Everything is finally done with your website! You are eager to start getting traffic to your site, and excited with the new launch of your website. Having your business online is a big goal accomplished, but now the beginning of a whole new goal of doing business online has just started. What next, do you just sit back and wait for visitors to flood in?
As time goes by twiddling your thumbs and checking for that flood of traffic to your website, you begin to realize that it isn’t coming. Then it hits you…people have to know my website is there in order to visit it! So you go over to Google and Yahoo! and search your business. You don’t see anything on the first few pages. You feel a little disappointed, but then realize your site is pretty new. Then you do a search by your business name, expecting to see your new site in the first position…and that’s when the panic sets in…
Uh Oh. Not only is your site not in the first slot, it’s not even on the first page! For your own name! What’s going on here? You start to wonder what did these guys do to make my website not work on Google?
Calm Down! Before you have to start breathing into a paper bag, realize that getting listed takes time. With millions of websites out there and more uploaded every day, the search engines browse all the sites and add them to their data banks and update their listings if the site already exists. But even though the Search Engines are fast they can only get through so many sites a day. It may take a while to locate and scan your new website.
But there are some options to shorten the time it takes to be listed in the major search engines!
- Submit your website - Tell Google and the other search engines that you’re there! Look for the “Submit Your Site” links on their sites and follow the instructions. Though these aren’t guaranteed ways to get listed, they’re free, they only take a few minutes and every little bit helps.
- Link up your website - Search engines follow links to navigate around the Internet. If your site is not linked to other sites, you’ve greatly reduced the chance that a search engine will find it naturally. Make sure that other sites—business directories, article libraries, your clients—link to yours and you’ll get found more quickly.
- Break down and pay - Some engines, such as Yahoo, also have paid inclusion plans. For a fee, they’ll visit your site immediately and list you promptly. If your business—a storefront, for example—depends on attracting visitors, you’ll want to pay for a listing.
- Update your website - The search engines love blogs, newsletters, and updates. Blogs give them exactly what they want, which is new text-based information. If you start a blog that also links to your site, you’ll be more likely to lead the search engines right to you.
- Go the extra mile - Getting advanced SEO optimization is usually an addition to your web design, but if being ranked on Search Engines is a goal for your business paying the extra will pay off in the end!
