How do you survive Google’s aging delay? By taking pro-active action!

I haven't seen any new sites with new domains appear at top of Google’s (SERPs) since early to mid 2004. I've consulted with and tracked many of my clients’ new sites and despite fact they have hundreds of #1 positions in Yahoo, Alta Vista, AllTheWeb & MSN for their keywords I’ve yet to see any remarkable results in Google until 6 - 8 month period.

The trend I’ve noticed suggests that new sites are initially indexed; ranked accordingly in Google’s SERPs for a week or so and then literally vanish from SERPs for several months. In most cases they can’t even be found with most obscure search terms… including their own name and address.

If you’re launching a new site don’t panic. Once you’ve registered your domain name and configured hosting, you should set up a few temporary pages. Obtain links to them from other sites in Google's index to start aging delay count down. I recommend launching a site immediately with enough content to set up and facilitate requirements for directory listings to start. The sooner Google is aware of your domain better. Just don’t hold your breath waiting to see results… It could be as long as 6 - 8 months!

Gauge your optimization efforts by where your site ranks in other search engines. Provided you’re not engaged in unethical practices and followed Google’s Webmaster’s guidelines this should give you a ballpark indication of where Google will rank your site after aging delay, just be patient.

To that end, don’t keep tweaking and changing your pages source code and trying to manipulate your rankings until your site has been in Google’s index for at least 6 - 8 months. In other words, there’s no need to reinvent wheel here because it doesn't seem to matter what you do, your site will still be delayed regardless.

Don’t keep submitting your pages to Google either! It won’t make any difference.

Check your server logs to confirm Googlebots’ crawl and then forget about it. Googlebot will find your site again if you’re actively reciprocating links so your time would be better served building an optimized reciprocal link network to get your site out there and linked to as early as possible.

If traffic from Google is crucial to your marketing and promotion plan, and I don’t know anyone who would argue otherwise… budget to run an AdWords campaign for a few months until site is indexed and positioned. You might even consider running an Overture campaign as well!

If you purchase non-directory links, reallocate that budget to Adwords advertising.

It’s pointless to purchase links when you can invest in an AdWords or Overture campaign. Purchasing links is an investment you won’t see a red cent ROI for at least 6 - 8 months while an Adwords campaign will drive targeted traffic to your site that can convert immediately. Keep in mind that Lycos, HotBot, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Iwon, Netscape & Teoma also receive paid results from Google! MSN, AllTheWeb, AltaVista & Yahoo receives paid results from Overture.

Do other search engines have an aging delay?

Google provides primary search results to other search engines. It only seems reasonable to expect that your site may be delayed in Google’s partner sites as well.

One-way you may be able to work around this, and I can’t emphasize this enough; is to make sure you submit your site to DMOZ, open source directory. Google, in addition to other major engines, receives directory results directly from DMOZ.

Yahoo and its partner sites don’t seem to be utilizing an aging delay, nor does MSN, so focusing your early efforts on these search engines might give you a competitive edge in Yahoo network.

At end of day when it’s all said and done surviving Google’s aging delay is just a matter of time. The days of purchasing instant link popularity and PageRank are over and in due course you will see Google give your site recognition it deserves.

Copyright 2005 Lawrence Deon

Lawrence Deon is an SEO/SEM Consultant and author of the popular search engine optimization and marketing model Ranking Your Way To The Bank. http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.com

If you track your websites visitor stats whilst it is in Google Sandbox, you will see that Googlebot comes crawling fairly regularly and that it does crawl, and therefore catalogue, all of your pages. Google does know that your pages exist and knows what they contain, but doesn't list them in main SERPS. In other words, because your website is new, it is under probation in 'sandbox'.

How Long Will My website Stay in Google Sandbox?

It is difficult to say how long a website will stay in Google sandbox as this seems to depend on types of keywords it will be completing for in real SERPS It can be up to 6-8 months and only way to get out of sandbox is to wait.

The Google Sandbox isn't all bad news. If your site contains good quality relevant material it will find its way out of sandbox and will get rankings it deserves in Google SERPS. I even have some theories that may mean that your time in sandbox can be used wisely to actually improve your final rankings.

You also shouldn't forget that Google isn't only search engine out there. MSN is widely used and with might of Microsoft behind it is likely to become a bigger player in search engine world in new future. At time of writing, MSN or other search engines such as Yahoo! and Alta Vista don't have a 'sandbox' filter and your new websites will be listed in quickly and should start driving traffic to your site.