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How long does it take to get listed in Google?
In a recent thread
in an online forum webmasters discussed the question how long
it takes to get listed in Google. A webmaster had submitted
a web site with 15 individual pages to Google six months before
and he was still not listed in Google although Googlebot visited
his web site on a monthly basis.
It's normal Google behavior that a new web site is not listed
in the natural (unpaid) search results for about six months.
This Google practice is called the Google
sandbox .
However, Google did not return any pages of this web site
in its search results. Not even for obscure search terms or
the company name.
Why was the website of this webmaster not listed
in Google?
There were two main factors that prevented the site from
showing up in Google's search results:
1. The age of the web site
Once a web site has been put into Google's sandbox, it takes
six to eight months until it comes back to the normal index.
It's likely that the web site of the webmaster is still in
the sandbox.
2. The number and the quality of links to the web site
The webmaster admitted in the discussion that he only had
a few links to his website and that these links didn't have
high quality. Actually, a link popularity query on Google
returned no links at all for that web site.
Yahoo showed only one backlink to the web site and the web
site with the backlink was not accessible.
Google will only list a web site in its result pages if other
good web sites link to it. If only a few other web sites link
to your site and these web sites are of low quality, it will
be difficult to make it into Google's search results.
You can find out the link popularity of your web site with
this freeware link
popularity check tool.
What does this mean to you and your web site?
There are three things you can do to get into Google's index:
1. Make sure that your web site is not in Google's sandbox.
As soon as you have finished your web site, submit it to
Google. It takes about six to eight months to get
out of Google's sandbox. The sooner you submit your site,
the sooner you'll get in Google's normal search results.
2. Get high quality links from related web sites and Internet
directories.
It's important that other web sites with similar content
link to your site if you want to be listed in Google. A senior
member in the discussion said it this way:
"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.
[...] 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 Yahoo Directory listings are tremendously valuable,
even though some might tell you otherwise, (usually because
they couldn't get into them)."
An easy way to exchange links that way is our link popularity
tool ARELIS.
3. Optimize your web pages.
It is important that your web pages are optimized
for Google if you want to get high search engine rankings.
Google must be able to find out what your web pages are all
about.
A combination of optimized
web pages and high
link popularity leads to high rankings on Google. Make
sure that your web site has both and you'll benefit from high
rankings on Google as soon as your web site is out of Google's
sandbox.
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