7 reasons why your WebPages Aren't Indexed by Search Engines

Editor's Note
08.24.00

Hi Readers,

When Navneet Bundham, the author of this issue, sent me this submission, "7 Reasons Why Your WebPages Aren't Indexed by Search Engines," I enjoyed it because of its insight and detail.

As Navneet wrote in his email to me:

95% of websites that don't get properly indexed by the major search engines have one or more of the following faults. This information could save someone's career or business.

Hope you too enjoy this issue.

Best,

Pete

	eNom Wholesale Domain Names for $9.95
	eNom, an ICANN accredited registrar, is a leading provider of wholesale domain name registration and DNS services. Resellers, ISPs, & web-hosting firms get domain names for $9.95 per domain year for new registrations and transfers.
	eNom.com

Click for More info about ad's:

bgcolor="#003366" face="Arial" size="4">
7 reasons why your WebPages Aren't Indexed by Search Engines

1) Your links are embedded in JavaScript.

If your links are embedded in JavaScript, most of the Search Engines will not recognize and index those pages. If you're serious about getting a good position on Yahoo, AltaVista, Lycos and the main engines, either put your links in simple html or make alternative links at the bottom of your page just for the Search Engines. An example of how this is done is in the Source code of http://www.herbal-treatments.com.au/index.html .

2) Your pages aren't cross-linked.

Not all Search Engine Indexers visit your website from your index page. If you haven't linked each of your pages with all your other pages, you stand the risk of having engines indexing only one or two of your pages. Just add text links at the bottom of your pages to all your other pages.

	Get critical insight into the performance of your web site!
	Take a free test drive of WebTrends Enterprise Suite 5.0 - the industry's most comprehensive web management solution. Now with the power to process up to 1 billion hits per day - report on web traffic analysis, broken link analysis, streaming media usage, monitoring & alerting - all in one solution. Download your trial:
	WebTrends.com

Click for More info about ad's:

3) Are the html tags on your page in invalid sequence?

An html page has to have this basic structure:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>
<META name="description" content="">
<META name="keywords" content="">
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR=FFFFFF TEXT=000000 LINK=0000FF VLINK=800080>

</BODY>
</HTML>

I have noticed Search Engines AltaVista and Google completely ignoring websites that have invalid html tag sequences. Also, when you open an html tag, see to it that you close it too. For egg. <font> requires that you have </font>, <table> requires a </table>. Your browser may display it alright but if you want the page to be indexed, check your code and put it in order. The only commonly used tag you need not close is <br>.

4) Badly formed comment tags

If you have comments within your code and they are not formatted according to the html specifications, indexers will not properly parse the tags on your page, ignoring many important tags.

Example of properly formatted comment:


Examples of bad comments:
<!- This HTML comment is badly formed. ->
<! This HTML comment is badly formed. >
<This is badly formed>
<!--This is badly formed--!>

	Worldwide Leader In Affiliate Marketing
	Commission Junction is the worldwide leader in affiliate marketing that matches online merchants' products and services to online content at the consumer's point-of-interest. Commission Junction handles all aspects of its global network - more than 1,000 merchants and 250,000 content providers - at a cost that is far lower than traditional online advertising programs.
	www.cj.com

Click for More info about ad's:

5) Are you using a Virtual Domain Redirection Service? When you use an Internet Redirection Service to make it easy for people to remember your website address, (http://yourname.hjgjhg.com instead of http://www.geocities.com/asjhg/ajkhj/hjh.html for eg.) your website is displayed in a frame (even though it may not be visible). When you do this, all your pages may not get indexed and most of your keywords and meta tags won't get preference. I suggest you use redirection services only to give people your website address. Give your true
(http://www.geocities.com/jfhkha/ksjkjak) url , however long it is, to the Search Engines and to link to your website.

6) Meta Refresh and Meta Robots tags
Check your code for the following tags between the <head> and </head>.

1) <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; URL=http://www.somedomain.com/path/file.html">
This tag redirects to another page. If you have this tag in your code, the indexer will usually completely ignore your website altogether.

2) <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">
This tag specifically directs robots to ignore that webpage. If you have it in your code, remove it immediately. You can use it on pages you want no Search Engines to index.

7) Are you using free website hosting?

Many free website hosts use various methods of enforcing their advertising banners on your website. This sometimes causes wrong and/or incomplete indexing of your website. If you have repeatedly had trouble with getting your free website indexed, switch to providers that you see coming up in results at the Search Engines, eg. Geocities, AOL, Icestorm.com etc. Another option is to use the free account your ISP gives you, or use a Student account as these are usually very Search Engine friendly.

Navneet Bundham
navneet@panav.com
Panav Technologies
www.Panav.com - Leading the way in I-Commerce Development

eNom Wholesale Domain Names for $9.95
www.eNom.com

Get critical insight into the performance of your web site!
www.webtrends.com

Worldwide Leader In Affiliate Marketing
www.cj.com

We at the Editorial Team would like to thank all our readers for reading WebProNews. We hope you find this information useful.

Peter Thiruselvam
Editor

The WebProNews Team

Expert in your field? We're looking for ARTICLES on web site design and development, promotion, positioning, and e-commerce. Articles should be in the 700 to 800 word range and include a 2 line promotion of the author's site. Send submissions to: Pete@WebProNews

advertising
have your ad reach 500,000 webmasters and website owners. contact: susan@webpronews.com

biz development
do you have a visitor database or a newsletter? iEntry is interested in exploring partnership opportunities:
business@ientry.com

archives
check out the past issues of webpronews
WebProNews Archives

feedback
Have a gripe, comment, or idea? Let us know about it.
Click here

free newsletters
get the latest webmaster info, humor, business, and other internet related newsletters delivered FREE to your mailbox.
click here to sign up

the iEntry network