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A common question, with a simple answer:
Google can only crawl and index Web sites that the Googlebot can see.
The very next question is: How do I know whether the Googlebot can see my site?
From Google’s Webmaster Guidelines*, pay particular attention to the first technical recommendation:
Use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site, because most search engine spiders see your site much as Lynx would. If fancy features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Flash keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site.
Lynx is licensed as open source, which means that it is free. You can either download Lynx v2.8.5, or if you don’t want the hassle of downloading and installing it, just use a Lynx viewer; you type in your URL and voila – it shows you what the Googlebot can see.
If you are a little more techie and want Lynx on your machine, Tech Republic have written a cheat sheet that includes 20 of the most useful Lynx keyboard shortcuts.
* Site owners: Don’t be put off by the title “Google Webmaster Guidelines” as they are not just for webmasters, they are for Web site owners too, and they are written in simple English.
If you have a site, whether you are in charge of it or contracting it out, you need to make sure it adheres to the basic guidelines; if it doesn’t, your site can be penalized by Google and the other search engines. And, reading the guidelines is a lot simpler (and smarter) than trying to get your site back into Google once it has been penalized.
Related Stories:
Know what search engines hate and avoid the Google Death Penalty
Hi all,
Can any body tell me why doesn’t my site appear in google search engine. my web site is [deleted by Lid]
thank
My website has been live for 2 months now and I have had about 2,200 unique visitors to it mainly through google world advertising, but when I do a search for it from the google search engine it does not appear anywhere !
Does it take so many months before you are recognised?
Any pointers are very welcome
Many thanks
Richard James
I have a website http://www.fleurmarstravel.com and http://www.fleurmarstravel.biz. Since 2007
However when I google it dies not exist.
Hi Fleurette
Yep, you’re right. Google doesn’t really know about you. And it is not any one thing that makes this so, there are many reasons it doesn’t see you.
First, you are part of the YTB travel network, so YTB is the one that shows up in search results (type “ytb travel network” into goog and you’ll see what I mean)
Second, it seems that there are problems with YTB – some people seem to think it is spammy or scammy – see Goog search on YTB
Additionally, both your biz and your com domain redirect to other pages that have no keywords, descriptions or any useful text. The majority of the site is in flash – and Goog can’t work that out. Use the lynx viewer (in article above) to see what Goog sees – not much but YTB
That’s what I can see at first glance
Good Luck!
My site does not show up when i type in the domain name or the keywords. It will show up if I type in the www. office-closet.com or my other site http://www.queensofhealth.com Unless people know the domain name they can not find me What can I do to fix this. I have submitted my site to search engines. Any help would be welcomed Thank you
Hi Bonnie
Alas, your sites are not optimized at all. Just to start, you have:
No sitemap,
No meta data (keyword and description), (per page)
No title element (per page)
office closet has very little information
both don’t seem to be updated often
You could try typing in your sites to http://www.websitegrader.com to see what it offers up, but at a quick glance, you need to do some serious optimizing…
Good luck
having similar problems with my website, can’t seem to find it when I search for magnets on stainless steel fridge…my site is http://www.choopaboard.com any guidance will be very helpful and appreciated! Thanks
Mary
My website has been launched last month, but when I do a search for it from the google search engine it does not appear anywhere !
Does it take so many months before you are recognised?
i have website http://www.earneasydollars.com/ . i buy a domain of my site thru blooger but my site is did not appear on google or any other search engine………………..i want to know…………..why??????//
@Mary – Howdy
What a cool product you have – problem is, it is tricky to find – especially with Goog. Google does see you, but because you don’t have ‘magnets for stainless steel fridges’ *anywhere* Goog won’t associate your keywords with that.
So a few things you could do.
1. Get rid of the intro page – it serves no purpose, and from Goog’s point of view, it doesn’t tell them anything
2. Your title is way too long, and doesn’t include any of your keywords. Also, it is the same for each page. It needs to be different for each page.
Why not change the title of your main page from:
“Choopa Board – suction cup to your refrigerator and magnetize your kids with artful fun!”
to: (assuming you want the words you mentioned to work in Goog)
“Magnets on Stainless Steel Fridges: Choopa Board”
Your about page could be titled:
“We make magnets for stainless steel fridges: About Choop Board”
Your contact page could be titled:
“Contact Choopa Board: Specializing in magnets for stainless fridges”
3. Your description and keyword list for each page is way too long.
Consider changing the description for each page (each page does contain something different) – keep it *UNDER* 160 characters
Consider changing your keywords and cutting them down to under 10.
