Part 2: Link the site, update it and submit it

What are some ways to get your site linked from other sites?
If your site is considered a "resource" or "authority" on a particular topic, then naturally your site should have more links pointing to it. A tips section, a how-to section, or a good FAQs section of a site can help boost popularity.

Keeping a website on top of the game is very time-consuming. Is there a rule of thumb as to how often, or under what circumstances search engine submissions should be updated?
I always monitor sites on a monthly basis if they are new sites, quarterly once the sites are established.

If your site is already in the search engine database, do not submit a page to the search engines if your page hasn't been updated with new information. By new information, I do not mean that you have changed your title tag or meta tag. Your actual content should have changed. If your pages have dropped out of the search engine database, then it is safe to resubmit them.

Are paid review services and submission software worth the investment?
That depends on the software and the service. All of the expedited submission services (, Looksmart, NBCi) and paid inclusion services (Inktomi) are worth every penny. A site can't rank unless it's in the databases. The paid inclusion programs guarantee that your site is in the database.

Since popularity is measured, I submit to the directories before I submit to the search engines. Thus, the expedited submission for Yahoo, Looksmart, and NBCi has been extremely helpful in driving traffic without exception.

As for submission software, I am wary of any software that spams the search engines or allows overzealous end users to spam the engines. The only software I know of that doesn't spam the engines is Position Pro, and that is precisely the reason I use it. And I tend to hand submit to the directories.

What changes will we see in the coming years related to banner advertising and other internet marketing tools?
Banner advertising is an interesting field. Currently, ad agencies seem to have the most control, which I think is ridiculous. People are making the same mistakes using different banner technologies (rich media, interstitials, etc.) instead of focusing on the real issue: is your banner giving the information your target audience wants to see? So until ad agencies quit focusing on the technology, we will continue to see wasted money and effort in banner advertising.

Search engine optimization and directory enhancement is already experiencing major changes. If you know you are going to use the search services as an online marketing tool, budget for it now. The search services have been providing free search for its end users for years, and we cannot expect them to continue to provide this service unless they have a solid revenue stream elsewhere.

As more and more web pages are added, the search services have bigger and bigger databases to maintain. That takes more hardware and staff to maintain. Who is going to pay their salaries? We are.

And since the search services benefit us, I don't see any problem supporting them in some way. Expedited submission, paid inclusion, and paid submission are just one means to provide the revenue stream. And since these paid inclusion programs clearly benefit end users, I think these programs will be around for awhile.

Where are search engines going to be in a few years?
As long as search engines are delivering relevant results to their end users and have a good business model, I think they will be successful. is a great search engine. The ones who do not deliver what they say on their websites (such as stating that they respider every X weeks) won't be around for long because end users figure out quickly that a search engine does not deliver what they claim to deliver.

Partnerships are very important, and I think the search engine/directory partnerships are great. Only spiders can deliver the most up-to-date information available on the web, including dead or outdated links. So there is always a need for spidering technology.

Directory editors help us sort out the best sites, but I hope to see directory editors be more objective and helpful. To echo my colleague Danny Sullivan's sentiments, webmasters also need some greater benefits in return for paid directory submissions. Too many webmasters are complaining about decent descriptions being rewritten. Directory editors can take more of the site owners' concerns into account and still maintain the editorial quality of the directory.

Thank you Shari for optimizing our interview!