How long does it take to get a new site into Google Now?

My new site is still not listed in six months!

[The Toecutter]

I apologize if I am asking something that is common knowledge - I am not an SEO. I did search the archives for this answer but only found information on this topic from 2001 & 2002 and I think things have changed since then.

I know that in years past that we could get a new site listed into Google in about 60 to 90 days. However, I submitted my new 15 page business site into Google last September (6 months ago) and I am still not listed naturally, and consequently I am paying a fortune in AdWords.

Looking through my logs I see that Googlebot has been coming by monthly since November 2004.

QUESTION:
Has the time to become listed naturally in Google gotten significantly longer?

TIA,
John

[mrMister]

The last site I submitted was fully indexed (300 pages) within 7 days. I thought Google had got faster at this kind of thing.

Are there any links pointing to your site from elsewhere on the Internet. Google won't index sites that are 'islands' as they are not compatible with pagerank.

If you have got links pointing to it, what is their toolbar pagerank like? I'd try and get a link from a site with a pagerank of at least 5 to speed things up a bit.

[Lorel]

Getting indexed in google is usually pretty quick as long as you have a link from a site that is updated often and google visits frequently and your link is on the home page of that site, i.e., I link to all my new clients from my home page for about a year and that gets them indexed quickly.

However getting rank from Google for a new site, as was stated above, depends on links coming into your site and you need some high PR links for that to help much (find links not in frames, or on link farms or 100s of links per page, or hidden code on site in meta tags and elsewhere telling search engines to not follow the links, etc.).

There is a good article re page rank and how much is passed per the amount of links on a page and their rank etc. which can found by searching for this:
"Google PageRank: How to Get it"

[The Toecutter]

I only have a couple of links to my site and they are not very high quality. I guess that's the problem. I will take your advice and research how to get some quality links to my site.

Thanks for your help with this!

[sirkei]

I have the same problem here. My PR is like 4 for few months but still i am not getting much referrals from google. Like 10 or less per day. I've got many good backlinks from other websites same theme. I duno what i have done wrong.

I think the age of the website makes much importance. I noticed some other websites with the same theme are getting many visitors because i can know from the traffic they sent me. And they were online for like 3 or more years. Mine is only 8 months old.

But still i think my website is in so-called sandbox. :<

[FourDegreez]

I've got one site that's been up for about 8 months or so, and it was sandboxed and white-barred for the longest time (despite having some inbound links). After Allegra, it now shows PR5 (nothing had changed with linking) and seems to be competing fairly in the index (not exactly doing well, but that's because I need more links, SEO, etc. and not sandbox penalty). So there you go. Has any correlation between white-bar and sandbox been made by others, because that's what I'm noticing.

[Wizard]

I'd recommend to submit to DMOZ and Yahoo - you'll get quality backlinks from their directories.

[sirkei]

I am totally upset with DMOZ. Submitted once and got rejected. Done it one month ago but guess to no success. All other listings in the DMOZ of my theme are affiliate based and they got into it. :<

for yahoo. i paid them to get included. but well not in the most popular category and now even in the last page of directory since they changed the directory structure.

[mrMister]

I'd recommend to submit to DMOZ and Yahoo - you'll get quality backlinks from their directories.

I'm not sure if that was meant sarcastically or not.

Maybe a paid Yahoo inclusion would help, but it's best to try and get your link added to a site that's going to include it some time this decade! Some (most) DMOZ categories seem dead. There's just not enough editors to handle the load.

[steveb]

"I only have a couple of links to my site and they are not very high quality. I guess that's the problem."

Definitely. Yahoo only shows a single link to your site... and that is even offline now.

[Whoa]

I launched a new site recently and it was coming up in Google search results within a few weeks. Two inbound links from high-quality sites did the trick. I also created an RSS feed for the site and submitted it to Pingomatic; I update the RSS whenever we add a new article. That probably also helped. Hope that's useful information to you. Good luck!

[newsphinx]

It's damn weird that Google still refuse to index one of my sites in nearly a year! :( Yahoo had the site in a month when I launched that site. Dmoz has it and now Google directory has it too. Let's see what will happen.

[Wlauzon]

I have seen sites "listed" in 2 days. The problem is not getting listed, it is getting out of position #32,958,932

[The Toecutter]

Thanks to everyone for the insight on this subject. I submitted to dmoz today (fingers crossed).

I know this must be a "no-brainer" for most of you but this is not something I've had to deal with before. Since I do not own any other web sites - how do I go about getting my site linked? I have no clue where to start. Do I have to buy links or is there a way to accomplish this for free?

Thanks!

[Stefan]

how do I go about getting my site linked? I have no clue where to start. Do I have to buy links or is there a way to accomplish this for free?

