Most “Where to Submit” engines seem inactive today
verdemuschio
Italy
Hello everyone,
Sorry if some of this might not be 100% accurate — I’m not an expert. I just tried to collect information here and there on the web because I was struggling to understand why some of the “Where to Submit” engines in GSA SER were not producing any links anymore.
I hope it’s okay to share what I noticed, and maybe it can help others too.
From what I understand, many of the old engines (especially forum scripts and CMS platforms) simply don’t work in 2025. They either don’t exist anymore, or the websites using them have switched to modern protections like Cloudflare, JavaScript checks or login systems that GSA SER can’t bypass.
For example, engines like phpBB, SMF, vBulletin, XenForo, IPBoard, Joomla Blog, Drupal Blog, Wordpress Article, BuddyPress, and many article directory scripts — they just don’t allow automated posting anymore. Most of them require JS, or captcha steps that SER can’t handle, or have closed registrations completely.
The same seems to happen with many old directory scripts, gallery scripts, video CMS, social network clones, Q&A scripts, guestbooks, classified ads scripts, and so on. They used to work years ago, but today almost all installations have either been abandoned, shut down, or protected behind systems that block bots.
Because of this, even if the engines are still listed inside SER, in real life almost none of them generate backlinks anymore. I’m not saying this to criticize — just trying to understand why my projects weren’t producing anything, even with good proxies, good emails and the correct setup.
Personally, I think SER still has a lot of potential, but maybe the submission engines need to be updated with newer platforms that still allow automated posting today.
Only a few engines still work consistently (things like MediaWiki, DokuWiki, TikiWiki, simple blog comments, public bookmarks, rentry.co, etc.). Everything else looks “alive” in the interface, but in practice doesn’t produce results.
So this is just my humble opinion, as a normal user:
maybe it’s time to add new engines to match the modern web, because most old engines simply don’t work anymore.
Again, sorry if something I wrote is not perfectly correct — I’m still learning.
Thank you for reading.
Comments
I just want to clarify something because it looks like my post may have been misunderstood, and I really didn’t want to create any controversy.
I did not mean to criticize GSA SER at all. SER is a solid piece of software, and I fully respect the work behind it. What I described is not a problem caused by SER — it’s simply how the modern web has changed over the years. Many auto-postable platforms that existed 10–15 years ago are now protected, offline, or no longer allow automated submissions.
This affects every backlink software, not only SER.
I only wrote my message because I’m a user of SER and I like the software, so naturally I’m hoping to see it grow and adapt. My intention was not to complain, but to share what I noticed and maybe help improve things if possible.
If my wording sounded wrong or too direct, that wasn’t intentional.
I’m just a normal user trying to understand what still works today and what could be updated.
Thanks for your understanding.
I fully agree with @verdemuschio and @Konstantin.
The reality is that the web has changed, and the software needs to adapt to 2025 defenses (Cloudflare, JS checks, etc.). Currently, we are burning through good proxies and emails trying to post to scripts that effectively no longer exist.
A "Spring Cleaning" of the engine list or a dedicated update for modern platforms would make SER significantly more efficient. Quality over quantity is the only way forward now. Hopefully, the dev team can take this feedback on board!
Thanks everyone for the discussion — it really helped clarify what’s going on today with SER.
I’ll add my perspective from a technical point of view, without any pressure — just ideas that might be useful.
From my own tests, the problem is not SER as software.
The problem is that the web has fundamentally changed:
many classic CMS engines from 2010–2016 don’t exist anymore
a lot of registration forms have been removed or locked
Cloudflare / JS challenges became default on many platforms
anti-bot fields and dynamic tokens became standard
some engines still work, but success rates are naturally much lower
No tool can post where a form no longer exists — that’s simply how the modern web evolved.
So instead of asking for major changes, here are practical and realistic suggestions that could help SER stay effective without rewriting the software.
1) A small, community-driven “engine status review”
Not to overload Sven — the opposite.
Users can collect:
example URLs
footprints
form behavior
tokens
hidden fields
notes about anti-bot elements
Sven would only need to review and integrate what is already prepared.
This makes the process manageable.
2) Label engines, instead of removing them
Just something simple like:
Working (2025)
Low success
Likely inactive
This helps users avoid wasting proxies and emails.
Even this tiny change would have a big impact.
3) Small improvements for modern anti-bot logic
Nothing big — not JS rendering.
But things like:
keeping session cookies
retrying with the same session
passing basic timestamp hidden fields
reading simple dynamic tokens
Even these minimal additions would noticeably increase success rates on some platforms.
4) Allow community-contributed engines
Maybe once per month:
one or two user-created engines
Sven reviews them
adds them if they meet quality standards
This keeps SER evolving without increasing Sven’s workload.
5) Simple engine diagnostics
Something like:
This would help users understand what is happening, without guessing.
Final thoughts
SER still has strong potential in 2025 —
but the engine list simply needs a bit of cleanup and modernization,
and the community is ready to help with the data collection part.
No pressure, no demands —
just ideas that many users might find useful moving forward.
Thanks again for keeping SER alive and for being open to this conversation.
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