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I tried it Google's way

by Radix
17 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Properly built pages, strong keywords throughout, proper tagging, sitemapping per their specs, I even threw some adsense cash at them and still the indexing is poor.

Brief background on me, I've worked in web dev/media design for over 10 years, but in an academic environment. Nothing we do has a commercial goal or aim...to my detriment.

Anyway, back to the problem and my suspicions.

1 - After looking at the list of things Google's crawler is seeing I did some checking into this odd thing called "anchor text." #%& when did this abomination come into existence? One glance at my site will show everyone my folly there.

2 - I'm trying to tackle a SATURATED content zone.

3 - I've done very little SEO or backlinking.

With all of that in mind, what suggestions can anyone make to help me unfrick myself. I will correct the anchor text issues. The site is really only 10% completed per our plan, but my other content developer is slacking a bit.

I'm going to try to post the link for your reference without it linking as I'm newbie trash: 10millionpeople . com
#google
  • Profile picture of the author ehicks727
    Did you submit your URL to Google, Yahoo, and MSN? (hint: search on "submit url" for each respective SE)

    Did you start a Google Webmaster's Tool (WT) account?

    Did you create and submit a sitemap to WT?

    Did you wait at least two weeks? Sometimes it takes that long for Google to index a new site if you didn't point any links to it.

    Do you have any other sites that are indexed and crawled periodically? If so, point a link to your new domain.

    You might want to actually use some content hierarchy in your HTML. I didn't see a single H1 tag. Google relies on content hierarchy to determine what your page is about.
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    • Profile picture of the author Radix
      Did you submit your URL to Google, Yahoo, and MSN? (hint: search on "submit url" for each respective SE) YES

      Did you start a Google Webmaster's Tool (WT) account? YES


      Did you create and submit a sitemap to WT? YES


      Did you wait at least two weeks? Sometimes it takes that long for Google to index a new site if you didn't point any links to it. YES


      Do you have any other sites that are indexed and crawled periodically? If so, point a link to your new domain. NO


      You might want to actually use some content hierarchy in your HTML. I didn't see a single H1 tag. Google relies on content hierarchy to determine what your page is about. Thanks I will do that when I reformat the links.
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  • Profile picture of the author Creadiv
    My SEO efforts are generally focused around link building, but it all starts from the beginning and builds up. First and foremost fix your anchors and your html. Having valid html and css make the site easier to crawl and that means the spiders will be able to find your pages easier and faster helping make sure all of your content is indexed. Next make sure you have a strong interal linking system. Everypage of your site should help direct the spiders to the other pages of your site so again it is easier for google to find you content.

    The only thing I can say about your content is to write like a human being. Make it very readable and understanding so that people enjoy it, but focus on your keywords. I generally target long tail keywords as the generate more traffic and are easier to rank for.

    Finally get into that link building. Find related sites and speak with the webmaster. See if they would be willing to link to you from one of their relevant articles in exchange for a link back. Find related blogs and comment on their articles. You may find that some of the blogs are no follow free or have a recent comments section which means the more comments you make the more back links you have. And even if the links aren't no follow free you are putting links out there to see which is like building road signs for people to come visit you.
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  • Profile picture of the author japanguy
    Some very good advice!
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  • Profile picture of the author ehicks727
    What do you mean by "indexing is poor"

    I read that as your pages aren't being indexed by Google... meaning, if you do the "site:www.10millionpeople.com" command in Google, not all of your pages are showing up in the main index (if you submitted a sitemap, you're probably in the supplemental index, just not moved to the main index yet).

    However, if your pages aren't ranking like you thought they should be, then that's a whole other story... that's not "poor indexing", that's poor ranking.