Don't buy links... there's a good chance that they'll turn out to be dodgy in the long-term, and will do you more harm than good.

Use the SE's to search for sites that are similar or complimentary to your own, and send them a polite email asking if it would be possible to exchange links. Don't bother doing this unless you think your site is worth linking to.

DMOZ and Y Directory listings are tremendously valuable, even though some might tell you otherwise, (usually because they couldn't get into them).

[anallawalla]

Since I do not own any other web sites - how do I go about getting my site linked?

See the Link Development forum [webmasterworld.com] and the Directories forum [webmasterworld.com]. Both will give you old posts on places where you can get listed (i.e. linked) for free.

[FourDegreez]

Submitting to DMOZ is like submitting to a black hole. =/

[skunker]

How valuable is a link in the Yahoo! directory? An editor just picked up my site and put it in a very competitive section of the directory and I am very happy.

My site appeared in a national newspaper and quickly was included in YAHOO because of it. Several of my friends submitted their sites to that newspaper and they found out they had links in Yahoo the next day.

As for DMOZ....they can burn in h*ll. I've been submitting sites (very useful, popular and fresh content sites) since early 2004 with ZERO luck. The frustration is beyond belief!

[walkman]

I don't think it's worth $300 a year, but you got it for free so it's very valuable :)

"How valuable is a link in the Yahoo! directory? An editor just picked up my site and put it in a very competitive section of the directory and I am very happy."

[Stefan]

How valuable is a link in the Yahoo! directory?

Valuable enough. Nothing to sneeze at, and a good thing to have. It will also help to pull in un-reciprocated links. Get you more noticed. It and the ODP are still the biggies for real directories.

As for DMOZ....they can burn in h*ll.

It would be more of a smoulder, no doubt... ;-)

[BigUns]

The Toecutter:

Your meta robots tag has content="all=index,follow" :(
Should be content="all" OR content="index,follow"
Google shows you as URL only so perhaps your tag is confusing it. And, as indicated previously, you need at least one IBL that Google knows about.

[sonny]

You have a nice looking website. I put up a link to your site. Used "Atlanta computer repair". Overture says it gets 942 searches a month. I'll leave it up for a bit.

[Powdork]

Don't buy links... there's a good chance that they'll turn out to be dodgy in the long-term, and will do you more harm than good.

Or perhaps, don't buy links strictly for PR. There's a difference between buying PR and paying for exposure and traffic coming via a a paid link. Or is there?

Should be content="all" OR content="index,follow"

That tag is like your tonsils or your appendix. Perform a tagectomy and you'll be no worse off. Good find BigUns.

It will also help to pull in un-reciprocated links. Get you more noticed. It and the ODP are still the biggies for real directories.

You'll definitely see a jump in requests for link exchange after getting onto either directory.

[The Toecutter]

I am in awe at the support and assistance I have received from you folks here at WebmasterWorld. I have recieved (and continue to receive) comments, email, and sticky mail from other webmasters in this community regarding my site rankings. I would like to publically thank you for the help because sometimes I feel like I am alone in this effort yet you have shown that I am not.

I am already seeing major improvements at several search engines and I am anxiuosly awaiting the next pass of Googlebot to see what happens there.

I have learned a lot regarding the importance of interlinking sites and I have all of you to thank for that.

John

[BigUns]

To The Toecutter: Contrary to your sticky I see no change in your robots meta tag - I just looked again. (?)

To others who have stickied me: Just define your problem as well as you can in an appropriate thread and put the site in your User Profile and you'll get the benefit of many WebmasterWorld "eyeballs" to look at it. Doesn't mean you'll necessarily get good answers / solutions but at least you'll get "eyeballs". :))

[stargeek]

so the sandbox isn't in effect anymore?

or this thread is just talking about getting the site indexed, not ranked?

[mrMister]

so the sandbox isn't in effect anymore?
or this thread is just talking about getting the site indexed, not ranked?

Well, the site in question still isn't indexed or ranked!

[george123]

why don't you get a life and forget google ,there days are counted.next year it will be another moogle or yoogle,don't spend your life and efforts trying to get a place on google ,what goes up must come down,5 years is the top on any kind of business,they had there 5 years now is the time for there decade.I bet'ya next year they won'tbe millioners.

[mrMister]

Have you heard of Yahoo!?

They've been at the top of their game for as long as I can remember (10 years+)

[The Toecutter]

To The Toecutter: Contrary to your sticky I see no change in your robots meta tag - I just looked again. (?)

Air bubble in brain - made change - forgot to upload. (good thing is Googlebot has not come by yet!)

Just uploaded - thanks for catching that BigUns.