You’re excited! Today, you’re opening your new website to the world. It’s got an amazing look and feel, and you just know that it will be so popular that throngs will flock to it overnight.
Then, it doesn’t happen. Weeks go by and nobody comes. You’re miserable, and maybe even think that the Internet is broken. There’s something wrong, but you have no idea where to look.
Did you know that it can simply be the age of your website? Yep. Age plays a HUGE part in how search engines see a page, especially Google. There are so many fly-by-night sites out there that come today and are gone tomorrow that Google doesn’t want to waste much time indexing sites that may never develop into anything substantial.
Plus, unless someone else thinks your site is great and links to it, they won’t index you! Did you know that?
So, what’s the solution?
1. Give your site time to mature. You probably won’t see any search traffic to speak of for the first six months. That is, unless you’re a MEGA corporation or entertainment or something that already has a Hulk-strong brand.
2. Gather as many backlinks as you can. As I mentioned in a previous post, even “nofollow” links do pass some juice. So, comment on blogs, create videos that link back to your site in their descriptions, write unique articles and place them, and do all the things we know how to do to get backlinks easily.
And wait. It might take six months for your pages to show up in Google. I watched that happen way back in 2006, when I was earning my SEO wings. Patience and proper link building are the key. Link wheels do work, if you want to take the time and energy to set them up, but placing articles where they matter is even better, in my opinion. If you can guest post on an influential blog or website or a well-read online zine, you’re not taking the chance that Google will fire at you and your whole system will be destroyed.
They will sink your battleship.
So, why put yourself to that risk?
Unique content is king. Not any content, slapped together, but quality, unique content that you can rely on to send you backlink juice for years to come.
