Are Website Submission Services Really All That Effective?

If you're like me, you're constantly inundated with banner ads and emails that say, "submit your website to 50,000+ search engines." Well, when you're trying to get traffic to your new website, the promise of distributing your URL to that many engines becomes very appealing.

Being so involved in Internet marketing, I always wondered about the value of these types of services. Because of the low entry price, around $30, I figured I'd give it a try for this very blog. So I plunked down my credit card and gave it a go. Do you know what happened?

Within 3 hours of completing the submission, my Google search results plummeted. I went from the #1 position on Google to the #5 position. Now, you might be saying to yourself that this decline in rankings was merely coincidence. However, nothing else was changes with my search engine optimization strategy and my existing rankings had been steady for over eight months.

Truth be told, this was actually my second foray into using a distribution service. Previously I had experienced the same phenomenon with my other website - sometimes we make the same mistake a second time!

The evidence seems rather clear. Website submission services do NOTHING in the short term and can have a detrimental impact on your rankings. So if you're looking for a boost in search engine rankings on Google, stay away from website submission services.