SEO Tips For Internet Marketers

September 21, 2011By Jill Whalen

Hi Jill,

I am starting a vacation rental site (I know, groan, very competitive). BUT--I do have a particular niche and a lot of great related keywords within this niche (thanks to your Lynda.com course) instead of the prevalent "vacation rental" phrases everyone uses.

Anyway, here's my dilemma. Once my site is ready, I'll be approaching owners within the niche. They will upload their own info, pictures, etc. It will likely take at least a month or two for me to feel as if I have enough of a database to look respectable. (I HATE going to a rental site that has only a few rentals available per region. I think it looks small-time and unprofessional.) So I really don't want people to find me for the first few months. My thought was that I would not add my new keyword-rich titles, headings, links, etc., until after a month or so, to keep people from finding me too soon (ironic, I know).

Does this plan seem sound? How long does it normally take Google to recheck sites? Would it be better to just put the keywords in place now, since it might take Google and Bing a while to index the site again? If I submit an XML site map, do they go and check it right away?

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

Jami

++Jill's Response++

Hi Jami,

I wouldn't worry too much about Google finding you too soon. It's likely they won't drive too much traffic right away anyway, especially if you don't have links pointing to the site.

If you don't want to be indexed at all, then simply exclude the entire site using your robots.txt file and remove the exclusion when you're ready.

But if it were me, I would optimize it and get it indexed as soon as possible to build up age and eventually authority. The interesting thing is that Google prefers sites that are more fleshed out, as well (just like people). So as you build it up with more rentals, Google will like you better also!

Hope this helps. Oh, and I'm glad that you found my Lynda course so helpful!

Best,

Jill

del.icio.us  Related Articles? Related Forum Posts?

Labels: Incomplete