Uploading half built site, does it effect you "G" rankings?

[thedog]

You can never be too paranoid when it comes to Google, so, I'm wondering.

If you upload a half built site, or one with just the default WP theme, leave it for a few months, then come back and finish it, does this effect your rankings with Google.

I mean, while it's up there, with no content, no seo... will Google find it black list it?

The reason I've put some sites up, without doing any work on them, was because I've been busy with other projects, and I know how important domain age is, so I wanted them live asap.

One of my sites, with an EMD and great on page and off page SEO, just wont rank... it's been 2 months now... a sub page is on page 3. It hasn't been banned, when I put the url into google, the site shows up.

So... should you only upload a site, when you have all the parts ready to go?

[ray777]

I had a site that I started and kind of forgot about it. I went and checked in Google recently and it sat at number 8 on the first page of Google for the main keyword. No need to say I tried to quickly finish it.

[jasonthewebmaster]

Ive done this a lot and never noticed any penalty...

in fact i am considering selling web design in a "build it as you go" service where you start with one page and then every month add a new page to the site...

this would be cool for those clients who cant afford much but want the whole world... just make them be patient and you can get them paying every month LOL!

[Bradley J Anderson]

When you install WP for the first time, you come to an activation screen that asks you to set up your username and your password. In the bottom left-hand corner of that window, there is a box to uncheck that says something about allowing search engines to index. It's default position is checked, so search engines will come through if you don't uncheck it.

Once you have your site set up, just go in through your dashboard and set it to allow.

If it's an HTML kind of site, you need a robots.txt file or meta tags to tell them noindex. It's a really simple task.Just google it or maybe even search on here in the SEO forum. I'm sure it's been discussed many times over the years.

[angela99]

I set up sites all the time which aren't "finished". If it's a WP blog, it's never really finished anyway. There's always something new to add to it.

The default TwentyTen is an excellent basic theme, so I leave that too, until I'm ready to work on the site intensively.

I'm never found that allowing indexing had any detrimental effect on the site, either in the short-term or long-term...

However, I do set up the About, Contact and Privacy pages as soon as I set up the blog. Setting up those pages would tend to differentiate a legitimate site from a spam effort.

[thedog]

Cheers guys, I just checked my misbehaving site, and it's serp 13 now...

It's advertising 1 amazon product and an assessory, so, I can't really add anymore content to the site... so, I guess, just more backlinks... joy.

[Luke McCormack]

I echo the comments provided above. Never had problems publishing a site that is half built. If you are really paranoid then follow Bradley's advice re: blocking search engines until site is ready to go live.