New Site Checklist

alex · 14-02-2012, 09:51:47 AM

Also, it would be interesting to hear from people who do not agree for some fresh perspective?

VSC · 14-02-2012, 09:57:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alex

Haha, well at least we're agreeing. Again good points, I'd do the same. Hopefully this thread will be providing lots of information for people. That said, it's one thing knowing what to do, it's another actually putting the effort and doing it. Unfortunately success is not quickly achieved, work is ongoing and time consuming, but done right will pay off.

Though perhaps not sounding very professional, I'm into mud throwing ...

Throw enough mud to a wall and some of it sticks ...
Build enough sites and some will start ranking.

That's what I do ... keep building sites. Some start ranking.
Those are the ones I focus my time one.
The others I leave online - there's never any telling what a new Google algo change will do, and and some of my older sites which never ranked before suddenly jump up in to the rankings.

I'm relatively lucky as I can build simple sites relatively easily, so it's just a time cost.

My belief though, is that we need to be focusing on interactive sites and large / solid ecommerce sites for the long term - those are the ones that will last.

Anyway, off to build some sites!

cc976a · 14-02-2012, 01:10:24 PM

Some great ideas there - and great post by Alex with some useful tips

....also glad to see i'm not the only one seeing better or faster rankings by using Adwords...may be something in that after all.

I personally give up too early with mini-sites. I'm more old school with this - good content and good solid onsite SEO, with a directory link or two used to get rankings. Not so much nowadays - it's all this social crap that's polluting the airwaves because it's seen as cool and 'engaging'. Not my bag - but we must conform to the mighty G!

Tips like this will keep us scallywags using a few more new site ranking steps and options - before giving up

Any other tips out there to share?

alex · 14-02-2012, 02:16:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cc976a

Some great ideas there - and great post by Alex with some useful tips

....also glad to see i'm not the only one seeing better or faster rankings by using Adwords...may be something in that after all.

I'm glad you found my post useful. The adwords issue is a dodgy topic, some say it helps, whereas others say it doesn't. Logically I can't see Google ranking advertiser sites higher than others because it may create all sorts of issues for them. What I do believe is that advertising a new site/page instantly informs Google that it exists and since we're paying customers I feel they are likely to fast-track the indexing process. In the past I've waited 3 months to have a site indexed. Now that I advertise new sites/pages when I launch them it's generally a few days before the site is indexed, even before submitting a sitemap to webmaster tools.

If this is indeed the case then advantage comes not because G will rank you higher, but because you potentially gain 3 months and if you have built the site with SEO in mind then you will tick all the boxes when first crawled. Thus, at first glance and potentially months ahead of other new sites, Google will crawl your site and see the site to be of good quality. You therefore don't have to wait for future crawls, which could be ages away, for G et al to start interpreting the content that you've designed to push you up the rankings.

Again just a thought, no real evidence, just an interpretation from my experience and I'd love to hear other opinions.

Blossom · 14-02-2012, 02:26:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alex

In the past I've waited 3 months to have a site indexed. Now that I advertise new sites/pages when I launch them it's generally a few days before the site is indexed, even before submitting a sitemap to webmaster tools.

There are many places on the web where if you post or ping the URL, you will get indexed within a couple of hours. You just need to pick a website that gets crawled very frequently.

Edit: Talking about Google here. With Bing and Yahoo you may as well go on holiday for a fortnight whilst you're waiting.

Sussexite · 14-02-2012, 02:29:08 PM

Don't want to repeat what has already been said....

I also install
Quick Cache - very simple to run cache.
WP Post Correct from Excell and CSV

The latter is useful on directory-type sites because you can manage your posts from a spreadsheet. This allows you to update many posts at once, add and maintain custom fields, quickly write things like custom title tags and description tags if your theme allows it - all in Excel, where you can copy and paste, or write strings using formulae. If, for example, you decide that you need a custom field to do something a month after the site is up and running, you can put the custom field values you want in the spreadsheet, import the whole lot and update the whole site at once, rather than post-by-post ...which would be very tedious.

alex · 14-02-2012, 02:36:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blossom

There are many places on the web where if you post or ping the URL, you will get indexed within a couple of hours. You just need to pick a website that gets crawled very frequently.

Edit: Talking about Google here. With Bing and Yahoo you may as well go on holiday for a fortnight whilst you're waiting.

haha, yeah I'm really only talking about Google when I go through the list. I generally do quite well on Bing/Yahoo etc, but it can be months before I notice changes and I've not yet worked out how to speed up indexing. What is worth considering about the other search engines though is the number of characters they allow in the title and META descriptions - it's worth making sure that your titles are compatible with each as each vary etc.

With regards to the picking frequently crawled sites I totally agree, I was just making the point specifically about using adwords.

cc976a · 14-02-2012, 02:36:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blossom

There are many places on the web where if you post or ping the URL, you will get indexed within a couple of hours. You just need to pick a website that gets crawled very frequently.

Edit: Talking about Google here. With Bing and Yahoo you may as well go on holiday for a fortnight whilst you're waiting.

Any directories or sites you've come across that you can share?

alex · 14-02-2012, 02:39:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sussexite

Don't want to repeat what has already been said....

I also install
Quick Cache - very simple to run cache.
WP Post Correct from Excell and CSV

I'll have to take your word for it... I don't do so well with WP

They sound like pretty useful tools though. What's your experience been with them?

Another thing I didn't mention before is a favicon. Not really a true SEO tip, but makes the site stand out a bit more in a list of favourites etc.

Sussexite · 14-02-2012, 03:11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alex

What's your experience been with them?

Good

14-02-2012, 09:51:47 AM	#11 (permalink)
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14-02-2012, 01:10:24 PM	#13 (permalink)
cc976a Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 1,301 No Classified Ratings Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 32)	Some great ideas there - and great post by Alex with some useful tips ....also glad to see i'm not the only one seeing better or faster rankings by using Adwords...may be something in that after all. I personally give up too early with mini-sites. I'm more old school with this - good content and good solid onsite SEO, with a directory link or two used to get rankings. Not so much nowadays - it's all this social crap that's polluting the airwaves because it's seen as cool and 'engaging'. Not my bag - but we must conform to the mighty G! Tips like this will keep us scallywags using a few more new site ranking steps and options - before giving up Any other tips out there to share?

14-02-2012, 02:29:08 PM	#16 (permalink)
Sussexite Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Sussex Posts: 203 No Classified Ratings Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 2)	Don't want to repeat what has already been said.... I also install Quick Cache - very simple to run cache. WP Post Correct from Excell and CSV The latter is useful on directory-type sites because you can manage your posts from a spreadsheet. This allows you to update many posts at once, add and maintain custom fields, quickly write things like custom title tags and description tags if your theme allows it - all in Excel, where you can copy and paste, or write strings using formulae. If, for example, you decide that you need a custom field to do something a month after the site is up and running, you can put the custom field values you want in the spreadsheet, import the whole lot and update the whole site at once, rather than post-by-post ...which would be very tedious.