I submitted my private web site Geocities.com/DanB315 twice weeks ago
and it doesn't show up in a search.

Hi Dan,

Your site does appear in Google searches, but it might come and over
the next few days of the "Google Dance".

Google Dance: Roughly once a month Google updates its entire index,
updating current listings and adding new ones. It takes a few days to
settle in - Google has hundreds of servers to update, and some ISP
caches take a while to change as well - this hiccup of sorts is
affectionately known as the Google Dance.

There are various tools which allow you to see the different results
from different servers - this one is quite good:

Google-Dance.com
http://www.google-dance.com/?by=www.google-dance.com&q=geocities.com%2FDanB315%2F&servers=datacenters&rpp=10&di=vertical&formation=compact

Some search results
-------------------

www.geocities.com/DanB315/
://www.google.com/search?q=www%2Egeocities%2Ecom%2FDanB315%2F

Puppet Theatres in Russia (13th)
://www.google.com/search?q=Puppet+Theatres+in+Russia

Danny N. Burge (1st)
://www.google.com/search?q=Danny+N.+Burge

Self employed puppeteer (5th)
://www.google.com/search?q=Self+employed+puppeteer


Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by danb315-ga on 01 Jan 2003 15:01 PST

Okay, I see it in searches listed by you, but not when I search "Danny
Burge", "Daniel Burge", "Burge + Russia" etc. Will these show up
shortly?

---

Clarification of Answer by robertskelton-ga on 01 Jan 2003 16:19 PST

Hi again,

In search results, Google only usually lists web pages which have the
searched for words in the main text of the page or the title.

Although "Danny Burge" shows on the index page, it is within an image,
which means that Google cannot read it. "Danny Burge", when searched
for as a phrase (by enclosing the words in quotes) doesn't list your
site, because that exact phrase doesn't appear within your site.

Without quotes it is there, but hard to find. At approximately 80th
place there is a Geocities site called D. Below it says [ More results
from www.geocities.com ] - clicking on this will show your site in the
results. This is the same reason why it is hard to find your site when
you search for Burge Russia.

Danny Burge Russia (without quotes) comes up 5th
://www.google.com/search?q=danny+burge+russia

I couldn't see the word Daniel anywhere within your site.


How to get a better ranking for your keywords
---------------------------------------------

1) Use a different title for each page of your site. With Google, you
will appear higher up in results if your keywords are in the page
title. Try something like these:

Daniel Burge: Puppeteer 
Danny Burge: Resume
Danny Burge - A Puppeteer's Experience in Russia

2) Make sure each variation of your name appears somewhere on your
site.

3) If you can afford it, get your own domain name, rather than using
Geocities. Domain names can be bought for under $10, and annual
hosting for $25 or less if you look around. Both dannyburge.com and
danielburge.com are available.

Any changes you make will not be reflected in Google search results
until the next Google Dance, probably at the end of this month.