How long does it take to establish a new website

[dave1928]

If i finished building a all new retail website today, how long would it take to start getting some good numbers of visits?? how long before all search engines start seeing the site etc.

Or what time scale should a website expect to wait before seeing some results??

Thanks

DAve

 

[MrDave]

Hey Dave

Once you have submitted your site to Google, Yahoo etc they will only take a few days to start indexing your pages. Once you are on a few search engines you will fine lots of other smaller ones will also start visiting your site, over the next month or so.

However in Britain, Google does about 70% of the searches, so thats the big one you want to be on.

After your on the search engines its hard to say, depending on what your selling and how likely it is for people to make repeat orders with you will affect when you start seeing that turn into business.

Don't be surprised/worried if you don't see any orders for the first month.

- Dave

 

[RoseRover]

Hi Dave,

It's all down to how you market your site - either online through search engines, forums etc or offline using more traditional types of advertising/pr.

I used adwords to get my site in front of customers immediately and had orders within the first month. Even if the search engines index you straight away, you may find it takes months to move up the listings even with good SEO depending on how competitive your keywords are. Google does take age of site into account.

Good luck with the site.

Rose

 

[quikshop]

Or what time scale should a website expect to wait before seeing some results??

Hi Dave,

That's an impossible question to answer without a better idea of what you are selling, how good your online shop design is (visual impact, useability, presentation of the products, ease of purchase, payment options etc), and how much you intend on spending on which forms of marketing.

We've seen shop owners using our hosted Ecommerce service hit the ground running from day one thanks to their products being in high demand and with some clever marketing and link swapping, and others take a lot longer...

 

[sgpratley]

Depends on how actively you market it.
We set up Buy Beauty Brands (buybeautybrands.com) as a demo of our eCommerce system Shine Ecommerce (shineecommerce.com) and had an order in the first day via the Google Base feed we set up during development.

Don't bother 'submitting' your site to the search engines. What gets them drooling is links from other sites. Find a few other sites on the same topic and go tell people about it there.

 

[Stampy]

Depends on how actively you market it.
We set up Buy Beauty Brands (buybeautybrands.com) as a demo of our eCommerce system Shine Ecommerce (shineecommerce.com) and had an order in the first day via the Google Base feed we set up during development.

Don't bother 'submitting' your site to the search engines. What gets them drooling is links from other sites. Find a few other sites on the same topic and go tell people about it there.

Do people always have to advertise their own product/service when they're giving advice? It seems to be happening a lot lately.

Did you need to give an example site of your new system to prove the point, with url details?

 

[sgpratley]

I think so, that way people can see the site we're on about is ours, that we built it and that we're not just talking theory but that we can 'walk the walk' too.

Too much SEO advice that I see on forums is just regurgitated from waffling magazine articles (or other forums) by people who've never actually implemented it or seen any successes.

By the way, you're advertising your own site in your signature. I think you've answered your own question

 

[Stampy]

I think so, that way people can see the site we're on about is ours, that we built it and that we're not just talking theory but that we can 'walk the walk' too.

Too much SEO advice that I see on forums is just regurgitated from waffling magazine articles (or other forums) by people who've never actually implemented it or seen any successes.

By the way, you're advertising your own site in your signature. I think you've answered your own question

Hardly - I'm not promoting an ecommerce system in my sig - if my advice was that I knew a great place to buy solar products, then it would be the same, but I'm not.

I just think that advice on a forum is completely devalued if the person giving it is trying to promote their own product at the same time. You could have given the same advice without the shameless plug, and started to build up a reputation that people might respect.

Your choice of course.

 

[Ravenfire]

Dave I have to agree that the more PR you can do the quicker you will start to see results on your site. Its great when the search engines pick you up but nothing beats getting you site known. Often posting on a forum such as this or other forums where you are allowed to have a signature is a great start.

As for the posts above - couldn't you discuss that via PM rather than taking over someones thread!

 

[sgpratley]

Thanks Ravenfire

OK, a free tip without the shameless plug.

If you want to get your site found REALLY quickly, pick one of your products and put a free advert for it on Gumtree or Craigslist with a link to that page.

The first thing you'll see is the Gumtree ad, but when the ad expires you'll see your own site creeping to the top. Don't expect much if you're selling Playstations but if your product is relatively new or unique to your site it's a great little trick.

If you can combine it with a discount code on that one product and still make a profit it can work even better.

My record for buying a domain, getting the site up and making a sale that way is under 12 hours that was almost 6 months ago and I was still getting sales yesterday.

 

[sysops]

As for the posts above - couldn't you discuss that via PM rather than taking over someones thread!

If one more person comes out with this type of ridiculous, pathetic comment, I'm going to scream.

It's a thread on a public forum. Threads can go in may directions. They often (more often than not) go off topic. This is normal. It os not taking over someone's thread, it is normal.

The trouble is with these forum neophytes is that they don't really understand. If you'd grown up posting on Usenet, you'd have a much better idea of how threads evolve. Some of the best, most informative, and most entertaining threads end up being about something completely different from the OP. This is OK!

 

[bcmedia]

If i finished building a all new retail website today, how long would it take to start getting some good numbers of visits??

Or what time scale should a website expect to wait before seeing some results??

