For folks involved in putting up new web sites, having a Google ranking can be important, or one of the most important acts of promotion one can do. Definitely, Google rules when it comes to search. Thus there are whole industries dedicated to Search Engine Optimization (SOA).

Today, almost 6 months from when we registered the iMISCommunity.com domain name, and shortly afterwards went through the many of the steps for domain promotion, Google is finally giving the site some page rank. I suppose this corresponds to the 5-6 months others talk about on the web, in which Google puts new sites in a virtual "sandbox".

Why is this important? Well, I'm writing about it here mainly just to pass on our experience. No matter the legitimacy of your site, all new sites seem to need to go through this period. If you have a new site coming up you are building, perhaps you might actually want to start some of those domain promoting activities early as possible. And don't throw out or change your domain name for even a modest traffic older site for a new name without due consideration of the consequences.

In a way, we don't have much to complain about I suppose. Google search has actually done a great job indexing the site an making it available to worldwide searchers since nearly the beginning. Since a great deal of the content in the site is public, Google indexes it for all. In fact, a significant part of our decision making process to make so much public, revolves around the point that if the information is public, more people can easily find the information and make good use of it.

SEO is still an ongoing process of course. The most important thing the site needs next a better focus on external linking. So please, in your own sites, and your own non-iMIS Community, please make references and links to the site.

We will have a significant launch event for iMIS Community at the 2006 NiUG International Annual Discovery Conference. In the mean time, new registrations for partners and customers continue to be welcome.