    The other issue is that you have to give Google time to index your site. I'm currently waiting on Google to index a 400 page site right now. Google's taking its time... about 10 pages a day are showing up when I do a site command. Just be patient.
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    • Profile picture of the author Radix
      Originally Posted by ehicks727 View Post

      What do you mean by "indexing is poor"

      I read that as your pages aren't being indexed by Google... meaning, if you do the "*" command in Google, not all of your pages are showing up in the main index (if you submitted a sitemap, you're probably in the supplemental index, just not moved to the main index yet).

      However, if your pages aren't ranking like you thought they should be, then that's a whole other story... that's not "poor indexing", that's poor ranking.

      The other issue is that you have to give Google time to index your site. I'm currently waiting on Google to index a 400 page site right now. Google's taking its time... about 10 pages a day are showing up when I do a site command. Just be patient.

      In the webmaster tools I see this:

      "No pages from your site are currently included in Google's index. Indexing can take time."

      No errors noted on crawl. When I do a site:meh check, I see pages, but that's the only way. I think it goes back to the anchor stuff. In my desire to make the pages easy to use, I totally forked myself.
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      • Profile picture of the author ehicks727
        Originally Posted by Radix View Post

        In the webmaster tools I see this:

        "No pages from your site are currently included in Google's index. Indexing can take time."

        No errors noted on crawl. When I do a site:meh check, I see pages, but that's the only way. I think it goes back to the anchor stuff. In my desire to make the pages easy to use, I totally forked myself.
        Ah, ok. Don't use Google WT for getting your site and link stats. It sucks. I've had sites with thousands of page indexed, showing up in the rankings, and Google WT tells me the same thing.

        You need to actually go to Google and search on "site:www.10millionpeople.com" If THAT shows you have no pages in the main index, then you have a problem.

        Did you buy this domain name from someone? Maybe it has a "history"!
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        • Profile picture of the author Radix
          Originally Posted by ehicks727 View Post

          Ah, ok. Don't use Google WT for getting your site and link stats. It sucks. I've had sites with thousands of page indexed, showing up in the rankings, and Google WT tells me the same thing.

          You need to actually go to Google and search on "x" If THAT shows you have no pages in the main index, then you have a problem.

          Did you buy this domain name from someone? Maybe it has a "history"!
          When I do a "site:" search I get pages...and pages of my site. The domain was open, but I suspect it has been in play before.
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          • Profile picture of the author ehicks727
            Originally Posted by Radix View Post

            When I do a "site:" search I get pages...and pages of my site. The domain was open, but I suspect it has been in play before.
            Well, you're in the main index then.

            Is your problem that you're just not getting ranked as highly as you think you should be?

            Try optimizing your site better. It's not very well optimized... no offense.

            There's usually two camps in the SEO world... those who chase links, and those who focus on on-page and content. I'm an on-page and content guy.

            My advice would be to focus on your on-page optimization. You have lots of pages, and they are getting indexed, so that's good. Focus on making your pages more unique and really coordinate your keyword phrases across all your important page elements, and by all means, get some content hierarchy in there! That alone will boost your rankings.
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            • Profile picture of the author Radix
              Try optimizing your site better. It's not very well optimized... no offense. None taken I'm learning as I go and appreciate all input.

              There's usually two camps in the SEO world... those who chase links, and those who focus on on-page and content. I'm an on-page and content guy. Agreed

              My advice would be to focus on your on-page optimization. You have lots of pages, and they are getting indexed, so that's good. Focus on making your pages more unique and really coordinate your keyword phrases across all your important page elements, and by all means, get some content hierarchy in there! That alone will boost your rankings.

              making your pages more unique: unique from each other or in general?


              get some content hierarchy: I'm finding this has a really wide range of interpretations. Could you elaborate very briefly?

              Thanks for helping me out. I know it's a pain in the butt and takes your time, but it is appreciated.
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              Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
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              • Profile picture of the author ehicks727
                Originally Posted by Radix View Post

                making your pages more unique: unique from each other or in general?


                get some content hierarchy: I'm finding this has a really wide range of interpretations. Could you elaborate very briefly?
                Unique from each other.

