Forum Moderators: open
Notes:
I submitted the above URL to google, dmoz, etc. This page is the homepage and has a targeted title, description, keywords and body copy. However Google indexed only the description from this page and pulled a title and URL from our Who we are page. This page did not even have a meta description tag. Why did it choose this URL? Why did it ignore the URL I submitted but use it's meta description? Help, any clues?
To see how it indexed, I had to use the new search toolbar in cnn.com and entered, "snip". I also got some idea using google-dance but Google and Yahoo have not updated our old indexed infomration as of yet.
thanks in advance,
daz9nyc
[edited by: pageoneresults at 2:31 am (utc) on Jan. 28, 2003]
[edit reason] Removed URL [/edit]
are duplicates. So, Google just "picked one" and used one of them. This may not be true, but this appears to be what Google found when it spidered your website. Google doesn't like duplicate pages, so it's showing a PageRank of 0.
Probably the best way to fix this is to make sure that Google does not see duplicate pages.
I had to remove your URL references as we prefer not to get into individual site reviews. Please refer to the Terms of Service for more details.
Google will index all of your pages that are not blocked by a robots.txt file, password, etc.
I'll bet you had links from your home page to the other pages. That would be one reason why you are seeing other pages indexed.
It sounds like you may have had some duplicate pages. You should address those if applicable.
Relax a little, give it some time. Unusual things happen throughout the month. ;)
I am just confused why it choose a URL I did not submit but took the meta description from the URL I submitted?
I'll bet that you have that same meta description on one of those other pages that it indexed, maybe an oversight?
Google probably got all of your pages. Depending on the search query, it's going to return the most relevant page from your website. Lately meta descriptions have been showing in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Usually you'll see a snippet of information as opposed to a readable meta description.
There is really no need to submit to Google unless of course that is your only recourse (you have no inbound links yet). If you don't have the inbound links from other sites, there is a good chance that your site will not show up at all.
I did a lot of research on SEO issues and did my best to make a strong first showing.
Hmmm, tis a shame you didn't find us to begin with! ;)
The page I submitted had a very thought out, targeted and unique title, description (less than 200 chars) and body copy. By far the most relevant and keyword heavy page of the site. That is why I am confused why it indexed the wrong page.
I think I just figured out the error in my thought process. The keyword I have been entering for weeks was the domain of the site. I did this because I was not even sure if I was in the index at all. This is why it intelligently indexed the Who We Are page for this keyword, our domain name. When I entered the domain name plus a targeted keyword I knew was releveant on the homepage, I got the results I was expecting. Ah... error in my thought process and troubleshooting. Thanks for your help and time on this question!
My only direction for this would be to try and submit to as many directories as possible and contact a few sites that could benefit from a reciprocal link exchange.
Do a Yahoo! Express Submission. Submit to the ODP (dmoz.org). Find any niche directories and submit to those. Spend the next few evenings reading the do's and don'ts of directory submissions. Follow their guidelines exactly and research your chosen categories.
If you can immediately find a quality link from a page that has respectable PR (PageRank), then by all means do so.
Btw, I am getting different results in Google then I am in CNN which is now powered by google. Their databases must not be synced up yet or have different algorithms?
Thanks for your insights...
Thanks. So the Yahoo submission is worth the $299 ya think for PageRank alone?
No. But, it's worth it if you get a well written title and description from the Yahoo! Editor. It could lead to some good traffic from Yahoo!
P.S. Yes, links from the Yahoo! directory tend to pass a little more PR to your site.
With that in mind, don't spend TOO much time worrying about your PageRank. Its only one of a hundred factors to worry about, and the only place where it means anything is Google.
:)
Try and get a good listing in alltheweb and Altavista as well, its always a good idea to have a broad base for all SEO tactics.
Just my thoughts :)
Craig
Many of us here have been doing SEO long enough to have seen what happens when people place 'all their eggs in one basket' (so to speak) and have the bottom fall out under them once that engine drops/penalizes them for whatever reason.
Need results "today"?
How about paid inclusion into Inktomi ($35), and start getting good traffic from MSN in about 48 hours?. They also refresh your site every 48 hours, meaning site changes can show up almost immediately. They've always been a great source of traffic for all the sites I maintain.
Anyway, if you want to improve your PageRank, the best way is to obtain many inbound links from other websites. (preferably with as higher PageRank than your own site...). Hope that helps you.