At the moment you have too many and although keywords aren’t counted for much anymore, too many and it makes it look like you are spamming the system (also, some of them turn up twice – not good for SEO)
This should be enough:
magnets on stainless steel refrigerators,
stainless steel fridge magnets,
magnet board,
fridge magnets,
refrigerator magnets
choopaboard,
choopa board,
4. You really have no content other than three pages. You’ll need to put up more information – more pages, with more content. Make it useful, don’t fill it up with keywords – if you can blog – do it. Consider using WordPress (on the same domain) and if you don’t want to blog regularly, try to do it at least 3 times a week for a couple of months, until you are noticed by the search engines – blogging may get you noticed in a week btw.
5. Does anyone link to you? If you can get a few links in (legitimate – not from link farms) that are related in subject to you, all will be better. To help achieve this, back to blogging. You link to other sites, they may link back to you.
6. Use alt tags for your images. Tell the search engines what they are and use different text for different images. If you can (and if you’re blogging), you can put a picture of a new magnet every day, write up a little story about it, make sure it includes your keywords (not too many remember – it needs to read well, not spammy). That way, you can have ONE page that talks about ‘frog magnets’ (and is titled that) etc.
7. Add your site to various directories (good directories). I’ll be doing a post about this for the BlogWell Files in the next couple of weeks, detailing the better directories. Subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss it
8. You have both www and non www (see #3 below explained to Biswajit) – this is not good.
I hope this is a little helpful and gives you a few ideas. I am really saddened that you’re not turning up because I really like your product – you just need to shove it into the search engines
Good luck, and let me know if you get stuck again
@Biswajit – wow – you’ve got tons of stuff there. Problem, like Mary, you have over optimized your site to the point where to search engines it looks spammy. Consider these things:
1. Title: too long. Filled with keywords. Goog doesn’t like this. Better to have a different title for each page – and – if your service is location specific, include the location – get rid of the keywords, they don’t belong in the title.
“Civil Engineering Consultant Services India” may be good for the home page – after that, look at each page and try and make it more specific to the topic of the page
2. Keywords and Descriptions
You have no meta data at all here. Include (for each page) a maximum of 10 keywords, and a description no longer than 160 characters.
3. Decide whether you want Goog to know you as http://www.cecs.com or http://cecs.com – and the include a *permanent* redirect (301) – The fact that you are not doing this means that Goog has to split the rank between the two – better to use 301 and make Goog give ALL the Goog juice to one or the other.
4. You are listed in DMOZ and Yahoo – which is great – but make sure you are also listed in other decent directories. If you are listed in directories that Goog thinks are fishy, that will tank your rankings as well.
5. Like I mentioned to Mary, if you can blog, it will increase your chance of turning up in search results quicker. But don’t do it just for that sake – share some of your information with others (stay on topic) and watch Goog results get better. Link out, and let others link to you.
To both of you, apologies for the delay in getting back – life gets in the way.
but I hope this gives you some ideas on where to go.
Additionally, we provide a telephone consult service (see our hire us page) – so if you want very specific information, and questions answered, we provide that service for a nominal fee.
However, feel free to keep asking questions in the comments if you need help and I’ll do my best.
Good luck to both of you, you really have great sites, and it is a shame to see them not ranking well.
@ Kamal
Wow – lots of stuff on your site – but boy it looks a tad spammy (sorry)
So. Much of what I’ve written above to Mary and Biswajit applies to you as well – read the comment I’ve left for them.
No meta data – keyword or description
Title – ‘Make Money Online’ – it is gonna be tough to get in the top results for this as there are many, many others doing it, and doing it far better (sorry again). You’ll need to up the ante if you want to succeed – this means better writing, better grammar, punctuation etc.
Ads: – way too many – spammy looking – make sure they are all ‘nofollow’ otherwise you’ll be penalized by Goog
Blog: Although you’re on Blogger, it doesn’t seem as if it is a blog – is it?
Sorry – really can’t help much more than that.
Good luck! It’s a difficult niche to hit.
Hey there -
I appreciate the tips given to Mary and Biswajit. I seem to have the same problem with my site: http://www.ravensbark.com. It has been active for several months and does not exist on the search engines. I think I have thought through and implemented the tips you have previously given, but it still doesn’t seem to help. Any comments are appreciated. Thank you.
Bob.
Hi,
I have been reading your comments and suggestions and I think they are great and wondered if you could help me too. I have the same problem as other – i have added my URL to all major search engines inc google…and yet I cant find me!!! SOB.
I have added meta tags, strategically placed keywords, and checked how it looks with website grader. Im a little naive at all the weird and wonderful googley things and would appreciate any help for my website http://www.tiemeup.org.uk (eherm..excuse content!)
