Google doesn’t see my site?
30 January 2010
How does search engine work? No one really knows exactly how a search engine, like google, determines which website is the best return for a given search. If we did, then people would trick the system and we would get false returns. Search engines, “crawl” the web in different intervals to determine websites and their content. The more a crawler finds your link, the more important it will determine your website to be.
A short checklist of what to do to turn the heads of a web crawler:
Non-code related tips
Age
The longer your site has been around the better. Search engines view an older website as a more reliable option than a site that might not last through the week.
Content
…and a lot of it—gets picked up by the search engines. The more relevant your website is to any given search the better odds it has of being seen as a more suitable listing. Remember, search engines are trying to give their users the best results. Having layers of information is one way to be seen as THE source for your niche.
Consistency
If your pages a more consistent from page to page, the search engine can better determine the difference between your theme and your content.
Network
Nothing helps your visibility more than reciprocal linking! Every time a web crawler hits a link to your site…it gives you 1 point toward being a more popular option.
Basic code tips:
Sloppy code is never a good thing
Make sure your site uses the “header” tags along with “paragraph” tags. This helps google to understand the content on your page.
Include page titles
The title should be different on every page in order for the search engines to store each page in different search results. Google only displays the first 66 characters. Keep your titles relevant to the page and include a few keywords here and there.
Meta description
This text is displayed under your title on the results page. Try to keep it under 150 characters.
Meta keywords
You have about 800 characters, comma separated. Don’t use the same word more than 3 times or use words that aren’t on your site…it will be read as spam. Focus on phrases instead of single words.
Images can’t be seen
A search engine doesn’t read images, so make sure you use “title” and “alt” attributes in links and images.
Overall Nomenclature
Name your images keywords or relevant to the content as well as the name of your pages names.
Include a sitemap
This will just help a search engine store the pages of your site.
Validate your code
Make sure the crawlers can easily access the page information.
Flash and frames should be used sparingly
Again, search engines can’t “see” into things such as frames or flash. Flash should be used to enhance a page with imagery or graphics. It should be something that wouldn’t effect the content of the website if it were lost or unseen. when a frame is used, a search engine can only view the top frame. So, each page of the website—or each frame replacement—is basically seen only as 1 page to a crawler.
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