Promoting a new site

Is it worth waiting to submit

[mark_roach]

I am starting a new project, however the website I am promoting has not yet been created. I have put up a single page with a link to some relevant information.

Is there any good reason why I shouldn't start linking to this new domain and submiting it to the search engines (not directories) ?

[agerhart]

I have two different feelings about this:

1) Why not? If you submit to the SE's now with a 1 page site, you may get into the DB which will put you in a good position to climb the SERP when your website is completed.

2) There is no point. If you submit your website when it is only a 1 page website, with no content and no links, then the SE's might not even index you.

I would probably go for it though.

Another thing that I would do is start your link pop campaign before the site is completed....it helps.

[IanTurner]

I think submitting is a good plan. There are a number of potential avenues to take one of my favorites is to create some content and make sure it works in all browsers then submit to ODP to get the listing - then you can go away and do the rest of your work without having to worry about not getting an ODP listing because of browser limiting design features.

[Macguru]

Just a gut feeling here.

You don't have a second chance to make a first impression.

I remove the disalow commands only when everything is optimised and quality controlled. Then I summit directories first.

[IanTurner]

I thought the whole idea of search engine optimisation was to get numerous chances to make a good first impression.

Generally people who find you via a search engine will be looking for a new service which they haven't used before.

If you want to keep them coming back then you have to make that good impression.

secondly if your site hasn't really been optimised then it probably won't be found anyway! So won't get the chance to make a bad first impression.

[bufferzone]

I must have the same kind of guts as Macguru, as that is my feeling exactly. My logic says something else. Since your placement changes regulary (for the better I hope, in the case of google not quit at the last update), It must be ok to start to submit as soon as you have one page up and then build up your placement slowly

[Macguru]

Making some first impression, is just the first step. Sure is a lot of content to add/adjust and links to prospect after this. Just as in real life. Like working after getting the job. :-)

<here again it's just a gut feeling>&*nbsp;</p>

[Robert Charlton]

I'm with Macguru, but I'll take it even further... I think that if you can control the process, there are a bunch of things you need to do to get a site placed properly, and there's an ideal order in which to do them. As I see the process (and this is a very sketchy overview)...

First, I choose my target phrases carefully. Then, I write a very compact directory description, targeting what I'm going after in 15 words, if I can get it down that far... something that's not going to get edited when I submit. This also gives me a feeling for my core focus and my prime targets.

Then, I optimize the site around my main targets. I try to pick up peripheral targets, as I call them, if I can.

Then, and only then, I submit to either ODP or Yahoo. It's important, I feel, that the site reflect the description I'm submitting, because otherwise the directories are likely to edit my submission.

Additionally, the directory description affects my ranking on some crawler-based engines. It used to be, and I'm not sure how much of a change there's been recently, that AOL results were a hybrid of my ODP description and AOL's spidering of my home page. It also used to be, and I don't know whether this has been changed, that once AOL spidered you, that info, like your directory description, was pretty much engraved in stone, so you had to get it right the first time.

Other crawler-based engines, like Google, might come back to look again. I feel it also makes sense not to submit to the engines that might take a long time... and, again... most important, stay out of the directories until you're optimized.

You can, of course, fine tune your site copy later. I've actually profited, when optimizing a site already in Google, from seeing how Google ranked a draft in process... almost like InfoSeek in the old days.

It's also helpful to have the site in good shape before requesting links from others.

[netcommr]

Robert, good post and I agree 100%. I like that last bit on Google, interesting isn't it.

This was my version of what Robert said, just worded a little different
[webmasterworld.com...]

One thing to enfore why you don't submit to the slow updating engines before you are 100% ready is you have no way of telling when their spider will hit you and you may not see it again for 6 months to whenever, do you want them to get 1/2 a page on the only shot you have for a long time?? Take that extra few weeks or month to finish your content, it will probably could save you half a year, at Excite anyway. I have a page in an engine right now that has 1/2 a page, what a waste.

[IanTurner]

I certainly would never go as far as submitting a site which only had half a page. I would always have an initial content of at least half a dozen pages, with basic optimisation work done.

[Marcia]

What I've routinely done with some small sites is put up an optimized introductory page right away, before the site is done, set up one link to it using a text link with the primary keyword phrase, from a site that gets crawled regularly, and submit it. It depends on the schedule, but the slower engines generally won't come around until the site is actually done; but if they're there sooner it's a bonus, and they'll get the full site next time around. But at least there's something up there.

With the faster ones it's a headstart to get the page in, and they'll be back again by the time it's done and the other site pages are linked. It's not just an "under construction" page - it's got graphics, headings, and enough text to describe the site, plus an email link. In one case the temporary page did well enough so that I left it as is rather than put the intended text on it and just linked to the rest of the site when it was ready. It's worked well, but these haven't been for what I'd call competetive categories. I've found it gives an extra month that would've been missed.

[2_much]

I'd go for it Mark. The main engine this will help you with is Google. It's worth it, because we know Google updates every month, so once your site is done it'll be updated on Google.