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SWeCS NEWSLETTER - 21 February 2005
In this issue... - Is Your Site In the Google Sandbox?
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Months (and even years) ago, whispers began to circulate amongst the search engine ranking firms and specialists around the world about a common but unconfirmed theory that a lot of new websites simply could not rank high in the Google results, no matter what. Many questions were fired at Google, but as yet we aren't aware that there has ever been an official response or acknowledgement that they have any kind of policy to keep new sites pushed down the rankings for a while. What exactly is happening? A large number of new websites report that even though they have had their website properly designed and optimised, they simply rank nowhere in the Google results. They might come up when you search for their name, but not for anything else. And then, after a period of say 8-10 months, they all of a sudden start to rank higher. Many search engine experts simply put this down to these new sites not having enough inbound links to their site, and then when the magic number was reached, then they started to rank higher. But this phenomenon, which was named the Sandbox theory, was also happening to sites that had hundreds of incoming links. Even stranger, it sometimes happened to established websites that had a sudden increase in the amount of incoming links pointing to their site. In the absence of an official response from Google, the Sandbox theory is just that, a theory. But we have experienced it with a number of websites we are managing for search engine ranking. Despite optimising these new sites properly, and increasing the amount of links pointing to them, they simply don't increase their rankings in Google (but they do in all of the other search engines). Then, after a period of 6-12 months, things change. If this is being done on purpose by Google, why? There are many opinions on this, but perhaps Google want to make new websites establish themselves before they place them higher in their rankings. Whatever the reason, it does seem to be happening. So, if you have a new website and you are trying all kinds of things to increase your ranking in Google but having no success, this is what could be happening to you. One thing that all of the search engine ranking specialists agree on, is that there is absolutely nothing you can do about it - except wait. Contacting Google won't help. You simply need to be patient, and ensure that your site is properly optimised and not breaking any rules, and that you increase the number of links pointing to your site. And then wait. In the meantime, it is definitely worth considering the pay per click advertisements in Google, which will get you on the first page of results immediately.
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This fortnight's question comes from Jeff: "I've seen lots of free services that will let me submit my site to the search engines. Why do I need to engage a professional then?" It's important to differentiate between submitting your site to the search engines, and ranking highly in them. First of all, you usually don't need to submit your site to the major search engines anymore (except for a few directories), because the search engine "spiders" will normally find your site themselves, provided you have a few links pointing to your site from other sites (so that the spiders can follow the link and find your site). Submitting, or having your site spidered, simply adds your site to their database. The spider reads through your site and works out what it's about, so that it can match it to searchers' enquiries. Submitting your site over and over again will do absolutely nothing to improve your search engine ranking, and in some cases could even get you banned. Ranking higher in the search engines is a whole different ball game, and is quite labor intensive. You need to arrange your coding to suit the preferences of the major search engines (which are often changing), increase the number of links pointing to your site, and other things. You can either learn this yourself (and keep up to date with new changes) or get a professional to do it.
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This means that if we receive your payment within 7 days of it being issued, 5% of that amount will be credited towards your next invoice. It should be noted, however, that this does not include reimbursement amounts for search engines. For example, if you receive an invoice for Pay Per Click Search Engine Management, the 5% credit applies only to our management fee, and not to any Pay Per Click charges that are being reimbursed.
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However, you must transfer your domain to us at least 10 days before it is due for renewal. Otherwise, we cannot guarantee that it can go through the transfer process in time before the domain is due. You can transfer your domain name online at any time (ie. now), and then you don't need to do anything more. You will simply get your renewal from us when the domain is due. To transfer your domain online, visit http://domains.southwestecommerce.net and click on Transfers.
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Browse through the SWeCS Ecommerce Library, full of FREE information about getting more out of the Internet. Sections include Web Site Development, Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing, Online Commerce, Computer & Technical Issues, and Miscellaneous.
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