When you start a new business and you want to build up a new web presence, there are a few factors you should take good care of. You probably think it is easy to set up a website. Well, think again. Google is becoming pickier and pickier, taking into account more and more factors before indexing a website.
Google looks at the age of a domain as one of these factors and, if you want to make a good start online, you should book and launch your domain prior to launching your actual website.
It takes between 2 to 40 days for Google to index the new domain. Yes, 2 is correct - there are ways, but you don't need to spend so much effort on that, you should focus more on the quality of the website you are going to launch! Without quality it will take up to 9 months before you can achieve some rankings (unless you get lucky and pull in a few high ranked inbound links).
And if you've ever heard of "optimize for Yahoo! and Live and Google will follow", it is time to reconsider. Yahoo! and Live are the ones following Google! Yahoo! will give you rankings in its SERPs faster, but... how much traffic is Yahoo going to bring anyway? Live.com is the fastest of the three, because MSN (live.com is a MSN search engine) loves new content, while Google loves trustworthy content.
To become trustworthy for Google, here is what you should do:
When you get a new domain:
- Register your domain for the maximum period allowed.
- Get a reliable host - no "free" hosting, not unless you want your business to fail or pass as shady.
Before launching the actual website:
- Create a "Coming Soon" page with some valuable content on it. For example describe what the new website is going to be about, mention an approximate launching date and include contact details.
- Write a few articles related to your niche and submit them to a few article directories. Don't forget to include a link to your new domain in your author box. This will get you a few inbound links. Don't overdo it! Google likes to see "natural" links, so if you have to many links at once, all in the same period of time, Google might consider this "spamdexing" and place no weight on those links. Believe it: you are going to need that weight!
When you launch your website:
- Write a Press Release announcing your new online presence. State clearly why your new website is newsworthy. Use a press release distribution service to take care of this "buzz".
- Submit a sitemap to Google.
- Submit a sitemap to Yahoo.
- Submit a sitemap to Ask.com.
- Create a robots.txt file that shows live.com the way to the sitemap too.
- Try to get some bloggers to blog about your products, services, website. (Services you could employ are PayPerPost, smorty, Sponsored Reviews)
Are your business ideas revolutionary and your products and services really out of the ordinary? Then use digg.com and other social bookmarking sites to promote them.
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Related Links:
Launching a Web Site - By John Collins
Steps to Launching a New Website - By marketingideashop
Website Launch Flow Chart
Top 10 Search Engines
Step by Step Guide in Creating a Website
Building a Findable website
Making Your Websites Findable
Recommended Books:
Building Findable Website
Create Your Own Website
Advertise, Promote or Market
Building a Website for Dummies
Turn Your Words into Traffic
Online Videos:
Creating A Website
Getting a Domain
How to Create a Successful E-commerce Website
Author: Mihaela Lica
Mihaela Lica, works for Red Dog Communications, as an online marketing expert. You are invited to visit: The Dog Yard too, for more online marketing articles and advice.
