Occasionally clients have asked whether it's a good idea to launch a 'mini website' whilst their main site is being built.
The answer is, definitely not. I can understand their thought process, that SOME web presence is better than no web presence at all, but it's really not a good idea if you look towards the future.
(By the way, I have NO IDEA why I have used a picture of a frog - I just thought he was cute).
Where were we? Ah yes, that 'mini'-website'. Who are the most important visitors to your website? Especially in the early days? The search engines, of course. After all, your website is new and studies show that an overwhelming majority of site visits are from search engines. Get them on your side, and you'll get visitors (potential customers). On the other hand, if the search engines see your 'mini-site' they are going to assume that what they see is all they're going to get and your site will not be at the top of the list when it comes to revisiting and reindexing your site.
Think about your human viewers too. If they go to your 'mini-site' they too will think that what they see is what they get - why should they come back to your site in the future?
Before you launch your site, make sure that it is as complete as it's going to be - something for the search engines to get their teeth into and something for human visitors to enjoy.
When a search engine goes to a mini-site, it thinks "OK, just a few pages, maybe it'll grow, I'll come back in a while to check". (I like to give the search engines personalities!) So, after a few weeks, it goes back. Still just a few pages. "OK" thinks the search engine "I'll be back". And it comes back and STILL there are just a few pages. The search engines is very busy and has a lot of sites to visit and so he (it, she?) puts your site into its don't-bother-to-go-back-because-nothing-happens-here file.
And your poor little mini-site is forgotten, banished to the very bottom of the search engine's pile. Of course, it doesn't know that three days after it looked at your poor little mini-site, you launched your full site, with tons of information, loads of pages - something the search engine would have just loved. No, now you're on the 'don't bother' list.
Don't say I didn't warn you!
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