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Site just won't seem to get listed in Google
I’ve never had any bother getting listed in Google for various sites, but this site Google just seems not to like at all:-
[url]http://www.itleaders.co.uk[/url]
Any idea’s what’s stopping it from getting listed?
I’m not really an SEO expert… maybe Keith will have more to say to the point.
These are the things that I note: Semantic structure: There are no header tags, so all your text is at the same ‘volume’ of importance. Ideally, you want to organize your text in a descriptive way — like in an outline. Headers (starting with h1) create the points you wish to address, and paragraph text expands on those points. This should give search engines a context to frame keywords and extracted content with.
Accessible content: The text content feels distant and complicated to me… the most descriptive text I think being at the bottom of the page, below the fold. I also think your site could make better use of descriptive tags like title, abbr, alt, and summary to expand the amount of indexable content for search engines to chew on.
Maybe these ideas will help — but others here publish more regularly on SEO issues.
Freedesign wrote: [quote:daa93dd985]I’ve never had any bother getting listed in Google for various sites, but this site Google just seems not to like at all:-
Any idea’s what’s stopping it from getting listed? [/quote:daa93dd985]
Ernie Simpson — Freeway 4 Pro User — http://www.thebigerns.com/freeway/
This list is maintained by Softpress Systems - http://www.softpress.com
CSSWAY is my blog about CSS, Web Standards, and Freeway Pro.
[quote:289c189492=”The Big Erns”]I’m not really an SEO expert… maybe Keith will have more to say to the point.
These are the things that I note: Semantic structure: There are no header tags, so all your text is at the same ‘volume’ of importance. Ideally, you want to organize your text in a descriptive way — like in an outline. Headers (starting with h1) create the points you wish to address, and paragraph text expands on those points. This should give search engines a context to frame keywords and extracted content with.
Accessible content: The text content feels distant and complicated to me… the most descriptive text I think being at the bottom of the page, below the fold. I also think your site could make better use of descriptive tags like title, abbr, alt, and summary to expand the amount of indexable content for search engines to chew on.
Maybe these ideas will help — but others here publish more regularly on SEO issues.[/quote:289c189492]
On this site its not the quality of listing thats the problem. It just does not seem to get listed at all in Google. Which is very odd. It is a new site, so there is usually a delay, but this is 5 months with nothing.
We usually start SEO with getting a basic listing somewhere and starting from there, to move upwards on specific searches.
Just wondered if anyone could throw in anything I might have missed, that might be causing the problem. Its not even showing inward links, when there are some.
Although h1 tags etc can improve searches, I’ve achieved very good results without them in FW3 sites, as its a special combination of page Title, Meta Tags, File names, and text on page + inward links that seem to work best.
This area the site is on "IT courses" is a difficult task, but not impossible. And I would expect a listing somewhere. But nothing! Unless Google is banning it some how?
Hi Free
All I can think of at present is the domain. Is it a sub domain or a top level domain?
From experience, sub domains can cause problems.
Hope this helps Kind regards RogerG
[quote:a118c2038d]This area the site is on "IT courses" is a difficult task, but not impossible. And I would expect a listing somewhere. But nothing! Unless Google is banning it some how?[/quote:a118c2038d]
And when I play Russian Roulette the chamber is mostly empty. Mostly. :-)
I ran it through a tool that checks to see if the page is blacklisted, which it is not. Link popularity shows the other search engines have a link to it — but not Google.
I did read something recently that suggested Google is targeting duplicate content, I guess in order to reduce the effectiveness of unapproved methods of achieving link popularity. There was some speculation that too high a level of homogeneity within a site could cause problems — though I am doubtful that is so.
Does Google employ consultants that can help you fine tune a page?
Sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance…
Freedesign wrote: [quote:aeb29c5034]Although h1 tags etc can improve searches, I’ve achieved very good results without them in FW3 sites, as its a special combination of page Title, Meta Tags, Files name, and text on page + inward links that seem to work best. [/quote:aeb29c5034]
Ernie Simpson — Freeway 4 Pro User — http://www.thebigerns.com/freeway/
This list is maintained by Softpress Systems - http://www.softpress.com
CSSWAY is my blog about CSS, Web Standards, and Freeway Pro.
