There is a lot of hype about site submission with some submitting companies making unrealistic promises concerning placement within the top ten on search queries. There is no way every web site can be listed in the top ten. Submission is not a miracle, nor will it be instant popularity for your site. Even so it definitely will help get your site recognized.

Search engines and directories can take anywhere from several weeks to several months to index a site, and submission to those same engines and directories does not guarantee inclusion in their databases.

Submission to the small search engines, directories, and free-for-all (FFA) pages is done with software; and the major engines are done by hand. If willing to pay for database update fees, the software to do the submission, and willing to learn about optimization techniques the average computer user could submit their own site to the engines. If not, it might be best left to a professional.

When some companies site submission on a fixed schedule it is nothing more than a selling point. They tell you that resubmitting will bring up your site’s ranking with the search engines. Truthfully if no updates have been made, the search engines may lower rankings or remove your site altogether from their database because they believe you are spamming it. If a satisfactory listing has been achieved then resubmitting may even cause your site to fall in ranking. Having a substantial change in the content of your site is the only valid reason for resubmitting.

The large numbers of search engines that a company submits to is also a lot of hype. There is only two dozen or so search engines and directories that are considered mandatory, a few more dozen that are good and the rest are less important. They ones that are less important will send a few more visitors to your site; but not sudden flocks of tens of thousands.

When submission companies say they are submitting your site to thousands of search engines, they are actually talking about free-for-all pages (FFA), which have little significance. Software now automatically submits to FFA pages, resulting in those pages being bombarded with links. In years past a link to your site might remain on an FFA pages for up to 60 days, but now you’re lucky if that link remains there one day, and perhaps it will be only for a few hours. The FFA pages will also most likely result in a large amount of spam being sent to your email account since most of them send a thank you followed by a sales pitch for their products or services.

When submission services offer guaranteed placement, most can not deliver on their promises. Some are not doing the submitting legitimately and the engines may even "discover" a tactic was used and penalize or completely ban a site for doing so. There are only ten top listings and not every site can be in the chosen ten. High placement is achieved mostly with varied quality content and link popularity over an extended period of time.

Of course there are some submission companies that are true experts in their field. But that more comprehensive submission solution might cost thousands of dollars initially and have a monthly maintenance fee. Most businesses that have web sites can’t afford such a luxury.

Arkansas Valley Web Works has enjoyed relatively high rankings due to a large amount of varied content, link popularity, and long term strategies for increased position. Higher rankings are achieved with long-term strategies and being vigilant about continuous optimization of web pages.

Having a large variety of quality content does the trick for high search rankings because it increases the amount of legitimate keywords and titles that search engines can report to their databases without reporting incidents of spamming.

Link popularity is based on the premise that the more sites there are that link to your site, the better that your site must be. When the search bots pick up a link to your site from another site then your site gains in link popularity. When a site doesn’t have any external links it is left dangling by itself like a loose end of a spider’s web. The web site doesn’t reference anything else but internal links so is left like an island in an ocean of obscurity.