Problems with Search engines

google and yahoo ignoring me!

[humper55]

msn has begun to rank my site after a delay of over 2 and a half months.

I have begun to suspect there is something not quite right with the way my site is built that has caused problems with google and yahoo.

I was under the impression that inktomi was owned by yahoo and used by msn - therefore if you are in one you should be in the other.

I redfined the <h1> tag in a css file to make it smaller . this is the only thing i can think of that could be deemed as spamming ( i have now altered this). I have checked the site in a lynx viewer site and everything appears - the flash I use does not affect it.

I have just created a robot.txt file in desperation! Is there anything anyone can add to help or reassure?

the site is <snip>

thanks

[edited by: trillianjedi at 4:59 pm (utc) on June 8, 2005]
[edit reason] TOS # 13 - no URL's please [/edit]

[monkeythumpa]

The first question is, are the spiders getting to your site? Check the logs and look for user agents with Yahoo or Google in the name. Do you have any links into the site? If no one is linking to you, you are on an "island" and the spiders won't find you. You need to build bridges (links) from other indexed sites.

Second, are the spiders indexing your site? Do they get to every page? Do they penalize you for anything or kick you out? This could be from many things. If your URL is complex, if you are using frames, if your content is "hidden", if you have identical content, if you are on the same IP as a known spammer, etc.

Try to isolate why you are not in their databases and fix only that. You may be doing a great job at everything else.

[kwngian]

I have encountered creating pages and saving it in the wrong encoding format (not good with these issues) eg. saving in chinese simplified (Unicode big endian) instead of the standard UTF-8 or something and googlebot doesn't crawl pass the entry page. The page size doubled as a space was added between each character.

When I search for the page, google show ÿþ< HTML > < HEAD > .. blah blah as the snippet.

So this could one reason that it is not being indexed.

[humper55]

thanks for the speedy response, its most appreciated.

I began to link to other sites some time ago as i am aware that this helps considerably with search engines. My url is listed in google but no content is.

when i type the url in to the search bar on google as Im sure you know, u get a list of options one being list sites that link to you. there are none listed even though findhound.com and freeindex.co.uk both link and are ranked.

it does show over 400 sites that "contain the term" these do actually link also but they are paid search listings through espotting partner sites (like overture partners)

I've now amended the <h1> tag so it is not reduced in size - I cant think of anything else that woyld contraviene google spamming laws. As its an actinic ecom site all alt tags are completed and every page automatically gets a title so thats not a problem.

I checked the logs, Googlebot has been to the site but not bothered to rank anthing but the home page.

there must be a reason - will a robot.txt file help?

[sirkei]

<h1> tag cannot be redifined in css style? I changed the font size to 14px. So does that mean spamming?

[Reid]

redefining h1 is not a problem just dont try any funny stuff like making it the same color as the background or waaay small.

If bots are only hitting index then you may have a problem with your page.
Run a robot sim on it and see what it looks like to a bot.

[tbear]

a delay of over 2 and a half months.

This isn't really a long time. I wouldn't even begin to look for my new sites until 3 months, at least.