Tips on how to SEO a non-existent site

A client contacted me wanting to get some SEO started prior to the launch of their brand new site. One of their concerns was that they didn’t want to put-up an ‘under construction’ page because they read somewhere that Google bans parked domains.

Search Engine Roundtable confirms that this isn’t the case in their post – Does Google Ban Parked Domain Sites?

Whilst a parked / under construction page won’t get your site banned, it still probably won’t do much for your rankings either. Most parked pages have very little content and subsequently don’t attract any links.

So if an under construction page isn’t very useful but you still want to start some SEO prior to the launch of your new site… what can be done?

Getting some interesting content online as quickly as possible is crucial because without content, the search engines will have nothing to crawl and link building (even directory submissions) is almost impossible.

A well optimised landing page is a great way to generate some initial hype without spoiling the official launch of the site. On top of that you could even start building a client-base before your official site opens by offering some early-bird incentives for anyone who submits their contact details.

If you don’t want to go down that path, another option is to setup a blog and talk about how the project is slowly coming-together prior to the launch. This can be a great way to connect with your prospective clients and show them that behind the e-commerce and corporate structure, there is a real person (or persons) making things happen.

It’s also a good idea to start getting involved with online communities that pertain to your business. If you can build a good reputation through commenting on blogs and contributing to forums, you’ll find people a lot more willing to link to you.

I understand that the suggestions above won’t fit with all businesses, so the next best thing is to ‘hit the ground running’ with an incredible link bait idea that you can distribute the minute your new website is online.

These are just a few suggestions that can help gain some initial exposure prior to the launch of a site… if anyone has any other great ideas, feel free to share them in the comments.