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StephenD
Senior Member
Australia
1044 Posts |
 Posted - 06 July 2005 : 18:50:08
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I'm having trouble getting a site listed on Google. I have submitted the url several times over the last few weeks, submitted a text site map and sent emails to their support centre. When I log in to the Sitemap control it says all ok and successfully downloaded.
The url is www.staffcheck.com.au
I've got a robots.txt file that is set to only block everything in a secure directory where the forum lives. I don't ever want any topics listed.
USER-AGENT: *
Disallow: /secure/
Can anyone see anything that may be blocking Google and other directories from listing the site? |
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Podge
Support Moderator
Ireland
3776 Posts |
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StephenD
Senior Member
Australia
1044 Posts |
Posted - 06 July 2005 : 19:26:46
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Cool, I'll try that, thanks Podge.
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StephenD
Senior Member
Australia
1044 Posts |
Posted - 06 July 2005 : 19:54:06
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| Done. Let's see what happens now. |
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MarkJH
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1722 Posts |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 07 July 2005 : 06:10:06
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Just remember search engines like google have a MASSIVE job to do cataloguing the entire web - 'a few weeks' isn't a long time in web positioning.
You can do yourself a few favours though - for instance, list yourself in dmoz.org, which is used as a seed for a lot of engines. Engines also feed off one another, so you will build up a critical mass over time and start to appear/float higher in the listings. |
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StephenD
Senior Member
Australia
1044 Posts |
Posted - 07 July 2005 : 06:43:47
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OK, thanks for that link pdrg. My previous experience in submitting sites to Google took less than a week on both occasions so I was getting a bit worried.. mind you I suppose the ol' internet has grown a bit in a year ! |
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-gary
Development Team Member
406 Posts |
Posted - 07 July 2005 : 11:10:48
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My site kept getting dropped from Google. I don't mean it slipped a few places, like I was 1st place and then gone. Resubmit. 1st place. Gone.
Went over to dmoz.org, submitted, and have been 1st place ever since. Google also uses the description that dmoz created. |
KawiForums.com
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StephenD
Senior Member
Australia
1044 Posts |
Posted - 19 July 2005 : 04:11:08
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| Its over 4 weeks now since I first submiited the site to Google. It hasn't shown up on dmoz yet although that was only done 12 days ago. I've sent off another email to Google support. |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 19 July 2005 : 04:37:10
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as an old dog once told me 'the problem with web positionng is that nothing works...'
sorry to hear it's still crawling and grumbling along. Have you checked www.searchenginewatch.com and www.spider-food.net for tips too? Thye certainly used to be worth a quick read, but as the search market is on ever shifting sand I can't vouch for their currency any more :)
hth mate - you deserve some breaks after all your candypress stress! |
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Ghostnetworks
New Member
95 Posts |
Posted - 19 July 2005 : 09:44:00
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quote:
Originally posted by StephenD
The url is www.staffcheck.com.au
This little gesture will make a BIG impact on your listing 
Submission doesn't really gurantee listing, they just put you on the crawl list. How high you score will depend on how relavant ( and how extensive ) your content is. Usually it's the first few pages under your root directory that gets indexed on the first crawl.
domain.com/page.html Sort of thing
The rest of the pages usually take longer; second or third crawl.
This is why I put all of my page calls under the root directory. ( main.aspx?sec=whatever )
I looked at your page source and there wasn't any actual relavant text until the middle of the page. Most of the header was table info.
This can be a problem, since search engines only like to read actual page text. They altogether ignore most of the meta data since a lot of people abuse those tags ( guilty of it myself in the past ). And heavily nested HTML usually gets ignored as well.
You may want to take a peek at the SEO Forums for some hints. They helped me out a lot.
BTW... Your doctype is XHTML, but you're using tables for your layout?
Tsk, tsk. Tables are soooo last century! 
But seriously, you shouldn't use tables unless it's for tubular data. Could leave a nasty after taste in the Google bot if you're not careful.
As it stands now, with your table layout, the bot will only index the page title and "Secure Server Login".
Not good. |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 19 July 2005 : 10:05:14
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| Hey GhostNetworks - good link (SEO Forums) |
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MarkJH
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1722 Posts |
Posted - 19 July 2005 : 11:29:02
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Webmaster World is the definitive place for all things Google... in fact all things SEO.
quote:
As it stands now, with your table layout, the bot will only index the page title and "Secure Server Login".
What evidence do you have that Google doesn't index what's inside a table? Most of my site still uses tables and I've never had any kind of problem.
If you want your site indexed, some inbound links from already indexed sites would be a massive help. Good luck in getting in DMOZ, too. It can take literally years in some poorly edited areas of the directory.
Best of luck. |
Bandlink.net - http://www.bandlink.net/
Bandlink Music Forums - http://www.bandlink.net/forum/ |
Edited by - MarkJH on 19 July 2005 11:29:58 |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 19 July 2005 : 12:21:37
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| better still, volunteer as an editor for the poorly edited areas of DMOZ :) |
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Ghostnetworks
New Member
95 Posts |
Posted - 19 July 2005 : 12:37:55
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quote:
Originally posted by MarkJH
quote:
As it stands now, with your table layout, the bot will only index the page title and "Secure Server Login".
What evidence do you have that Google doesn't index what's inside a table?
If you read that again, you'll notice I said the complete opposite
It does index it; "Secure Server Login" happens to be the first visible piece of text inside the table, thus will be the site description. I don't think that's what he wants.
edit_
In fact, that's why tables may not be the best option.
What shows up first on page via a browser might not be what the search bot sees first. Table arrangment is meaningless to a search bot. Which is why it's better to use CSS layouts. You can have the site description, title and primary text on top, but have them appear somewhere else. Even on the bottom of the page if need be. And you can still have your layouts degrade gracefully on mobile devices. Can't have that kind of flexibility with tables. |
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Edited by - Ghostnetworks on 19 July 2005 12:38:52 |
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StephenD
Senior Member
Australia
1044 Posts |
Posted - 19 July 2005 : 18:00:30
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Thanks Ghostnetworks, still learning CSS I'm afraid so it will be a while before I can convert my trusty old tables to CSS ... nevertheless I'm living on the edge these days and willing to give anything a try :)
I'll remove that 'Secure Server Login' bit of text too. |
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