Belle, sorry it has taken a while to reply.
Thank you for your kind words about BlogWell.
Let’s take a look at your site:
Google does know you exist, see here:
Google results
But, while you have added meta tags, keywords etc, it seems you’ve gone a little overboard on the home page, but not created meta tags etc for the other pages.
As each page is different, give it a different title, description and keywords
Try to keep your title under 60 characters, your description under 160 characters and your keywords no more than ten on every page.
Also, you seem to have quite a few H1 tags; really each page should have only one, the rest should be H2 – H6, depending on importance
The other thing you should consider is to decide whether you want to be www or non www because at the moment, your site shows up as both. You want to direct any Google juice to one, so decide which one, create a permanent redirect from the one you don’t want to the one you want, and that will help too.
Finally, you don’t seem to have many (if any) links going to your site. You’ll need to think of ways to get links, and quickly. They are important across all search engines.
I hope this helps a little
If you need help rewriting title/description/tags, take a look at our services page, it is something we provide on a freelance basis.
Good luck!
Rob,
Apologies for taking so long to reply; hope this will still be useful.
What a wonderful, wickedly great product you have!
Now, about that SEO…
Lots to say, don’t know where to start so I hope you’re ready for some work!
First thing:
Google does know you exist, but you have no ranking. Don’t forget, oftentimes Google wont start ranking you for 6 – 12 months if you have a static website, so it is not unusual.
Not only does Google look at how long the site has been up, it also looks at how long before the registration runs out (it helps them determine whether you are here for the long run). If your domain registration is set to run out in less than 12 months, renew it now so that it doesn’t run out for 2 – 5 years.
Get links
One of the best ways to rank is to get links, that is, get other [relevant] sites to link to you. One way to do this is to place ads (even 125 x 125 ads) on various blogs that are relevant to gourmet foods. Prices vary, but are usually fairly reasonable $30 – $100 for a month, depending on the blog. You could start with one or two and see if it brings in any visitors/traffic; it will bring in a link.
Submit your site to the Yahoo Directory. It costs about 299/year, but it does help get you into the results.
Alternatively, have you considered blogging? Lots of small businesses are turning to blogging as it provides fresh content regularly, something that Google particularly like. Additionally, you may find over time people will start linking to the blog, which in turn is connected to the site, assuming you set it up that way in the first place. While it is not too difficult or expensive to set up, it does require commitment on your part. Think about it.
You have included titles on some pages, not others, but I am glad to see you name them differently. Create titles for every page. Make sure you don’t exceed 60 characters (including spaces)
Meta Description: For your homepage, your description is waaaaaaaay too long
cut it down to under 160 characters, then write a description for each page, make sure it’s different – after all, each page is different.
Keywords – the average is about 10, you’ve got a few more, but it shouldn’t really cause a problem. Do it for every page, try and mix them up so that your keywords are not the same across your site.
A word about keywords. The more specific you can be, the better. I’ve noticed you are quite specific with descriptions, but the keywords not as much.
Now a question for you:
For your company to turn up in search results, what do you think people need to type into the Google search box?
I have only just created and published a website, http://www.mikeperryfitness.co.uk I have summitted it to google and still don’t have a listing. Is there something else that I could try, thank you lid
Hi Mike,
Oftentimes, Google needs weeks if not months to recognize your site exists. So if it hasn’t been that long, don’t fret yet.
However, there is much you can do to your site to improve your chances of the Googlebot noticing you.
If you take a look at my reply to Rob (above) you’ll see that many of the things he has not done, need to be done by you as well.
So, here’s a start:
While you do have titles for your pages, you have no description or keywords for any of the pages. This is important. You need to describe each page, in under 160 ish characters to Goog. You also need to include keywords for each page – no more than 10 (ish). Because each page is different, you’ll need different descriptions, different keywords.
Take a look at this post on BlogWell:
How to have a clean result in Google
Also, you have the ULR http://www.mikeperryfitness.co.uk as well as http://mikeperry.co.uk – you’ll need to determine which one you want to use, and then redirect the other [permanently] to the one you will be using – otherwise, you’ll just confuse the Googlebot
Also, while you do have titles on your pages, the page slug is fairly useless from a search engine point of view. For instance, you have id8.html for the slug on your ’sports and body massage’ page – and that doesn’t really tell Goog anything.
http://www.mikeperryfitness.co.uk/id8.html
Better, would be to change it to http://www.mikeperyyfitness.co.uk/sports-and-body-massage.html so that it is in the URL as well as the title. You should do the same for each page.
