Recently there have been debates on whether paying for inclusion to search engines is worth it. While there are certain advantages in doing so, the costs of inclusion of a website into search engines are maybe a bit prohibitive for those new to online business. There are two ways that you can look at it but let’s delve a bit deeper to see whether is it really worth the while to pay for inclusion.

First, let’s look at the advantages of paying for inclusion. Depending on the search engine, the prices can go from a couple of dollars to thousands of dollars. Normally if you want the higher the price, the better it would be for your web site’s ranking. But this not mean that you will get the number one ranking, instead you are just guarantee a fast or should I say instantaneous inclusion into  their search engines listings. This will give you some instant traffic, but no promise on how long you will remain on or where you will be listed at. The main reason for paying for inclusion is to get on the search engines quickly. As you know time is money and if your website gets listed faster, you’ll be able to generate a profit much faster and this is a factor why people paid to be included.

Now, let’s take a look at the reasons for not paying to have your website included in the search engine rankings. As you know, search engine rankings are determined by many factors and by going the non-paying way, you will learn and understand the many factors in getting listed. It also gives you time to improve on your web site without really worry about dropping in the rankings. As you make improvements to your web site you will start to move up the rankings. The money you save on not paying for a ranking can be put to other use on web site.

Both ways have their own merits but for me I feel that if you are a newbie and onto your first site, it’s important for you to master and understand the fundamentals of getting your site listed and index in the search engines. Once you understand how things work, for future projects you may consider paying for inclusion. Otherwise if you want to your site to be listed and index faster, the paid inclusion is the way to go. But you need to understand that paid inclusion is not permanent and you will not know how long you will remain or where your site will be listed. That is why for me the non paying conventional way is still the best to go initially.