blog archives and find them. In fact, since the archived page was once the top viewing page, it is almost certainly included.



Monthly resubmits are simply a complete and utter waste of time.



Don't confuse search engine submissions with directory submissions, however.



Directories are an entirely different beast altogether. You do have to submit your blog manually to the many free blog, and general website internet directories.



Note that the scam artists do not mention directories, and if they do venture into that territory, they don't list any. The reason for that lack of directory naming is they can't guarantee inclusion.



Most of the important internet directories like The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) are human edited directories. They retain the right to reject any site that is submitted to them for inclusion.



YOu won't see the scammers offering The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) inclusion!



Don't fall for any of the scams to get your money for search engine submissions.



Your blog is almost certainly listed in the search engines already. If you have been included in any blog directory, posted a link on a discussion forum, or left a linked blog comment, your blog is indexed.



There is no need to resubmit.



Save your money!