Is it still necessary to submit your website to search engines?

It’s worth questioning whether manual search engine submission is still worth doing. Here’s some information that calls into question the need to manually submit your site to Google and Bing:

“You don’t need to submit your website to search engines because search engines have evolved beyond the point of needing to be directly notified when a new website, or page on a website, is created.”

Source: http://www.seomark.co.uk/submit-website-to-search-engines/#ixzz4T0imBPfD

“Since 2001, not only has search engine submission not been required, but has become virtually useless.”

What’s the alternative?

Just wait for Google and Bing to discover your site and it’s new pages. To move things along more quickly, you could also just link to your site from posts on your Twitter and Google Plus pages and watch for them to show up. You can see what Google and Bing have indexed by searching

site:[your website]

For us this search looks like this

site:getfoundmadison.com

Indexed pages for this website on Google

 

That’s nice, how do I do it anyway just in case?

That said, we do have one client with an e-commerce site they’ve had for years that wasn’t showing up on Bing until we submitted them.

If you still want to submit your website to search engines manually just to be sure, here’s the process:


If you’re implementing Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools (which we recommend anyway) you can just tell them to Fetch your site. That will ensure you’re covered for 98% of searches.

WordPress Search Engine Submission with Yoast

If you’re on WordPress, like us, the Yoast SEO Plug-In makes this extra easy.

Bing Webmaster Tools Verification Using Meta Tags & WordPress SEO by Yoast
Set up Bing Webmaster tools using the Yoast WordPress SEO Plug-in

Squarespace Webmaster Tools & Site Submission

How to set up Bing Webmaster Tools in Squarespace:

Verify Squarespace Site Ownership in Webmaster Tools

How to Verify Squarespace Site Ownership in Google and Bing Webmaster Tools with Page Header Code.

How to Fetch from Webmaster Tools using a Sitemap

Submitting Sitemap for a Squarespace Website to Google & Bing

Get your Squarespace site indexed with Google and Bing. How to submit a Sitemap with Google & BingWebmaster Tools.

Wix Webmaster Tools & Site Submission

Here’s how to submit your site to Google and Bing for Wix. It covers the webmaster tools setup and the fetching.

How To: Fetch Your WIX Site Using Google & Bing Webmaster Tools
Get the most out of Search by verifying and fetching your site as Google and Bing. Fetching your site allows search engines to better understand your site and match your site to the people who are looking to find your content.

Scroll to Top