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thomasvining · 03-11-2005, 11:19

I recently made a couple of changes to my site to increase hits, and it seems to have done the trick with MSN really well, but for some reason (not sure if its coincidental), but google only appears to be visiting my index page now.

The only changes that I made were:

1 - Optimise title and header tags to focus keywords on the relevant page's content.

2 - Added a favourites.php that links from all pages and contains about 10 links to other sites, as a mean for exchanging future links.

The site is www.tokyocube.com.

If any of you could give me pointers on why this might be, and whether it is just a matter of time before google goes back to index more than just the index page, I'd really appreciate it!

thanks!

roto · 03-11-2005, 11:43

My guess would be that it's just a matter of time before the google spider indexes your site again (if it's been there once, it should be back). However, your site wouldn't load for me, and I couldn't see if you have a proper robots.txt file in place. Do you? There's no definite proof this does or doesn't works on the Google spider, but it's worth having for other SEO purposes anyway.

And, since you're focused on Google, I found this about Google sitemaps:

Quote:

One thing you can do to increase the likelihood of your entire site getting “spidered” is to submit your site to Google Sitemaps. After submitting your site, Google creates and stores an XML file that allows for instant updates and indexing whenever your site’s content changes. This is like having your own data cable running from your computer directly to Google.

More info via Google

Brown · 03-11-2005, 11:45

doesn't google only follow links on a page if the page has a pr of 4+?

i might be making that up, its sounds a little daft anyway.

roto · 03-11-2005, 11:51

Also, here's another helpful tool in your quest to get higher Google rankings:

http://www.googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php

Quote:

doesn't google only follow links on a page if the page has a pr of 4+?

i might be making that up, its sounds a little daft anyway.

I haven't heard that before...quite daft indeed if that's true.

thomasvining · 03-11-2005, 13:31

damn server again. gees, this is our 3rd hosting company and every single one of them has been poor. do any of you guys ever have sites down?

thomasvining · 05-11-2005, 08:42

Thats pretty odd, but google absolutely nailed our site yesterday and today visiting pretty much every page. Not quite sure what the delay was and why they held off visiting anything other than our homepage, but I can only imagine that maybe it takes time for it to trust that the site is ready to index again after SEO changes have been made.

Phantomsuspect · 05-11-2005, 11:35

Yea, sites go down but thy should only if they are doing server maintenance. If you want a great hosting company go to crystaltech.com they are on the backbone of the internet. Drop me a referral to them if you change. www.enginesofcreation.com Shameless i know but why not. We have used them for years now and only have had our site down a couple of times due to errors, and that was when they upgraded to Cold Fusion 7.0 and macromedia had a bug.

stealthcow · 05-11-2005, 11:56

its because of the way the urls are accessed... using .php?keyword=blah&fafsasdf

google assumes theyre automatically generated pages and doesnt like those sort of things, consider looking into modrewrite to get descriptive urls

thomasvining · 06-11-2005, 15:31

Cheers for the hosting contact Phantomsuspect!

I will take a look at them later in the week, as we're most probably gonna leave Pipex as the site has gone down loads of times over the last few days and we've had jack all from customer services or anything.... not the best way to keep me as a customer.

I've been reading that google no longer has any issues with dynamic URLs as long as they are linked fully in the pages somewhere, and it seems MSN has absolutely no worries indexing dynamic content. Not sure about Yahoo though, as they've not done much with our site.... maybe that would be enough of a reason to use mod rewrite.... not sure.

thomasvining · 06-11-2005, 21:10

Well, I took your advice Phantomsuspect and switched over to CrystalTech, and they have been unable to assist me getting our database correctly working on our new hosting account. The delay on responding to support emails is really really slow too.

Thanks for the advice, I'm sure they've been good to you, but we're going to cancel with them before committing to any DNS change over!

pgo · 06-11-2005, 22:07

I've been quite happy with www.asmallorange.com

Very little downtime, great support (even if no phone support). User forums are always helpful, if not, then their ticket system does nicely. The usually respond within a few minutes. The longest it's ever taken for me was 1 hour - and that was at 4AM.

If you do sign up with them, put me in as a referrer - use stickandink.com or "pgoneill" - hook my ass up with a free month.

