How Long Does It Take to Get Ranked by Google?

The short answer? It depends! We've seen it happen in anything from 8 weeks to 8 months. Millions and millions of new websites go live every day, and it takes the search engines along time to notice a new one!

A new website is considered unpopular, because other websites do not link to it. That is if no other website links to your new website, Google usually will not index it. They may view it every now and again, but they won't include it in search results. This makes perfect sense for two reasons:

1. If nobody except you considers your website useful enough to link to, why should it be important enough to appear in search results?
2. Due to all the spam search engines have to shift through, many new sites will not appear in listings due to a probation period which can last 6 months, a year, or even longer. The only way out is through optimisation and reputation building.

Getting Up There.
As a small business, competing in in the marketplace, you have either be more original than your competitors or spend more on marketing than they do. You need to have high quality original material on your website, and spend time building your brand online.

Find out how competitive your chosen keywords are by searching for them. If the number of results is low, with lots of hard work you should be able to get listed in a couple of months.

If it's a high number, you're going to have to work even harder. As a brand new website owner, you need to see how old your competitors websites are. If they are years old, you're going to have to work at your SEO for a few years if you want to usurp them from that top spot because search engines rate older websites as being more authoritative and rank them more highly.

If the number one slots for your keywords are large corporations, you're not going to be able to outrank them with your new website, simply because they have so much more money to spend on SEO than you. Time to think about what's unique and special about your business, and get a new set of keywords.

We've put together a guide on how you can add your chosen keywords to as many different part of your website as possible using the Toolkit, and how to choose your keywords.

Get Links
It's really important to list your site in a few quality business directories, and add your website address to listings with trade organisations. This provide clean links that link back to your website helping to build credibility with the search engines. You can find links to business directories on our support site.

It's also worth doing a search for business directories in your business area, to see if there are directories that specialise in your sector. For example, we've registered with a number of directories having searched for "web design directories".

Get Regional
As a UK business owner, you've already got one weapon in your arsenal when it comes to getting picked up on Google. You're not a US business! It's much easier to optimise your website and get ranked for keyword phrases that include a UK location. Get a Google Local listing, and link to your website from that too. You can add your business to Google Local here

So How Long Does It Take Again?
Like we said, no one knows for sure. But if you've optimised your website, got some good links from trade organisations and business directories, and ensured you've got local keywords in your website, we'd expect to see you appearing in the listings about 8 weeks after publication.

Find out more about Toolkit Websites, Web Design in Southampton, Hampshire, UK and how they can help your business grow.

Microsoft Telling Users to Consider Other Browsers

Here at Toolkit Websites we have always advocated using Firefox as your primary web browser. Now it seems Microsoft is joining us. Millions of Microsoft users across Europe are going to be offered a choice of browsers.

This is part of Microsoft's ongoing legal case with the European Commission in which they were accused of abusing their position as market leaders by pre-bundling Internet Explorer with their operating systems.

Users will see a message giving them a choice of browsers if they currently have IE set as their default browser.

We heartily welcome this move! As web designers, we find Internet Explorer extremely troublesome as it's not very standards compliant, and some times displays elements of websites in very odd ways. So if you see the message from Microsoft asking you if you want to switch browsers, we advise - Go for Firefox! We use Firefox here in the office, day in and day out and it's faster and less buggy than Internet Explorer. Click on the button to download it. We think you'll thank us!

Find out more about Toolkit Websites, Web Design in Southampton, Hampshire, UK and how they can help your business grow.

Internet Explorer Safety Fears

Fears have been raised by the German Government regarding the safety of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Concerns over IE's security have escalated to such an extreme that experts speculate it would be possible for criminals to control people's computers remotely and access private information such as passwords. This month the German Federal Office for Information Security have made a stand to protect potential victims, issuing a warning advising Internet users to find an alternative browser.

Microsoft have conceded that IE was at fault for the recent attack of Google's systems but protest against claims of the continued risk for IE users. Microsoft recommends that users should increase their security settings to avoid serious risk. Doing this canconsequently block some safe websites, making for a difficult browsing experience. Ultimately, increasing security settings on IE is still not a water-tight guarentee to protect all users from attack.

With Microsoft IE prevailing with such a monopoly, it is easy to forget the plethora of alternative browsers on the market; Fire fox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari to name but a few. None of these are vulnerable to the security flaw cuasing such alarm to the German authorities.

The head of Microsoft Uk's Windows Client Group, John Curran has dismissed the need to swap browsers, but many users are moving to these alternative browsers in a bid to protect themselves. The safety scare has come at a very bad time for Microsoft, as Google has just launched a new version of Google Chrome, and the latest release of Mozilla's Firefox has just been released. Firefox is our preferred browser here in the Toolkit Websites office. If you'd like to download a copy and help keep your internet browsing secure, you can do so from:

www.getfirefox.com

Find out more about Toolkit Websites, Web Design in Southampton, Hampshire, UK and how they can help your business grow.

Ensure your CMS comes with Passionate Support

Most of our new clients are coming to us asking for websites with a CMS or Content Management System.

Content Management Systems are great. They let you update the text, images and links on your website so you can keep your website updated yourself. Usually they work within a framework on a website, allowing the overall design of the website to remain the same around the updatable content. You get the best of both worlds, a fantastic looking website and control over your website content.

However, not all content management systems are created equal. They all differ in complexity, offering various levels of control over your content. Some of them are free, and some you have to pay for. So what should you look for in a CMS?

Simplicity
The CMS should be easy to use. You should not be daunted by endless jargon or complex menus. It should be web based to make it easy for you to update your website on the go.

Search Engine Friendly
Your CMS must be built to be search engine friendly. It should let you control link title text, image title and alt text, page titles, page aliases and meta keywords and descriptions.

Support
A good CMS should come with great support. Rather than just being a free system bolted on to a website design that leaves you with an unmaintained support forum, you should be looking for passionate client support. Great support means being able to contact a UK based support team by phone and email, and being able to access in depth step by step guides.

Frustrated with a complex content management system of their old website, some of our new clients were amazed when they first had a go at using the Toolkit, our content management system. It's easy to use, and gives you great control over the different areas of a website. It's been built to be search engine friendly, and should you ever get stuck, a friendly UK support team are only a phone call away. We even offer over the phone training using a remote access system to ensure our clients are confident using the Toolkit.

Come to Toolkit Websites, Web Design in Southampton, Hampshire, UK for a website with a content management system that can help your business grow.

Happy Christmas from Toolkit Websites

We had our Christmas party on Thursday and a thoroughly good time was had by all!

We hope you have a fantastic festive season, and a team of support staff will be in the office throughout apart from Christmas Day and the 27th December to answer any queries you might have.


Find out more about Toolkit Websites, Web Design in Southampton, Hampshire, UK and how they can help your business grow.