I've often replied to people who ask why google
doesn't list their site when places like msn and yahoo do.
You can run a few simple tests to find out why google doesn't list your
site.
- Ask yourself if your site has *any* links into it from anywhere
else?
Google likes to "find" sites rather than be told about it.
This should be step one of your program to make google list you. Find
someone nice to link to your site. You could always email us as we
have a wide range of sites that we can link to you from.
Getting on topic relevant links is important too. Avoid spammy nasty
sites which look just like huge lists of links.
- What do search engines see when they visit your site?
Visit this Search Engine Simulator to see what they see.
If they see text then that is ok. But consider what they see - do they
see text you've hidden? (google and other search engines don't like being
fooled by invisible text. Its not big (Unless its plus6 font - ha ha!)
and its not clever. Some sites seem to get away with it but we think
that it is a bad idea!
- Validate your page over at the w3c site
Visit this page to put your url in the validator
Some html editors allow you to check the html. If yours meets the requirements
you get to put a button and link on your page.
- How old is your site?
A new site is less likely to be in google. Some people can get their
sites in the index very quickly. They usually manage this by linking
from a google-bot frequently visited page.
Putting adsense on your page can get a googlebot to visit, but it
doesn't necessarily follow you'll get indexed.
- Have you done anything that search engines might consider
back?
Turning your site into a no-text zone or linking to thousands of bad
sites might get you dropped.
- Are you in google but just very low down?
Do a search for a unique bit of text.
|