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Why is your Web site not listed in the search engines? We
may have the answer! Check our Top 10 list of reasons why
your site is invisible to searchers.
10. You Believe In Santa Claus.
Small children believe all you have to do is be good and
Santa brings gifts. Some webmasters believe that a good Web
site attracts search engine spiders just as easily - if they
wait long enough, the spider will eventually find the site.
Wrong: you have to submit to get noticed! There are
thousands of new Web sites every day clamoring for attention,
so don't be passive. Web site promotion is too important to
leave to chance - you have to submit, submit, and submit again!
9. The Doorbell Was Broken.
Did your site respond when the search engine spiders visited?
They don't make appointments, so make sure you use a reliable
Web host who keeps your site up and running. While many Web
host companies promise 99.9% uptime, 41% of Web servers experienced
substantial downtime last year.
Check out a server monitoring service to learn how your site
is performing. NetMechanic's
Server Check service will monitor your site 24 hours per
day and alert you to problems.
8. The Vanishing Cream Worked.
Most ecommerce sites rely on databases to serve up specific
information to their visitors using a program like Cold Fusion
to render the pages dynamically. That's great for visitors
because they get relevant information customized to their
particular request. Webmasters love it too because they have
less pages to maintain: dynamic pages appear only in the visitor's
browser, then vanish. But there's a problem: most search engines
robots can only index static pages. Be sure that you're submitting
pages to search engines that the robots can actually read
and index.
7. Spam Sites Get Canned.
You mother was right: you are known by the company you keep.
Your site may be blocked because you share a Web host (and
underlying IP address) with a lot of spam sites. Some search
engines block sites hosted by free Web site providers because
of the spam problem. You can also have problems with a paid
provider too - especially if the host accepts adult-oriented
Web sites. Since search engines report that adult sites are
often some of the worst spam offenders, check with your Web
hosting company to see if it hosts adult sites. You may also
have used some perfectly innocent (to you) design techniques
that got you banned because spammers use the same approach
to try and fool search engines.
http://netmechanic.com/news/vol3/promo_no10.htm
NetMechanic's Search Engine Power Pack will scan your page
and flag questionable design or coding techniques that some
search engines interpret as spam.
http://netmechanic.com/powerpack/optimize.htm
6. Gone In A Splash!
Search engine spiders are quiet, solitary creatures who hate
razzle-dazzle: it just confuses them. So if you use a splash
page as your home page, you may be turning them away. Splash
pages are often heavy on graphics but light on content. Search
engine spiders simply can't index pages that have no content
to evaluate or links to follow. Unlike humans, spiders love
text-heavy, ugly pages. http://netmechanic.com/news/vol3/searchengine_no4.htm
5. Spiders Hate Confined Spaces.
You have to give a search engine spider a good reason to crawl
through your frame because they have an uneasy relationship
with framed sites. Many spiders can only see the top-level
frame code. It's almost impossible for the spider to collect
any useful information about your framed site unless you include
links inside your NOFRAMES tag.
With nothing to see and do, the spider leaves your site without
indexing it.
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4. There Was No Room At The Inn.
Some search engine databases have an upper limit on the number
of pages they can index. When the database is full, they don't
place your site on a waiting list. Some engines simply block
new submissions - Excite didn't index any new sites for months
in early 2000! You may have to submit several times to the
same engine before getting one of the coveted database spots.
3. It Was Spring Cleaning Time.
Sometimes, Web sites get dropped due to technical problems
at the search engine, but engines often drop sites on purpose
too. Search engines want to keep their databases up to date
and packed with the most recent and useful information. Some
will periodically review the age of Web sites they have in
their index and delete the old sites to make room for the
new ones.
Avoid this problem by resubmitting your site regularly to
ensure that your fresh content gets indexed.
2. You Expected Instant Gratification
Be patient. While most search engines promise to visit your
site within 1-2 weeks after your submit it, the reality is
that you may wait months for a spider. There's a tremendous
backlog of sites and more are submitted and resubmitted every
day.
Your best bet is to submit once, then resubmit every week
or so until you get listed. Once you're listed, cut back on
submissions because submitting too often can hurt you by getting
you banned as a spam site. Once a week is fine. Several times
per day (or even once per day with some search engines) is
too often.
And the #1 reason you aren't in the search engines is...
1. You Used A Broken Tool!
Use a search engine submission service that works. Search
engines are tricky: they frequently change their URL submission
addresses and requirements. A submission engine that isn't
updated regularly may be submitting the wrong information
to the wrong place. And you'll never know it if they don't
provide feedback about each submission. Be careful about the
"free" submission services that promise to send
your site to the "Top 1000 Search Engines!" This
is often a scam designed to get your email address and sell
it to spammers. What you get is junk mail but no search engine
listing.
Instead, submit your site quickly - and with confidence -
to 100 search engines with NetMechanic's Search Engine Starter.
http://netmechanic.com/engine.htm
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