Thanks

DAve

There are millions of sites on-line so the chances of anyone finding your site without you being proactive about your marketing means its highly likely it never gets traffic (more than, say, a few hits a month).

Getting a store finalised to go live is only the first step to getting customers. How long it takes to build up a steady stream of traffic depends largely on your own efforts.

 

[edman]

If i finished building a all new retail website today, how long would it take to start getting some good numbers of visits?? how long before all search engines start seeing the site etc.

Or what time scale should a website expect to wait before seeing some results??

Thanks

DAve

It all boils down to your marketing really.

And if you are counting on the search engines, there are many factors to consider.

- How optimized your website is for the search engines
- Age of site also matters when it comes to ranking so even though your website can get indexed quickly, don't expect it to rank so high.

What you may want to ask is, what can I do to start making sales as quickly as possible

Then you may get some answers with proper solutions.

 

[fisicx]

If it's a simple brochure site you could be indexed and ranked in a couple of weeks.

If it is CMS or ecommenrce site then it could take months before you are fully indexed.

If there is lots of competition then you might get indexed and ranked but appear on page 37.

If your site doesn't meet the search crieteria that people use then you won't get found (this is what people search for not what you want them to search for).

And even if you get a visitor can you be sure that the site meets their needs?

If you want visitors fast PPC is a good way to go. It will allow you to test the viability of your design.

 

[ronnyeo]

If i finished building a all new retail website today, how long would it take to start getting some good numbers of visits?? how long before all search engines start seeing the site etc.

Or what time scale should a website expect to wait before seeing some results??

Thanks

DAve

The answers of your question may vary. You've seen above.
I see it in simply. The online business key of success is on traffic. I devide the source of traffic in two type.
FREE and PAID.
For instantly traffic is always paid type, you need to pay for advertising.
The advertising that I love is PPC (pay per click). The pion of this model is Google Adwords.

When you explore the marketing articles you'll find many way to get traffic into your site. Just decide where will you use.

 

[matt.chatterley]

If i finished building a all new retail website today, how long would it take to start getting some good numbers of visits?? how long before all search engines start seeing the site etc.

Or what time scale should a website expect to wait before seeing some results??

Thanks

DAve

Varies wildly, depending on a number of factors, including:

How the site has been structured (elements of onsite SEO - how crawler friendly is it)

Back-links existing in to the site

Advertising + Marketing in place (e.g. paid for ads, PPC, email or leaflet distribution to draw in hits)

And many more. Which sector of retail are you in, and can you share your link?

 

[Pembrokeshire Directory]

People have been saying submit your website to the search engines which is great just remember no just your domain name ,it is your sitemap.xml you want to submitting to search engines to get it listed quick

 

[dave1928]

Thanks for all your comments.

I realise that this can vary widely due to a number of factors and was after a rough average time for small starter business.

To answer matt reply above - it is a pet accessory online shop and no link as its not built yet.

Thanks again

 

[matt.chatterley]

Thanks for all your comments.

I realise that this can vary widely due to a number of factors and was after a rough average time for small starter business.

To answer matt reply above - it is a pet accessory online shop and no link as its not built yet.

Thanks again

Ah. What did your developer say in answer to your question?

 

[Pembrokeshire Directory]

Dave1928,

If you delivery to UK addresses, drop us a line when site is live and we will give you a link from one of our links pages it will help as they all Google page rank 3 you can view our homepage by run pointer over our name above and press.

 

[fisicx]

Work on 6 months to get fully indexed and another 6 months to generate some organic traffic. Aim to break even some time during your second year of trading and a proifit in the third year. Ok so the timescales might increase or decrease but it's just like any other business, you have to go and find your customers and since your will be competing against some long established online stores you will find it twice as hard to get any traffic.

The other alternative is to rely totally on paid advertising.

If you simply launch without any marketing you won't survive because no one will know you exist. Google is going to compare your site will all the others selling the same products and probably decide you don't deserve a page 1 slot unless you offer something differnt. What has your site got that makes it stand out?

 

[Fairyglass]

I'm new here, but I run four commercial websites- it's my full time living. Fisicx (above) says it all really- as a new, small business, your energy and time is going to be stretched, so you should realistically look at a year before you see regular, sustained orders. During this time you need to have a plan with goals, and work consistently on SEO, link building and publicity. Even if it's only an hour a night, or a couple of hours a week, use your time effectively.

We no longer use paid advertising (PPC) as we're optimised well enough on our major search terms, but it certainly makes a difference in the early stages of a site's existence. You need to be really careful with budgets though- it's easy to overspend!

Like many things in life, there's no effective short cut, but the end result of your hard work is hugely satisfying! Good luck.

 

[mailorderco]

A good book to help with this (which is free) is the 299 steps to Google heaven by Niki pilkington nikkipilkington.com/google-listings/299-steps-to-website-heaven-free

I am not associated, related or employed by the above, just thought its a great free read for Google advice

 

[Bradley]

Hi Dave,

At first I would like to suggest that once you have a site, you should gather think of branding, advertise & marketing it rather thinking of Search Engines catching your site....

I have pool of designers & devlopers based in Kent who can help you in your business goals.

If you've developed a site for your retail business, we can even help you design & develop whole site from the scratch.

Regards,
Bradley

 

[osicsophie]

If your site has "Tell a friend" function, maybe you'll see the results soon.
You can't ignore the influence of "word of mouth"