If you launched a brand new site to a brand new domain recently, you are in for a bit of a waiting period with Google’s search engine. Simply put, your new website simply doesn’t have enough authority to rank well yet for your keywords. Google needs some time to verify that your site is not malicious and that there is relevant content on your site. This delay doesn’t apply to our client’s that come to us with an existing site or domain that is at least a year old. This is for the client that has no existing website or domain and is just starting out. Be prepared for a 3 month, 6 month, possibly even a year delay to start seeing your site show up in the search results for your keyword phrases.
First, know that Websites for Daycares always optimizes our client sites with the client’s most important keyword phrases so there’s nothing “wrong” with your website. We wish we could magically control Google’s algorithm to get your site out of the Google sandbox faster but this is unfortunately a penalty all new sites have to pay initially. I hate telling my clients in this situation about this delay but the good news is that there are some things you can do to move things along more quickly.
1. Submit your local business to Google Maps / Places and do the same for Bing and don’t forget to incorporate your keywords with your listing! They will send you something in the mail to confirm your physical location and once your listing is confirmed (may take a few weeks) this will help you get more exposure and hits to your site because your location will appear on their local results searches.
2. Look for established websites in your community that could offer you a link to your site from their site. Look at your local chamber of commerce, getting an advertising link on your local news website, or submitting an article to a local magazine that will include a link to your site. Do not get links from low-quality sites or pay for links from spam-filled directories. This will hurt your site in the long run, not help it.
3. Utilize social media! Get that Facebook page created for your business and ask your local friends to like and share your new page. Create posts on your new Facebook page and include a link to your website wherever possible. For example, you could create a post letting people know you updated your school calendar and link people to that page right on the post. The more visitors and hits you get to your site, the more likely you are to get out of the sandbox early.
Most important: don’t give up and be patient – your site will start working for you very soon. You might also consider advertising (pay-per-click ads) with Google until you are getting more organic traffic in the coming months. Set your daily or weekly budgets for clicks and this will help you get a jump-start on your site traffic.
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