Submitting an incomplete website to Google

What's going to happen?

[vibgyor79]

I have a website "under contruction" (no.. I don't plan to put a sign board when somebody clicks on a link). According to my estimate, I should be able to complete the website within the next 45 days.

Is it okay if I submit this to Google? I am presuming that Google will index the incomplete site when the next dance happens. My site will be fully indexed the second time after my website is complete (within the next 45 days).

Assumed advantage of submitting an incomplete site -

1) Google listings are not manually checked. So it will accept almost anything
2) I am ensuring that atleast my homepage is listed in Google within the next 15-30 days. This way, I "save" atleast 30 days. If I wait till my site is complete, my site will be indexed only in November.

Anything wrong with the assumptions?

[Mohamed_E]

Submitting a site to google does you no good unless there are external links to your site, in which case submission is superfluous.

Many webmasters would be reluctant to link to a site that is obviously not ready for prime time, how likely you are to get links depends on how incomplete your site is.

The tradeoff is early inclusion (if you get links now) at the cost of people clicking on an incomplete site.

[buckworks]

I would suggest making sure that even if the site is not complete, make sure whatever -pages- Google can reach are "ready for company". Then just link in new pages as they're finished and let Google do its thing.

If you plan your work sequence well, the site will still make sense even if someone finds it before everything's posted.

[Grumpus]

Remember this - People Are People. It's in everyone's nature to remember bad experiences and glaze over the good experiences. Therefore, if you start getting traffic now and people have an unfulfilling experience, then 45 days from now when your site IS ready, they are vastly more likely to go, "Oh yeah, I remember that piece of crap site!" and click on the result right below you.

G.

[vibgyor79]

By "ready for company" I presume you mean create the homepage without any links to internal pages and as I create internal pages, link them to the homepage. Will there be a penalty if I do create links to internal pages and submit? That is, will there be some sort of penalty if Google finds "page not found" error?

Mohd/Grumpus, I am making a big assumption here that no living breathing organism will ever reach my new website until it is complete. That is because the keywords for my website are highly competitive and there is no way Google will list my website (in first 10 pages atleast) with just the homepage.

My homepage will only be for my eyes and search engine bot's "eyes" only!

[fathom]

If incomplete by your standards means you have more content to add but the current site design appears to the rest of the world to be finished why not. Get a link and do it.

An example: I submitted a one page web site to google had three links to it and indexed no problem (did actually quite well).

The site itself would become a 23 page site but completed in stages so that it was always a complete with changes occuring periodically.

Just ensure the published site (short of final) is logically design, so it look right, no links to missing, broken links, missing graphics and you will be fine.

<added> it will take Google time to index all pages, usually it comes to grab the robots.txt, the main page and that's it... then return to get the remaining pages. This can be as long as your 45 days to complete.

It's always nice to get google crawling a new page immediately after you post it.</added>

[rfgdxm1]

>Submitting a site to google does you no good unless there are external links to your site, in which case submission is superfluous.

Incorrect. It would just mean no PageRank benefit. If a site lacks competition such that search terms that people would use to find it are rare, it could get some traffic even if an orphan. Also, he seems to just want to get this site "on the map" with Google. If it is incomplete, all he may care about is that Googlebot can find it at the moment, and not real people.

[vibgyor79]

You are bang on target. All I want is to get this site on the map.

By the way, really long time back, I had seen a thread about the list of search engines using bots to run through search listings. Where is it? I need to know which of the following uses bots -

Yahoo (I know this is human edited)
AlltheWeb (?)
Altavista (?)
MSN (?)
Taeoma (?)
Any other?

I plan to submit my incomplete site to these search engines. I will make sure there are no dead links and will upload pages as they are completed.

[Beachboy]

I did something with a site under construction. First, we built a page outlining what would soon appear on the site, along with some telling graphics. The text was properly optimized for a few keyword phrases.

Next, I added a mailing list program to the page. The text for the add-email field invited visitors to join the spam-free mailing list for an announcement when the site does open. Of course, we also had an email contact link in place.

Then I asked some associates in related fields to link to that site, with anchor text in the links highly compatible with the keywords for which the site was optimized. They did so, bless them.

I submitted the site to Google.

It was soon very well positioned for important and highly competitive keyword phrases right out of the gate. And people continue to join the mailing list.

In the meantime, construction is almost finished. The site will soon have a "grand opening" and I think it will be very well received. Some folks who might wish to try this might add a prize giveaway.

The advantage: No time lost while waiting on the SEs to index. If sensitively handled, one can minimize PR problems about a site listed but still under construction. Works for me! :)

[rfgdxm1]

Addressing both posts above, if the idea is just to get the site on the map, my best suggestion is that you manage immediately to get a link or two at sites that are very well on the map by virtue of being established for some time. This could just be buried on the "other links" page, with a note to the reader "site still under construction". If you do that, you should get on the map with pretty much any search engine that is anything because they pick up your site from these inbound links. No need to submit anywhere, they'll find you on their own.

Beachboy's suggestion is quite good. Try and find a way to slap up some page that is well optimized for the keywords you want. This way when you get the site actually online you'll be already in a number of search engines.

Yahoo and DMOZ are the only really notable directories. All the others you mention are search engines.

[vibgyor79]

Great idea Beachboy. I have been considering Microsoft BCentral's mailing list solution (Costs around $30 per month). Is it any good? For $30 per month, I can send upto 10,000 mails per month.

Are they any other alternatives? Any free ones?

[Beachboy]

The problem with some mailing list programs -- especially the free ones -- is they get very flaky when the number of email addresses gets rather large. We have had the database crash altogether, losing the data. No support, either. Not a fun thing.

A couple years ago we began using Post Office Pro 4.0, and even though there is a small fee involved, we find it to be rock solid reliable, has excellent verification of the opt-in, and is very easy to use. I'm sure you can find the vendor of the program with a Google search. :)

I don't believe there is a limit to how many emails you can send. We use Post Office Pro 4.0 to send way more than 10,000 emails from our opt-in lists each month.

[vibgyor79]

Thanks BeachBoy. POP 4.0 looks interesting.

[JamesR]

I sometimes will let Google spider incomplete sites or sections of sites since the turn around is so slow. By the time the site actually gets into the engine, I usually have the site or section complete.

Another strategy is just to build the site in stages so if visitors start coming, they have no idea it is under construction and you plan on putting a lot more on the site. Basically it is a beta release or v.1 release...whatever you care to call it.