                HTML was actually designed to have a content hierarchy. This is one way search engines are so good at determining relevance of a page to a topic.

                Good content hierarchy includes an H1 tag with header text (plugged with your keywords... we want to "suggest" to Google what this page is about), several H2-3 tags, H## (> 3) as is reasonable, and then P tags. Headers summarize what the following paragraph is about.

                The problem as I see it, is web designers over the years have *******ized HTML by using tables, and not using content hierarchy well (at all, sometimes).

                I'm very glad to see a movement of web designers moving to XHTML+CSS and following good content hierarchy standards.

                So that's content hierarchy in a nutshell. You know those really boring websites that are just boring HTML and no design (kind of like this HTML 5) Well, those sites usually implement content hierarchy effectively. They may look boring, but Google sure knows what that site's about!

                I'm of the opinion that Google favors sites that use content hierarchy. Also sites that validate are given just a slight preference. That's my opinion, but I think there's at least some truth to it.
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                • Profile picture of the author Radix
                  I'm of the opinion that Google favors sites that use content hierarchy. Also sites that validate are given just a slight preference. That's my opinion, but I think there's at least some truth to it.

                  I would totally agree based on what I've seen. Either a site has domain creds like gov or edu, good content, or they dump boatloads of Adwords cash into their promotion.

                  Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I'll make these changes and report back in a few days.

                  Thanks to everyone for responding. This is a pretty awesome forum. Not sure why/how I didn't find it sooner.
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                  Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
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          • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
            Banned
            You have 82 pages indexed. You're also going to have duplicate content issues. I recommend you pick up a book on seo. Dan Thies has a good one, and it's free.

            http://www.seofaststart.com/
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            • Profile picture of the author ehicks727
              Originally Posted by blackhatcat View Post

              You have 82 pages indexed. You're also going to have duplicate content issues. I recommend you pick up a book on seo. Dan Thies has a good one, and it's free.

              SEO Fast Start: Free SEO Book & Help from Dan Thies
              Agreed... I just looked at your site stats. You need to brush up on SEO. Start with the on-page basics... don't worry about links at this point. All the links in the world aren't going to help your site.

              You have a canonicalization problem too. You need to resolve to either www . 10millionpeople.com or just 10millionpeople.com (I recommend www). You need to set that in Google WT, and then redirect in your .htaccess file.

              If you look at "site:10millionpeople.com" Do you notice that a lot of the title tags and description meta tags are identical? This is why you aren't ranking well.

              This kind of a site is my specialty. I run very large web directories (thousands and tens-of-thousands of pages), so it's always the challenge for me to make my pages unique.

              You need to make every title tag and description meta tag unique... use the "variable" data, which is STATE. Plug that state name as both state code and full state name (FL + Florida) on every page, and then plug it with your keywords.

              This is what separates the men from the boys in SEO. Do the hard work and make every single page as highly optimized as you can. If that means you have to touch every single page on a thousand page site, then just do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author intelinside
    You don't seem to have any H tags on your page which are very important from SE point of view. So try to add some H tags, you can control them using CSS so that they don't look odd.

    Secondly, the content is lacking. You can add more text in your initial para and also on the closing so that your page theme gets well communicated to the SE.

    For linkbuidling, you can put your link in various directories, article submissions, forums postings, blog postings, social bookmarking etc.

    On-page optimizing is important but you can't neglect the off-page optimization as well so you need to focus on both to bring you good results.
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  • Profile picture of the author DanielFonda
    You must build backlinks. There are many backlink vuilders/ creators out there. Also remember to write articles and submit them to article submission sites (don't forget to include the link to your site from the articles).
    Also always try to get a link from high PR pages and don't forget to just work hard. Your bound to see results in the long run.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      The domain was registered 2 weeks ago?

      Get busy building some links and promoting the site. Sites build gradually and it takes time to get the search engines to recognized quality sites.

      kay
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