brand marketing blog

There are some important points that you should bear in mind as you wait eagerly for your new website to appear in Google.

GOOGLE SUBMISSION
After submitting your new website to Google for indexing and inclusion in their database it may take several weeks before the spiders visit and index your site. Please don't expect to be able to find it through the normal Google search process until it is fully indexed. Until then you can reach your site by directly inputting the web address into the address bar in your browser as this is controlled by the DNS network (domain name servers).

There are many contributing and quite complex factors (frustrating?) that determine a website's ranking in the search engines...

AGE OF DOMAIN NAME
Google favours long-established sites and domain names. If your site or domain name is brand new it will take some time to 'age' before it is indexed.

SANDBOXING
New sites may not be fully indexed or appear in search results until they have proven their 'popularity', a Google practice known as 'sandboxing'. The Google Sandbox is very similar to a new website being placed on probation. It is kept lower than expected in searches, prior to being given full value for its incoming links and content. New sites are typically kept in the sandbox by Google for three to six months.

KEYWORDS
During your website planning you will most likely have researched relevant keywords and phrases that you want your site to be found for. In time you will start to appear in Google search results for your selected keywords or phrases, but you may not appear for other words or phrases that are not part of your targeted keyword set. Please don't phone your SEO consultant and shout at them if you aren't appearing in results for non-targeted keywords or keyphrases!

IMPROVING YOUR GOOGLE RESULTS
Achieving a high ranking in Google is a slow process that requires patience. None of us has any influence over Google and your site has to 'earn' its way into a good position. It may take between four to 8 months before your new website starts to perform to its potential in Google, perhaps even longer. Of course there are other more advanced strategies to accelerate this process but you need to weigh the cost and personal effort vs return.

EXTERNAL LINKS AND GOOGLE PageRank
Google's PageRank is a measure of how highly Google rates your site. The incoming links from other sites to yours are a critical element in this rating system. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. However, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes or links a page receives; it also analyses the popularity or 'importance' of the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are popular or considered 'important' by Google weigh more heavily and help to make other pages popular or important.

In other words, a page that is linked to by many pages with high PageRank receives a high rank itself. If there are no links to a web page there is no support for that page. Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 (10 being highest, 1 being lowest) for each webpage on the Internet, denoting a site's importance in its eyes.

While just one of many factors which determine the ranking of Google search results, PageRank is an important criteria in determining how well your site will perform in Google.

So the message is, build and optimise your site, keep adding fresh content and be patient.