We are often asked how quickly a new campaign website will appear on the search engines. Sometimes this question is asked before the site is even built!
If you are worried about getting your campaign site indexed int the search engines, you can relax. The major search engines do not require submissions at all. Your campaign websites will be found and indexed through outside links to your site.
The next question then is how to get does one get those outside links, and how many are needed. When it comes down to it, a single link is all the search engines need to find any website or web page. How fast they find that page depends on the quality of the pages linking back. If they are buried deep on a site that itself is not very popular, then it might take some time for the links to be discovered.
Here are the easiest ways to build links that will quickly get search engines to your site.
1) Press Releases: Create a press release announcing your campaign and submit it to free online press release websites, such as PRLog.org and free-press-release.com
2) Submit your site to OnlineCandidateLinks.com: Our candidate directory is free for candidates and campaigns. It allows you to not only link your campaign website, but also your social media pages, such as Facebook and Twitter. (In fact, you don’t even NEED an active website to submit your campaign. A site can be added to your profile later). Another site that accepts candidate and election submissions is USAElections.com.
3) Submit links to your local media outlets: Newspapers will often create local candidate bios as election time nears. This material is usually online. The downside to this technique is that there may only be a short window of publication time.
Number one and two should get your site indexed fairly quickly, possibly within days. Avoid paid services or links back from questionable websites.
Do not ‘go live’ or start building out links until your website – or at least your site homepage – is ready for visitors. If your site in indexed too early, you may find that your search engine listing might not be very good. You could find that your search engine listing shows a temporary title with an ‘under construction’ description. This will remain in place until your site is crawled again. For new sites, sometimes that can take weeks. New links to your site cause search engines spiders to return to your site sooner than they might otherwise.
Final Note: Online Candidate sites are designed not to be indexed until a live site is generated by the user.
For additional link-building and online marketing ideas, download our e-book Running for Office as an Online Candidate. This is available individually or as part of our Combo Package.
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Tags: campaign promotion, facebook, social networking, twitter, website tips