Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
When you buy a new domain or set up a sub domain with a view to creating a site what is the best approach to take regarding google. I have tended to just set up a basic coming soon page with no meta info initially while I work on trying out different designs and various other things and only set up all the meta tags when I have a site I want the world to see and shortly thereafter I try and start building some ibl's and add a sitemap to google etc. I have noticed that google always visits within a day or two of the site being active (possibly in my case because most of my sites have blogger update pages as 1 part of the site so when I first set up this section and start changing the design - it is necessary to set it up to publish to my domain - and google will find the site because of this) Anyhoo I was just wondering if the fact the google is coming to the site before it's ready and finding no meta tags etc would cause google to form a "bad impression" lol do search engines form first impressions - just like people :-) Should I be installing a robots.txt disallowing all bots from sites until they are fit to be seen? Or does it not matter and I am over-thinking this? Any thoughts? Thanks!
First, it's good to have a general plan for a progressive development of your site before you get started; not fixed in stone, but one that allows a steady program of extra pages, extra content, and extra incoming links.
This is because new sites most definitely 'have issues' settling down with Google, and many many reports support the theory that a steady build up is much better than chopping and changing: extra stuff and links is good; rebuilding and changing structure and lnking patterns is not so good.
[added:] Because of new site issues, getting listed as soon as possible is important, so don't think about blocking spiders.[/]
Second, you need incoming links to get any kind of stable listing in Google, and you do not need to submit your site to Google (ever). Google much prefers to find sites and relate them to other sites. Start checking out quality directories.
Any and every page you upload should come equipped with a TITLE tag, meta keywords and meta description; these can always be edited for detail later.
Finally, avoid the bad stuff - obvious, I know :) - Google doesn't form lasting impressions; each spidering is a new event - but it is wise to consider new sites as "fragile" for several months, and not worry about search results - they'll only upset you!
