What's happening when you first register your website and get it up and running and it doesn't show up when you do a Google search for your key words? Yes, it's a lot of work to get your website listed high on a Google search. However, what I am talking about here is when your website just does not show up at all!

Google doesn't like new sites. Google is suspicious of new sites as they may be "fly by night" operations. Therefore Google wants a site to be in existence for awhile before they will even show it when the key words are searched. When this happens to your website it is referred to as "being in the sandbox." I don't know how long Google leaves a website in the sandbox but it is commonly a number of months.

What does this mean for you and your website? If you are considering getting a website, take some actions now. As soon as you decide on a name, register that name. Then get an introductory website posted using that name while you are working on your final website design, pages, and content. This will help get you out of the sandbox more quickly than if you waited until you had everything finalized before posting your website.

If you are planning to have a website, take the following steps as soon as possible:

• Decide on a name for your website.
• Check to be sure the name is available.
• Register the name (some say Google prefers domain names that are registered for multiple years).
• Post at least a small introductory website.
• Work on the design, website map, and content.
• Post your finalized website.

Be sure to read the member article The older the better.