New Site Tactics Suggestions Please

Got a new domain with good KWs in the domain.

Don't have the site ready for another 2 weeks or so. Just wondering what to do.

Aim some coop at it already, just uploading a Landing/holding page optimized for the domain KW?

Wait with throwing it in the indexes until everything is live so G and others will see an entire finished product when they come and crawl first time?

What would you do?

 

May b u can put a page and put resource link and then start link building.

 

You'll find it hard going getting links to your site if it looks incomplete.

 

Agreed. Build some content first. Once you have a decent base site, then start your promotions and search engine submissions, etc. Waiting a few weeks until you have content is not going to hurt you in the long run, but starting too soon can sometimes affect your initial placement in search engine indexes. Particularly the manually reviewed indexes.

Would you open a store with just a bunch of banners and "coming soon" signs all around? I try to follow the same rules that would apply in the "real" world... ;-)

Good luck!

 

That was 2 months ago. Now it's done

So it's full with content but not spidered yet. Still not 100% sure what to do. When I wasn't too fussed about SEO 18 months ago I've launched sites with no problem, getting good rankings witin 6 weeks or so.

But now I know (about SEO), I don't know

I can throw thousands of links to it within days. Might trigger some alrams.

I can start with PRweb press releases. Get some 'real' links and traffic first. Then either gradually build some links or chuck in dozens at the time.

I can get some 'local rank' links right away. Perhaps purchase a 'high PR' links.

Sticking to AdWords (heavy campaign) for a week or so and let Google find it that way (plus 1 or 2 links) is an option as well.

What would you do if not quick indexing but quick ranking is of the essence?

 

The best thing to do is find a way of getting people to come to your site that doesnt involve the SERPS whatsoever. That way you can still bung thousands of links at it and then in 10 - 14 weeks time when you come out of the sandbox the traffic will subsidize the traffic you already have from your marketing method already in place.

As you already know, SEO is better done over a longer period of time. If you tell me what the site is maybe I could have a think about possible solutions?

 

I'd echo Weir's comments.

Yes, we all know that SEO is really important, however when I first set up a site, I try to think of any off-site work that I do as advertising to start off with.

It will take time before you see the results of your initial site build work, no matter how many links you throw at it...

I'd also be careful of tripping filters.

Personally, I'd put up some sig links in related forums, maybe a couple of PRWeb releases like you mentioned, and also speak to your mates online and see if they can write a bit about the site for you in a blog (If they own one and It's appropriate)...

Think of it al as PR at this stage, not SEO...

$0.02

 

Thanks guys, appreciate it.

It's the shop I put up for review recently, Weirfire. You might have missed it during your absence.

It does seem to make sense to keep a low profile on SEO first. 'Let nature do its job' type of idea.

Another thing I just thought of... This shop basically is a break-out of a current section on another shop of ours. So a few products are the exact same but on a completely different shopping engine (not worried about dup content). I rank extremely well for the current 'old' pages but I could 301 some of them.

Would there be a chance that if you 301 a page that G currently ranks #1 for a certain phrase to a new page that G might 'adopt' the new ranking sooner for the new page?

I'm steering towards doing this:

- AdWords + Overture to kick off a stream of traffic.
- Links from the current 'old' pages to the new shop (local rank).
- 301 2 pages from a 3d site of ours (ranking high for relevant KWs) to the new shop.
- Pressreleases mainly for traffic and perhaps a few seemingly natural links.
- Buy a 'high PR' link for a month or two to get the indexing going.

Then after 4-8 weeks (depending on the progress) kick in the Co-op (then I've had plenty of time tweaking as well) and start the real link building campaigns.

 

Hmm... OK, nothing concrete here, just some ideas...

How about including AdSense on the site somewhere? Something small and subtle might encourage spidering by Google... plus it will add similar /additional keyword terms to the page?

AdWords campaign sounds good too, to fire traffic in your direction... or an Overture campaign... (I see you've already mentioned that)

Do you have any email newletter subscribers for an affiliated /associated site that you can drop the link on, maybe do some of that Press Release magic and just "name drop" the link to generate some interest, a viral campaign (but maybe not if it's the site I'm thinking of - viral campaigns and err... those things usually end up in a trip to the doctors )

As for 301 to a new page, I've personally had #2/#3 on Goolge drop to #26 with a new domain and stay there... that sucked. But whether that will be the same in all cases remains to be seen...

Hope that helps

 

Yeah I have a hunch too that helping Google make money will encourage them to get me out there. I will add AdSense for all non-UK visitors just to make some money out of 'useless' traffic. Not necessarily 'subtle' but more 'in ur face' stating we don't sell abroad so try again...

I suspect the main reason why the previous shop caught on so quickly is actually that they had good references (links) from established (high PR) pages so that seems to be an important ingredient (getting an authority vote even better).

I'd better get cracking....

 

And the other Google option I forgot to mention was maybe utilising Google Answers somehow...

Q: Where do I find X in London?
A: Well, as it happens you can go to www. X.co.whatever, they have a really great selection of X, plus Y and Z too

 

You nearly had me sold there Lever. I'm afraid I was looking for V though

 

LOL Looking for V, Weirfire...? Don't you get thousands of emails trying to sell you V every day...

 

It's violins!! Honest!!


Cheeky brat!

 

Hahaha, stop mucking about, we're supposed to be helping T0PS sell X here

 

Listen to him Braveheart!

Weirfire had a good suggestion on getting some more traffic. By putting some stuff up on eBay and linking back to the site. Will try that as well for traffic and might help for indexing as well.

 

Have to be carefull backlinking from Ebay, as your competitors will rport you and your stuff will get pulled. Personally I would use Ebay to build a client base, of course make sure that your stuff on the main site is cheaper than on ebay to encourage them to use the shop rather than costly ebay. A great way to bypass the no links think on ebay is to have your dmain name as your username www.myshop.com it will not be a link, but even the most boneheaded will take a look at the domain address.

The sandbox is more to do with the age of the domains rather than the volume of links so I registered loads of domains ages ago, and have dummy sites on them now so that google etc are used to visiting. When I am ready to launch a new site, I just switch the content and the site ranks instantly. Then it is a case of sorting out the directory submissions etc.

Interesting to see how you get on though.

 

I read in another post somewhere that Compar questions whether the sandbox exists although the way I see it and the way others have explained it to me is that when an usually high number of links suddenly point to 1 site then your site is sandboxed until a future date. This slows the process of artificial link popularity and promotes site owners to stay clear of link building as the main source of attracting traffic to your site.

Once your site is removed from the sandbox( apparently between 10 and 16 weeks), then you will notice an increase in the SERP's for your pages.

If anyone has a different view on this I'd be interested to know.


I was wondering about the point you made about EBay... Is it against their terms to advertise your businesses website when selling items on EBay? I thought anything would be allowed as long as you are genuinely selling an item?

 

I'm not 100% convinced about the (various) sandbox theories either but from G's perspective such a delay seems to make sense. If sites stand this 'test of time' they must be for real and worth a spidering session and ranking. Also, it encourage AdWords usage which benefits them. It avoids spam in case where a new hot topic comes out (Paris Hilton Tape/Tsunami) and everybody starts launching sites to capitalize on it without much effort to put up something proper.

About eBay. I've been linking back in all (half a dozen or so) auctions and never seen any issues. I haven't scrutinized the TOS for it but I see it happening all the time and most of the time it aids in the decision process hence helping getting eBay saes and revenue so I don't see why they would frown upon it. But I'm not an expert in this field.

About this launch... I thought of another thing to add in the mix and that's Froogle and other feeds ofcourse.