You haven’t been crawled by Google yet that I can see; one way to get them to notice you is to have links to your site from other, related and relevant sites.
The other thing I would consider is paying to be included in the Yahoo directory (it’s about $299 p/year). That usually helps. Also, try getting included in DMOZ. DMOZ doesn’t charge, but then, they don’t guarantee a listing either.
https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
http://www.dmoz.org/
Hope this helps a little. Best of luck, and let me know how you go.
Thanks for your advice Lid, I will crack on with making those improvements when I get a few minutes. I have managed to get listed on google and appear on page one on Yahoo. I hadn’t even realise that I hadn’t got any keywords. It’s always the simple things that I over look! Thank you very much for taking time out and your good advice. I have added alot more content and will continue to make the improvementd you suggest.
Hi I wondered if you could help a complete novice who doesnt seem to be recognized on any search unless the person puts http//:bestcatflaps.co.uk. I have done the website myself but am lost – what can I do? I need to appear on google/yahoo…etc searches to get anywhere – there are bigger competition out there who seem to appear everywhere. If you have time – please help me? Please give me the dummy guide? Thanks Emma x
I developed a website http://www.pilatesplease.com and it does not show up on Google. It is number one for pilates please keyword search on MSN and Yahoo. I submitted a sitemap and Google can see it in Lynx.
What am I missing?
Lid, your guidelines are really appreciated. I have also launched my new website http://www.xceel.com just 2 week before. I am also not able to see my website on google search page. Please give me some guidelines.
Thanks
Thanks for the ways of solution but it does not help in my case anyway. I have a website of a friend of mine – http://www.xinaliq.com, but it does not appear in search. I put different meta tags but no solution. Same domain appeared when it was hosted on the first hosting plan, but when I changed the hosting it stopped appearance in search. Please assist me how to solve it.
Thanks in advance,
I have a customers website that does not appear in google search at all and has not been indexed.
I would recommend installing google webmaster tools (http://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/) and then creating a robots.txt for the doman. Also, it appears that there can be some confusion with Google between ‘yourdomain.com’ and ‘WWW.yourdomain.com’ being indexed correctly. You should be able to resolve this with the webmaster tools.
If a web site has existed for a long time, but has been dormant, then it should still exist, but often it appears to ‘de-list’. Your web hosting provider may be blocking or doing something at the DNS level.
I’ve submitted a request to google through webmaster tools to index the site, but have not yet received a response. I think people should understand that there are loads of URLs having to be catalogued and sometimes the ’system’ goes wrong. I would expect to see some sort of Google indexing activity 48 hours – 2 weeks after submission, but for some strange reason, it can take months!!!
As a last resort, I suggest printing off the web pages and then handing then in person to Google HQ in Mountain View, CA…… old skool indexing
!!!
WF
I recently published a site http://www.ammoboli.com but i’ve got problem since Google does not see it. I don’t know what the problem is, since i followed many of your advices and included some keywords, meta etc. I’ve included some flash files but i don’t believe this is a problem. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi, i recently had a website created for my company, and http://www.playnationonline.co.uk still cannot be found on google search engine is there a particular time it takes to get onto google??
Having bother getting site seen as the guys above are. Just a note to say thanks for all the advice given, Google help seems to forget some of us haven’t worked for them, their help is pretty useless. Thanks again!
Hello to everyone!
I have the same problem as others:) Perhaps, something is wrong with my website… Some 2 weeks ago I subscribed my url address to google, but does not appear anywhere – http://www.jacobsencs.com. Maybe someone can help with an advise?
I just wanted to say, being new to web developement, this information is very helpful. Thanks Lid
Hey everybody, I have a blogpage with wordpress.com and like so many others here Google does not recognise it so my customers would have to type in the web adress directly, I was hoping maybe the keywords Freelance Ecologist – Aisling T. Walsh – Walshecology might have worked as they’re very specific for Ireland only at any rate. My friend said I may have to buy server space? My blog is http://walshecology.wordpress.com/
Thanks in advance!!! Aisling
Hello there,
My site is http://www.jasatranslator.com
Its been almost one month google and other search engine did not recognize my site. Before I have this site running for about 1 year and entering in the google pretty well, then I let it expired. Now i have bought the domain again. But strange issue with google comes into my mind.
I have do a lot of tune up for google. Nothing helps
Any suggestion ?
THank you
Hi,
My website is not appear in google or any other search engine. I developed a website http://www.divx-download.com and it does not show up on Google. if I search divx download, How it comes number one in google?
What am I missing? Please help me.
