Forum Moderators: open
A good, and very high ranking example I found only contained these Buy terms in an image file. There is a single link further into the site, but no text to suggest to a robot that it is a storefront.
Also, keep in mind that many 'Webmasters' mostly use SEO on the home page. Because of this it's often the one that get's busted by Google. Besides this, all sites have only one Index page but can have thousands of interior pages.
the difference between the index page and the interior pages at least on my site, is that all of the interior pages are linked to the index page, while the index page is not linked to all the interior pages. Does that make a difference to the serps?
I don't think it's that simple, because my top or main index page continues to rank #1 for its most important keyphrase in Google, and it has links from every one of my internal pages.
In my case, I think the problem had something to do with a combination of absolute links to secondary domain names that were redirecting to internal pages under the main domain. In other words:
MAIN DOMAIN: widgets.com
SECONDARY DOMAIN (SITE WITHIN MY SITE): bluewidgets.com, which was redirecting to:
ACTUAL ADDRESS OF SITE WITHIN MY SITE: widgets.com/blue/index.html
(Never mind why my site is set up this way--it's a long story that has nothing to do with SEO.)
I'm assuming that Google saw the 301 redirect from the secondary domain to an internal page under my main domain and applied some kind of "doorway page" filter. (The secondary domain's index page still has a PR of 7, by the way--in fact, its PR went from 6 to 7 during or after the Florida update--and it shows up in a Web search for the secondary site's name but not for its major keyphrases.)
Also, keep in mind that many 'Webmasters' mostly use SEO on the home page
A valid point, and in many cases the index page is where most inbound links are pointed. I don't think 'all pages are created equal' - index pages remain special pages.
It's certainly of great interest that relevant index pages seem to have been worst hit - and yet in many cases index pages with little or no content appear to have survived Florida relatively unscathed.
Google, as well as every other search engine, are way too erratic and imprecise to be 100% depended on to give good results in regards to one page. It's way too hit and miss. The more pages you have the more opportunities you have to get good results from the search engines.
Every month more and more sites that are showing up in the top for most of my searches seem to be deep interior pages. Maybe Google has realized that Index pages are mostly just glorified site maps? Who knows.
Hi John, I agree, and really should have got round to SEOing my entire site. But post-Florida, the fact many of my subpages are poorly titled etc. may have been a blessing in disguise!
What you are saying is if someone wants to buy something, they use a different search engine? Which one?
It is my belief that most people find a search engine that they like and then ... use it for everything. Information or product purchasing, it does not matter.
