Oi... I thought a client had just a domain name but apparently a "coming soon" page was made and they thought they had a high ranking. There was no SEO work specific for this page. Any way, not being fully aware I created a landing page that I didn't want indexed until the full site went live. Obviously, this was my mistake and it's not I wanted. Now I have to deal with it though... Can you offer any suggestions to me that might make the ship sink a bit slower? I've updated the meta tags, added the link to some articles/posts on Twitter, Blogger, added sitemaps to Google, etc. But should I be offering paid advert links? I was also thinking that I could list their business in local directories? I just need to get their site available while we wait if possible. Just need some general advice. Appreciate your help. I love lessons.
I'm not fully understanding your question. I'm assuming that you wanted the site to be blocked while it's being developed. But instead, the site got crawled and indexed on accident so now you're trying everything to get it ranking?
sevnrock, I accidentally had the main page removed from the engine because of a NOINDEX meta tag. It was my mistake thinking that they only had the domain purchased... but they were listed before I did that. So that was mistake I made. The question I had is what can I do to be proactive while I wait for the domain to be re-listed. Not that this would ever happen to any of you, but if it did would you buy your client Google Adwords listings, paid sponsorship listings, setup links on local directory sites -- anything to try & direct traffic while we wait. I just might as well take this opportunity to learn some new things (and get some damage control practice) on top of how crawlers and search engines work in detail. I appreciate any help.
If it was previously listed and you simply put in a nonindex tag or blocked it in robots.txt, then remove the tag. It should return to the SERPs pretty quickly. If you are making significant changes to the site, those might well explain any change in SERPs more than the temporary addition of a noindenx tag. I would not offer adwords given what you have described.
willbyfriendly is correct. The search engines will simply recrawl your site again and (hopefully) index anything that isn't noindex anymore. But there are still a few things you should do in general for SEO: 1. If the business does have a physical location, definitely create complete local listings in Google, Yahoo and Bing. Google/Bing having the highest priorities. Also submit them to local directories (Yellowpages, etc.), this won't necessarily assist in rankings, but it will help validate your client's location. 2. Submit them to DMOZ and if they have the money, or if you're willing to pay - submit them to directories like BOTW, Ezilon, etc as well. But the search engines will probably pick up on your site before they even approve of your listings. 3. Try manually resubmitting the sitemaps everyday. Create webmaster accounts for Yahoo/Bing and submit sitemaps there as well. If there is nothing wrong with your site in regards to SE friendliness, nothing should go wrong.
I really appreciate the replies & help. I want to be sure to tell you what I've done exactly so I'm not missing any steps. Prior to the issue. The domain was listed on Google without "www". Now, what I've done is verified the domain (with and without www) in Google Webmaster Tools. I prefer to be listed now with the www. Google has been notified as such. I've submitted sitemaps for these... Lastly, I've made 301 redirects on the remaining two indexed pages -- so that they go to the new page I've created. At a base level this is OK right? Then if I take all of the tips eventually Google would pick up on the changes... at least that is my thought.
Willy has given you some good advice. Remove the noindex and possibly try building a couple new links to the page. It should be reindexed relatively quickly.
Hey Canonical thanks, but did you see what I mentioned about www or not www. That wouldn't make any difference right?
Choose one or the other, but make sure you don't have both versions floating around. Pick one and redirect the other.