Getting Google’s Attention
One of the first things you need to do is get listed in Google. To get the ball rolling, I went to their add url page and submitted this site. The next thing I did was ad my adsense code. I don’t know if that speeds things up or not, but have always had the feeling it does. Now, these two techniques are fine, but to get Google’s attention faster, you should post your blog URL on another site that is already listed in Google. If you are a member of an internet forum, that is a great place to start. Or, if you have a favorite blog, leave a legitmate comment on a post…but don’t spam. I’m going to post a comment on a blog that I know has indexed one of my other sites before. That one is TechCrunch. I’m not positive, but perhaps it is best to post a comment on a highly popular blog such as this? I have noticed that some blog comments get indexed…but it seems others don’t.
Anyway, so I posted a comment which you read here. Can you guess which comment is mine? For testing purposes, I didn’t put my web site address in the comments at all. The only place I put my URL is in the form I filled out. After you submit, your name will be linked and comments below that.
I’m not sure how many days it will take to get indexed…but we should find out soon, won’t we! Interesting thing about this article is it looks like Google Notebook could be a potential spot to promote your blog. As soon as it is open to the public, I’ll give it a try.
May 12th, 2006 at 4:48 am
Getting a link from another site is the quickest way into Google. Submitting URLs is a good back up plan though.
In terms of leaving comments - the only problem is that many blogs use ‘no follow’ tags in their comments which signal to Google that they don’t want their spiders to see the links. This is an attempt to top comment spam being effective but also means legit commenters don’t have their links count.
May 12th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
The first thing you have to remember is that it takes quite some time to get indexed by Google and getting Page Rank. Backlinks are very important and also updating your site regulary with quality and orginical content is a must.
May 16th, 2006 at 12:28 am
I had a site (notice the psat tense) which got onto the first page when you searched for “GridGames” on google. It didn’t take long for this to happen, probably because of my hosting. (As long as I’m mentioning that, I should also mention that I am currently looking for new hosting if you have any suggestions).
I found this blog through google, so your advice works.
May 16th, 2006 at 1:14 am
http://www.webhostisland.com has an excellent deal - unlimited domain hosting. That’s what I use. The cool thing is you can install a wordpress blog in a couple of clicks. So if you think of a new blog idea, click and you’re good to go.
May 16th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Google Sitemaps really worked for me - but then I also use Blogger and they perhaps index “their own” stuff preferentially.
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/
If you do power Blogger then there is an excellent little tool for generating sitemaps here:
http://www.stephennewton.com/2005/06/google-sitemap-for-blogger.html
The only prob is you need to manually run the script which I keep forgetting to do.
I’ve found Technorati rubbish, Delicious good, and all the others very hit or miss. Probably related to my specialist content rather than the site’s potential.
Links to site’s with common interest still the best, but time consuming option.