Why is Google Ignoring my Web Site?</h1> <article> <h1>Why is Google Ignoring my Web Site?</h1> <p>MySolutionSpot Editor — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:39:26 GMT</p> <p>You have a Web site that you spent time and money creating, but when you search for it on Google, nothing comes up! Google presents a list of competitor sites but nothing for yours. Follow these steps to find out why Google is ignoring your site and how you can use Search Engine Optimization techniques for better results: </p> <p>1. <strong>Check to find out if your Web site is in Google’s index</strong> </p> <p>In order to be displayed in Google’s search results, your Web site must be in Google’s index. This can happen in one of two ways; either you can submit your site to Google to be indexed, or Google may find it by following a link from another site. To quickly determine whether your Web site is in the index, go to Google and perform a search for its entire URL. </p> <p>A search for site:www.google.com, for instance, returns the following results: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:www.google.com">http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:www.google.com</a> . When searching. be sure you don’t include a space between “site:” and your domain name. You can also use Google’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/sitestatus?hl=en" class="null">Site Status Wizard</a> to check the index status of your site, and find out when your home page was last visited by Google. </p> <p>If your Web site isn’t in Google’s index, you can tell Google about it by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/addurl/" class="null">submitting it</a>.One way to speed up Google's indexing of new pages is to submit a Sitemap. Even if your site is already in the index, Sitemaps are a great way to tell Google about the pages you consider most important. If your Web site used to be in Google’s index, but isn’t there now, it may be that you have inadvertently violated Google’s <a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769" class="null">webmaster guidelines</a> . You should review your Web site against the webmaster guidelines and submit a reconsideration request. </p> <p>2. <strong>Check your Web site for things that Google penalizes</strong></p> <p>If your Web site is in Google’s index, but not high in the search results, it could be because there is something on your Web site that Google doesn’t like. Google penalizes Web sites with “problematic” content in it’s results. You should work through the following guidelines to determine if your Web site has any problems:</p> <p>Avoid tricks intended to only improve search engine rankings. A useful test is to ask is, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?" Especially don't deceive your users or present content that is different search engines than for users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking". </p> <p>Avoid hidden text or hidden links – Google can identify these, and will penalize you for them. Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links from web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that it adds value. </p> <p>Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as pages with little or no original content. </p> <p>Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs violate Google’s Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google. </p> <p>Finally, keep the links on any page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100). </p> <p>3. <strong>Add things that Google likes!</strong></p> <p>Google will rank your Web site higher if it has good content and navigation. Setting up your site to maximize this type of content is known as Search Engine Optimization. Here are some tips directly from Google on ways to optimize your website and improve your ranking: </p> <p>Give your site a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link. Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages. Submit your site map to Google to help it crawl your site. </p> <p>Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your services. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first. Check to ensure that you don’t have multiple pages, subdomains or domains with substantially duplicate content, as Google will penalize you for this. </p> <p>Think about the words a user would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words. However, don't load pages with keywords and especially not irrelevant keywords. Also don't create pages with malicious behavior, such as Phishing, viruses, trojans, or other badware. </p> <p>Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images. If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few. </p> <p>Make sure that your TITLE tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate. </p> <p>4. <strong>Check for broken links and correct HTML.</strong> </p> <p>Essentially, create a site that users will find to be helpful, and easy to use. Keep it updated, and relevant and Google will like it too! </p> <p>If these tips and tricks don’t significantly increase your position in Google’s search results, you may wish to engage a professional Search Engine Optimization firm. Network Solutions has a team of experienced optimization experts who can help you move up the rankings. A variety of Search Engine Optimization packages are available to suit your particular needs</p> </article> </main></body></html>