Hi, it looks like some key text on your page is graphic text (eg - Leadership Skills, IT Strategy and Planning and so on) - this could be a hindrance. Alt text or no, graphic text is not a good alternative if you want good search engine rankings.
It appears from following the instructions on this page that your site is included in the Google index: [url]http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34443[/url] as you can see here: [url]http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:www.itleaders.co.uk[/url]
So, it seems that your site is so outranked that it doesn’t show up. Time to redesign, and, I would suggest, spending some cash on AdWords.
All the best,
Paul
My Actions Site: http://www.actionsworld.com
Actions for Joomla!, Galleries, decorating that text box and many more!
[quote:2cebf5d66e=”RogerG”]Hi Free
All I can think of at present is the domain. Is it a sub domain or a top level domain?
From experience, sub domains can cause problems.
Hope this helps Kind regards RogerG
[quote:2cebf5d66e]This area the site is on "IT courses" is a difficult task, but not impossible. And I would expect a listing somewhere. But nothing! Unless Google is banning it some how?[/quote:2cebf5d66e][/quote:2cebf5d66e]
This domain is held within a single BT account - e.g. the domain points to a sub folder within the clients main account where another domain resides overall in the folder structure
Could that be it?
[quote:0431dcfa9e=”Paul”]So, it seems that your site is so outranked that it doesn’t show up. Time to redesign, and, I would suggest, spending some cash on AdWords.[/quote:0431dcfa9e]
Its not a matter of a poor ranking, - it looks like not being listed at all.
[quote:47936de677]This domain is held within a single BT account - e.g. the domain points to a sub folder within the clients main account where another domain resides overall in the folder structure
Could that be it?[/quote:47936de677]
In a word yes.
This needs to move up to a top level domain name, I can then guarantee (I don’t often say this) that the site will be listed within weeks.
Hope this helps Kind regards RogerG
[quote:47936de677]This domain is held within a single BT account - e.g. the domain points to a sub folder within the clients main account where another domain resides overall in the folder structure Could that be it?[/quote:47936de677]
[quote:62af358032=”RogerG”][quote:62af358032]This domain is held within a single BT account - e.g. the domain points to a sub folder within the clients main account where another domain resides overall in the folder structure
Could that be it?[/quote:62af358032]
In a word yes.
This needs to move up to a top level domain name, I can then guarantee (I don’t often say this) that the site will be listed within weeks.
Hope this helps Kind regards RogerG
[quote:62af358032]This domain is held within a single BT account - e.g. the domain points to a sub folder within the clients main account where another domain resides overall in the folder structure Could that be it?[/quote:62af358032][/quote:62af358032]
Roger,
Thanks for this info. As I said before we’ve done alot of work on search engines to get reasonable to very good results - but this one just stumped me.
But, are not all domains just served this way? as they are all in a folder structure ultimately - technically whats the difference with this one?
Hi
Many hosts offer a main and sub domain names as part of their package. 1and1 is a prime example:
Google no like: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=362667
Hope this helps Kind regards RogerG
[quote:c7f212d2c4]hanks for this info. As I said before we’ve done alot of work on search engines to get reasonable to very good results - but this one just stumped me.
But, are not all domains just served this way? as they are all in a folder structure ultimately - technically whats the difference with this one?[/quote:c7f212d2c4]
In this case the content is not really duplicated
Parent Directory site: [url]http://www.telisco.co.uk/[/url]
Sub Directory site: [url]http://www.itleaders.co.uk[/url]
Or does that matter?
Sometime around 22/2/07 (at 03:56 +0000) The Big Erns said:
[quote:d2b36b903a]I’m not really an SEO expert… maybe Keith will have more to say to the point. [/quote:d2b36b903a] Maybe… if I only had more time right now!
Oh, okay… ;-) Ernie, your points about semantic structure are spot on.