Thanks
Hi, my website has the same problem when i put keywords in google it does nt show it BUT two weeks ago it perfectly worked. I added some meta description and key words do you think that wld be the problem? My website is http://www.atrip2paris.com
Any help would be much appreciated..
Please can you help me to figure out why my website http://www.atrip2paris.com is not ranked on google ??
Hi Charles – wow – such a beautiful site, such a shame Google doesn’t see it.
At quick glance, maybe there are a few things, but first, try using the Lynx Viewer, to see what the Googlebot sees – [link: http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html ]
Because of all the javascript, it doesn’t see much; it doesn’t know what you do.
Your page titles are the same for every page, as are your descriptions and keywords.
Your best bet would be to be to become familiar with Google’s Webmaster Tools [link: http://www.google.com/webmasters/ ]. Follow the guidelines, and you should be indexed fairly quickly. Good luck!
Hi,
My site is alive for two months. But still when i Search http://www.bala.6te.net it shows some other results and not mine. pls help me
Sorry to answer just now, thank you very much, Lid.
I changed the meta descriptions, and I am looking at the webmasters tools but it seems that google did not see that I made some changes. Is that normal?
Thank you very much for the help
I have a blog about Industrial automation and PLC´s http://plcsemwatchdog.blogspot.com
and i have same problem ….Why?
My site speak about PLC Siemens Beckhoff Industrial Automation Technical Books in Portugal .
I have some Course and Application Notes .
hello. Need help with my new site. It’s been almost a month now and not in Google, Yahoo, MSN. I think its a cool site: http://aviationpaper.blogspot.com. Need help making it searchable. Thanks for who ever can help.
Can you tell me why my website does not appear on the google search page?
Hello i have the same problem as many of them, my site wont show on google. I am using weebly.com based and i already created the google analytics and the google webmaster tools, i created and uploaded succesfully a sitemap on webmaster tools, i have meta tag key words, all my pages have comprehensible titles and related to key words and site description. none of the less the site still wont show on google, not even if i type the complete site which is http://www.pctspanama.com (the site is in spanish) strange thing is i have another site, just a landing page with weebly as well and this one even shows first on google with certain keywords.. and its just an image with a hyperlink!!
please help me out i dont know what im missing.
Hi my website is http://www.greenworldforbabies.com and I appear on yahoo right away when you search for cloth diapers in Minnesota but not on google at all. This has been happening for 2 months now.Ihave tried to add page titles, meta data, and descreiptions and all kind of things but it has not helped. please any suggestions on what I can do or what is wrong withmy site for google???
Many Thanks!!!
KP
Hi my website is http://www.greenworldforbabies.com and I appear on yahoo right away when you search for cloth diapers in Minnesota but not on google at all. This has been happening for 2 months now.I have tried to add page titles, meta data, and descriptions and all kind of things but it has not helped. Please any suggestions on what I can do or what is wrong with my site for google???
Many Thanks!!!
KP
hi, great web page and excellent user contributions. I to have a simular problem and my site is not appearing in google search results. I have numerous directories linking to my site and it is listed in yahoo and msn bing. I even put a link to google on my homepage. I have not had this problem with other sites, that seem to get listed quickly.
I have a feeling it may be a form of google slap, the website url was parked with google domain park for a while whilst i worked on a couple of my other sites. Another feeling i had was that google didnt like the site from the previous owner, i have done a searh with the way back machine and only found a couple of bad robots txt pages listed.
I will wait patiently for google to do her next dance ! It seems fooooorever.
Hi Lidija,
Great and very useful information you have been posting here. I have been trying to get some help with getting my 2 websites indexed (http://www.rudakiewicz.co.uk and http://www.thepolishbaker.co.uk).
Have been trying different trick including the above one but still no luck:(.
I will need to be patient I reckon.
Regards,
Lukasz
Hi, I have a webiste http://www.pourhommes.co.uk that google doesnt seem to see. I have ad words set up and have used the SEO tool. I some times apear in the right hand side but never on the organic side. The adwrods says i am getting 100’s of hits and charging me but no calls.
Can any one assist and tell me what i am doing wrong!
Thanks
Sorry I meant to say, any help on why I am not on the organic side?
Hi my website is http://www.boostyouronlinerating.info and I submitted my site with google and yahoo. This has been happening for 1 months now.I have tried to add page titles, meta data, and descriptions and all kind of things but it has not helped. Please any suggestions on what I can do or what is wrong with my site for google???
Many Thanks!!!
Dion
Hi my website is http://www.boostyouronlinerating.info and I cannot find my site on google. This has been happening for 1 month now.I have tried to add page titles, meta data, and descriptions and all kind of things but it has not helped. Many Thanks!!!
Dion