Limbo · 24-11-2005, 04:23

Google has been going through update jagger (all but finished now) - that will explain the strange delayed surge of G-bot hits.

stealthcow · 24-11-2005, 04:37

The dynamic URL thing is a bit of a hot potato, you're never sure whether the bots will index them or not. It really is simple to implement mod_rewrite and will not only make your URLs easier to remember, but also boost your SEO

For example, the link lifestyle.php?subnav=leisure&feature=travel&articl e=Hokkaido,%20Snow%20Paradise

could be /leisure/travel/Hokkaido_Snow_Paradise

03-11-2005, 11:19	#1 (permalink)
thomasvining Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Tokyo Posts: 356	Google only visiting my index page - why? I recently made a couple of changes to my site to increase hits, and it seems to have done the trick with MSN really well, but for some reason (not sure if its coincidental), but google only appears to be visiting my index page now. The only changes that I made were: 1 - Optimise title and header tags to focus keywords on the relevant page's content. 2 - Added a favourites.php that links from all pages and contains about 10 links to other sites, as a mean for exchanging future links. The site is www.tokyocube.com. If any of you could give me pointers on why this might be, and whether it is just a matter of time before google goes back to index more than just the index page, I'd really appreciate it! thanks!

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03-11-2005, 11:45	#3 (permalink)
Brown volkswagen yellow & gold Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: london, england. Posts: 6,147	doesn't google only follow links on a page if the page has a pr of 4+? i might be making that up, its sounds a little daft anyway.

03-11-2005, 13:31	#5 (permalink)
thomasvining Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Tokyo Posts: 356	damn server again. gees, this is our 3rd hosting company and every single one of them has been poor. do any of you guys ever have sites down?

05-11-2005, 08:42	#6 (permalink)
thomasvining Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Tokyo Posts: 356	Thats pretty odd, but google absolutely nailed our site yesterday and today visiting pretty much every page. Not quite sure what the delay was and why they held off visiting anything other than our homepage, but I can only imagine that maybe it takes time for it to trust that the site is ready to index again after SEO changes have been made.

05-11-2005, 11:35	#7 (permalink)
Phantomsuspect Violent & Irrational Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: upstate NY - Albany Area Posts: 28	Yea, sites go down but thy should only if they are doing server maintenance. If you want a great hosting company go to crystaltech.com they are on the backbone of the internet. Drop me a referral to them if you change. www.enginesofcreation.com Shameless i know but why not. We have used them for years now and only have had our site down a couple of times due to errors, and that was when they upgraded to Cold Fusion 7.0 and macromedia had a bug.

05-11-2005, 11:56	#8 (permalink)
stealthcow knocking heads Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,914	its because of the way the urls are accessed... using .php?keyword=blah&fafsasdf google assumes theyre automatically generated pages and doesnt like those sort of things, consider looking into modrewrite to get descriptive urls

06-11-2005, 15:31	#9 (permalink)
thomasvining Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Tokyo Posts: 356	Cheers for the hosting contact Phantomsuspect! I will take a look at them later in the week, as we're most probably gonna leave Pipex as the site has gone down loads of times over the last few days and we've had jack all from customer services or anything.... not the best way to keep me as a customer. I've been reading that google no longer has any issues with dynamic URLs as long as they are linked fully in the pages somewhere, and it seems MSN has absolutely no worries indexing dynamic content. Not sure about Yahoo though, as they've not done much with our site.... maybe that would be enough of a reason to use mod rewrite.... not sure.

06-11-2005, 21:10	#10 (permalink)
thomasvining Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Tokyo Posts: 356	Well, I took your advice Phantomsuspect and switched over to CrystalTech, and they have been unable to assist me getting our database correctly working on our new hosting account. The delay on responding to support emails is really really slow too. Thanks for the advice, I'm sure they've been good to you, but we're going to cancel with them before committing to any DNS change over!

06-11-2005, 22:07	#11 (permalink)
pgo Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 12,340	I've been quite happy with www.asmallorange.com Very little downtime, great support (even if no phone support). User forums are always helpful, if not, then their ticket system does nicely. The usually respond within a few minutes. The longest it's ever taken for me was 1 hour - and that was at 4AM. If you do sign up with them, put me in as a referrer - use stickandink.com or "pgoneill" - hook my ass up with a free month.

24-11-2005, 04:23	#12 (permalink)
Limbo Baskin' Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 5,619	Google has been going through update jagger (all but finished now) - that will explain the strange delayed surge of G-bot hits.

24-11-2005, 04:37	#13 (permalink)
stealthcow knocking heads Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,914	The dynamic URL thing is a bit of a hot potato, you're never sure whether the bots will index them or not. It really is simple to implement mod_rewrite and will not only make your URLs easier to remember, but also boost your SEO For example, the link lifestyle.php?subnav=leisure&feature=travel&articl e=Hokkaido,%20Snow%20Paradise could be /leisure/travel/Hokkaido_Snow_Paradise

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