Net Q & A

Question of the Month: March 2000

Is it a good idea to use paid services for submitting law firm web sites to search engines and indices? 

Answer

There are many businesses that advertise that they will submit the URL, or address, of your web site, to hundreds of Internet search engines and directories.  It is probably not smart to use such services. There are two reasons to avoid them:

a. These services expose you to unsolicited commercial e-mail, which is very annoying.

b. More important, the "multiple listing services" are not as effective as going to the key indices and search engines and submitting your site manually. 

Many search engines give lower priority to submissions via e-mail. They prefer that you visit their site to increase the number of "hits" they receive. 

While there are hundreds, probably thousands of search engines in existence, a small number attracts nearly all the traffic. It is much more important to try to optimize your position on the top 15 or 20 search engines than it is to be listed in every obscure search engine in the world.

Search engine and directory sites don't all request the same information or have the same options. For example, at Yahoo, you can suggest  particular categories in which your site should be listed. This is invaluable, and is not possible with the "one size fits all" approach.

If you want your web site to be well publicized, there is no substitute for going to the search engines and directories one at a time and submitting the information. Even if you decide you want to use such a service, don't try to use it for the most important search engines and directories, which you should visit manually.

Jerry Lawson

This page last revised: January 01, 2002.