This page should answer the majority of the questions you might have about Forte's web site submission and services. If you don't find the answer to your questions here, feel free to contact us. 

1. Changing Search Engines
2. My Ranking went down
3. Exactly where will my site be submitted to?
4. How long does it take you to submit my web site to the search engines?
5. When will I start seeing my site come up on the search engines?
6. What if I don't see a search engine I want to be listed with?
7. I've got my Submission Report. What do I do now?
8. It's been 4 weeks, and I still can't find my site listed on some search engines. Why?

1. Changing Search Engines
On occasion you may wish to globally change which engines are selected for multiple Reporter missions. For example, you may decide that you wish to discontinue promoting to a particular engine for all of your Web sites. If you had ten different Web sites, you'd have to open each mission and de-select the engine. You can select which engines you wish to be selected, and then press the Update button.

2. My Ranking went down
If you fall in rank, you'll want us to re-analyze the page(s) We will download new "knowledge bases" periodically to inform you of "rules" for each search engine that may have changed. Make the recommended changes to the pages that fell in rank, then re-submit. In many cases, you'll then jump back up the list.

3. Exactly where will my site be submitted to?

There are four categories that your site will be submitted to:

Top Search Engines: Some of these include Google, Altavista, Yahoo, HotBot, Lycos, and Webcrawler. These are the most important places to be listed because the majority of web surfers will find information here.

Mid-Level Search Engines: These search engines don't get the same volume of traffic as the top ones, but are established resources that surfers use. There are a little over 200 of these resources which include: Snap, Magellan, MSN, WhatUSeek, etc.

Business Directories: These are the online equivalent of yellow pages. They include your Business Name, address, phone number, and sometimes a link to your web site.

FFA Pages: These are search engine-type pages that are typically setup by individuals who want to sell a product or service. The benefit of submitting to these pages is that some top search engines give high ranking to sites that are linked from other sites, showing the site's popularity. These FFA pages are an effective way of generating numerous links that point to your web site. There are thousands of these resources on the internet, more any of the above three combined. As a result, these will be the majority of pages listed in your submission report. Upon submission to these pages, you will receive a confirmation e-mail that includes solicitation for their product. There are differing opinions on the usefulness of these pages as it can seem like getting online junk mail. Some of the information from these pages are useful to various businesses. We have found some excellent marketing information from these. If these FFA pages won't benefit your site, you can request to not be submitted to them.

4. How long does it take you to submit my web site to the search engines?
After receiving your information, 24 - 72 hours. For more URL submissions, it may take longer.

5. When will I start seeing my site come up on the search engines?
It depends: with some engines you'll be listed immediately, with others, like Yahoo, it takes four to six weeks. This changes all the time. If you want specific times we will email you with the current timetables.

6. What if I don't see a search engine I want to be listed with?
Just let us know what it is and we'll be happy to include it. Also, we can easily skip a search engine that you might have already submitted yourself to.

7. I've got my Submission Report. What do I do now?
We formatted your Submission Report with specific uses in mind. First, you'll notice all of the details of your company and web site information. Next, there is a list of every search engine, directory, and link list your site was submitted to with a link to it's home page. This provides an easy way for you go look at any resource you were submitted to. At this point, you'll be barraged with confirmation email's from most of these sites informing you of your admission into their database.

Four weeks after your initial submission, We will generate a Ranking Report of where your site is listed with the top search engines and under what keywords. If your site was not successfully listed with any of the top search engines (Altavista, Lycos, MSN, Yahoo, etc...) We will resubmit your site at that time. We recommend that you check your site's listing status every four weeks and have us do resubmissions where necessary.

8. It's been 4 weeks, and I still can't find my site listed on some search engines. Why?
It could be because some aspect of your site did not meet the submission requirements of those engines. In recent efforts to stop abusers from "spamming" the search engines with incorrect keyword entries for their sites or submitting the same URL over and over in an effort to get ranked higher, the search engines have come up with some pretty strict, and at times, arbitrary rules about acceptance on to their sites. What this means for you, is it that even though we may follow all the rules in submitting your site to a particular search engine, it may not get listed. The only way you'll know if you are accepted will be if that search engine sends you a confirmation email of your successful submission or you conduct a keyword search in that search engine or directory.

It's more likely, particularly with the top 5 search engines, they just get so backlogged with submissions, that it takes them longer than usual to get listings added in their databases, or that they were doing maintenance on their existing database and weren't accepting submissions.

We recommend that you first look at our tips page and make sure you're not being rejected for any of the reasons listed there. Then, we will resubmit your site to those engines that you are not appearing on.

Aaron Group provides an affordable service that can track your site's ranking success and resubmissions to necessary search engines on a contract basis.

If after reviewing this Frequently Asked Questions page about Search Engine Submission Services, and you still have unanswered questions, feel free to contact us directly either by email or phone.