Freedesign, there are many things that can affect Google ranking, including simply being beaten in certain searches by sites that happen to rank better. Never forget that there’s a chance that you don’t rank well for that simple reason! :-)
Other possible reasons include being penalised for doing something that looks like SEO spamming - have you ever tried the ‘invisible text’ trick where you have text the same colour as the background or its container? That can get you sent to the showers for a very long time. If you’re very unlucky and you’re on a shared server IP address, and someone else on that server has done some black hat-style SEO tricks and been spotted, you could be tarred with the same brush. Having regular content updates, all with info that’s in the same general subject area, is a good thing to do, if you can. Don’t sweat it if that’s not feasible, but if it is, do it. Don’t ‘retire’ content so it vanishes, do increase it. Edit the META description so it is a little more different from the page title. This is almost a snake-oil thing to do, but not quite. Google doesn’t use META tag stuff directly for its ranking, but it is believed to pay some attention there when evaluating other content. Identical or virtually identical content may well be seen as possibly a bit of a template site. Do take Ernie’s comments about using those ‘semantic’ tags wherever possible. Redefine how they look using Freeway’s Edit Styles dialog, and test out putting non-default values into the Space Before and Space After options in the Paragraph section. And definitely include alt text and title tags wherever sensibly possible.
But what searches are you trying, and how long has this site been in place as it is? That’s crucial for evaluating SEO performance.
k
This list is maintained by Softpress Systems - http://www.softpress.com
[quote:126f4c176c=”thatkeith”]
But what searches are you trying, and how long has this site been in place as it is? That’s crucial for evaluating SEO performance. [/quote:126f4c176c]
Thanks for the info Keith, but that side I’ve got covered very well, it’s peculiar that this site is just not being listed att all, I think Roger correctly identified the problem, its not a top level domain, and trawling through both sites there is some small amounts of duplicated content here and there. I’ve tried everthing else, this is the only thing left. So it must be this.
I hear what you say that Google does not use Meta tags directly, but they are very relevant when used in a good combination of page Title, Meta Tags, File names, named links, and text on page. We’ve got very good results many times. Even in very competitive areas. This is why its odd to get nothing listed this time.
Sometime around 23/2/07 (at 08:53 +0000) Freedesign said:
[quote:20db6a0f2c]I think Roger correctly identified the problem, its not a top level domain, and trawling through both sites there is some small amounts of duplicated content here and there. I’ve tried everthing else, this is the only thing left. So it must be this. [/quote:20db6a0f2c] Yes, possible. Although I don’t see how it would be considered a sub-domain of anything. Also, having multiple different domains in one hosting account is fine and extremely common.
And Paul pointed out that Google does in fact know about your site:
[quote:20db6a0f2c]It appears from following the instructions on this page that your site is included in the Google index: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34443 as you can see here: http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:www.itleaders.co.uk [/quote:20db6a0f2c]
[quote:20db6a0f2c]I hear what you say that Google does not use Meta tags directly, but they are very relevant when used in a good combination of page Title, Meta Tags, File names, named links, and text on page. We’ve got very good results many times. Even in very competitive areas. [/quote:20db6a0f2c] Yep, exactly. Meta content isn’t trusted or used on its own, but it is factored in when determining overall consistency and ‘trustability’ of the page content in general.
k
This list is maintained by Softpress Systems - http://www.softpress.com
You might find signing up to the google service linked below and following instructions to set up a sitemap can give you a lot of useful information regarding what google has on your domain: https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=sitemaps
It may take a week or so for information to start showning.
Hope this helps
On Feb 23, 2007, at 11:10 AM, thatkeith wrote:
[quote:6880f53c23]Sometime around 23/2/07 (at 08:53 +0000) Freedesign said:
[quote:6880f53c23]I think Roger correctly identified the problem, its not a top level domain, and trawling through both sites there is some small amounts of duplicated content here and there. I’ve tried everything else, this is the only thing left. So it must be this.
[/quote:6880f53c23] Yes, possible. Although I don’t see how it would be considered a sub-domain of anything. Also, having multiple different domains in one hosting account is fine and extremely common.
And Paul pointed out that Google does in fact know about your site:
[quote:6880f53c23]It appears from following the instructions on this page that your site is included in the Google index: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34443 as you can see here: http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:www.itleaders.co.uk [/quote:6880f53c23][/quote:6880f53c23]
This list is maintained by Softpress Systems - http://www.softpress.com
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