posted on August 3, 2001 06:30:00 PM new
We finally did it. Built a website today and put our first batch of merchandise on it. Submitted it to several search engines too. Our site can use a bit of refining, but we're open for business!
How long does it take for your website to show up on a search?
I suppose if you've got the $$ to pay you can get a higher ranking? How does that work?
I don't expect to get rich off of this website, but if it will supplement our income even by a little it would be wonderful.
posted on August 3, 2001 07:03:55 PM new
it can take from 3 to 12 months for your website to show up on some search engines, many spiders will pick it up in 14 to 30 days.
Dont forget you should resubmit your site at least every 40 days with spiders, if your server has down time a few times when they spider your site your listing will be dropped.
You dont get better ranking no matter even if you pay, Ranking on nearly all search spiders and search engines is decided by popularity meaning if your site has been linked at 100,000 other websites it will rank higher then if you have just one other persons website linked to you.
This is why webrings,banner exchange programs and other such things are so popular on the web.
also your ranking is somewhat decided by the number of time people search a spider and cilck the link to your web page, but all come down to how popular your site is if its the most used path it will pretty surely rank at or near #1.
What you do get when you pay a company like yahoo to be listed is a advertizement type listing that helps you stand out more no matter where you rank.
so get busy and convience everyone you know with a website that they need to link to your site from their's, offering money for clicks from there site to yours helps convience people to add the link faster then just asking.
make a 468x60 banner ads for your website you can find some pretty good deal on running banner ads on website right now.
you cant depend as much on search engines for hits on your website like you use to be able to advertizeing and press releases word of month are you best tools these days..
posted on August 3, 2001 07:08:32 PM new
You can expect 4-7 weeks for most search engines. Did you submit yourself manually and how many did you submit to if I may ask?
Did you use meta tags?
Also don't get your hopes up, my site (see link) is on all the search engines and don't get alot of traffic from it. Every little bit you do helps though. You should try trading links with others that's another way to help with traffic it also helps get a higher ranking on the search engines when other sites link to your site.
One place to start is libertybid, you can add your link to the links page free.
posted on August 3, 2001 07:56:20 PM new
Metatags are key. Pick your descriptions and keywords carefully...you can look at your principal competition's websites to see what they used, and get ideas that way.
Netmechanics has a pretty good deal-- for about $20, you can list your website with them, and you can submit to over 100 search engines and directories with the push of a button, and you can re-submit as many times as you wish for a year.
I started seeing increased hits from search engines (you should have some reporting functions that give you referrer info) after about a month, mostly from Google and Netscape search. Try to get your site on the first page of search results for the most popular engines.
Here's netmechanics (lots of good info/reading there):
Thanks, we will be reading this. Honestly, my knowledge about this wouldn't fill a thimble. My wife knows her way around a little, but we're both learning.
It looks like I'll have lots of time to get more merchandise on the site.
[ edited by loosecannon on Aug 17, 2001 07:53 AM ]
posted on August 3, 2001 08:09:29 PM new
Yup just like magazine_guy says try to get your site on the frist page, this is the challange that will keep you going day after day year after year, long after the 10 million web listing above you have disapeared.
posted on August 3, 2001 09:37:18 PM new
Another thing, Steve-- you're currently on a free web site. According to BigStep (until very recently a 'free' site service) "a free web address can hurt not only your ranking but your ability to get listed at all. Because some people use free web addresses to spam search engines, search engines often ignore these kinds of addresses. If you're interested in using search engines to generate traffic to your web site, consider using a personalized web address (such as http://www.gracecabinets.com) — it can really help."
You can keep your webpages where they are, but redirect from your own domain.
For examply, my wife's site is really:
www.chezcherie.bigstep.com
(one of the sites that many search engines would disregard, apparently)
but we use
www.chezcherie.com
for marketing purposes, and when submitting to search engines through NetMechanic. Consider purchasing a domain (they're cheap).
