Hi Wunderteam ~
Boy, you ask a toughie - thank heavens your question is "what do you
think?" ...
As you know, the Google Answers Researchers are independent
contractors, and we don't have any insider information about how
Google's closely-guarded algorithm works. And if it were easy to
figure out, everyone would be cramming their pages with what it takes
to get listed.
With regard to page rank, we do know that everything on your page is
either weighted "for" or "against" you, to come up with the resultant
page rank.
It is great that you are working on establishing resulting links TO
your page - that always helps.
I noticed that Alltheweb.com show the 123World (
http://www.123world.com/publications/ ), and ArtPromote.com links to
your page. Both of those have a page rank of 5, so that should help. I
also noticed that Google hasn't picked that link up yet.
Alltheweb.com also shows the link from Young Pip (PR4) and the Afghan
News Bureau (no PR), too, so they are slowly starting to be picked up.
Considering the fact you started your links program in June, that's
really not too bad to already have some showing.
Here's my take on the situation (and I do not profess to either having
any information not available or knowing more than you can learn from
the same sources I use):
The very nature of Toppest (that is, primarily being outward links to
other sites), would make it more difficult to get a high rank in
search engine returns.
Content most definitely *does* count, so you need more than just links
to other sites to help get you listed for rich content. For instance,
here's your 'content' for the libraries.html page:
"Toppest's Libraries page features recent library news headlines and a
directory of library web sites, including library directories, free
online libraries, virtual libraries, and internet public libraries."
That is pretty close to repeating the description metatag. I know with
53 pages on your site it gets hard to come up with some fresh,
relevant and keyword-rich text, but I suspect it would behoove you to
give it a try and add some content that differs from your description.
In any case, it won't hurt, and I suspect it would help.
============
HTML Coding
============
You're absolutely right - your coding is done well, and spot checking
some of the pages, I don't see where there is anything in it that can
be held against you or considered spamming or trickery, which would
end up penalizing you.
You're smart in how you name the pages (ie., libraries.html).
======================
Title Tags & Alt Tags
======================
Again, using a spot/random check, most of your title tags begin with
the word "Toppest" and then other words to describe what the page is
about.
Congratulations on using ALT tags! I notice that a lot of your ALT
tags for graphics also start out with the word "Toppest".
Instead of starting out with 53 page titles with the first word
"Toppest", how about turning that around to end the title with the
words "from Toppest"? At least that will put some key words out front,
and every page won't look like its title is "Toppest ..."
You might try the same with the ALT tags.
I cannot guarantee that it will work or help, on the other hand, it
certainly won't hurt.
=====================
Metatags, Yes or No?
=====================
In the "Your Guess Is As Good As Mine" department, I came across this
interesting post in Webmasters World:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/15289.htm
Does this mean the "description" and/or "keyword" tags are being
considered?
The answer is obviously, "Who knows?"
But you're making good use of yours without being excessively spammy
in them. Some tuning or tweaking wouldn't hurt. Do try to not to make
them identical to your content on the pages.
==========================
Watching the Google Dance
==========================
I don't know if you're aware of this handle little website or not, but
it can be interesting to watch the rankings on Google's servers using
the Google Dance Tool. This site is in no way related to Google, but
they do have a nifty tool which you may enjoy watching. It links to 9
of Google's servers.
- http://www.google-dance.com/
===================
Submitting to DMOZ
===================
I noticed that you haven't been listed in DMOZ. Google encourages you
to register with DMOZ:
"Google partners on the Web include Yahoo! and Netscape. If you are
having difficulty getting listed in the Google index, you may want to
consider submitting your site to either or both of these directories.
You can submit to Yahoo! by visiting
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/. You can submit your site to
Netscape's Open Directory Project (DMOZ) by visiting www.dmoz.org.
Once your site is included in either of these directories, Google will
often index your site within six to eight weeks." (See "What else can
I do to get listed in Google?")
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html#A1
I did find you in the other search engines you had mentioned above.
========
Summary
========
In answer to your question, " I don't think that my sub-pages got
dropped because of bad practices - I think it's more likely that they
got dropped because of PR=0. What do you think?"
There has been a lot of discussion on Webmasterworld and
Searchengineworld about Google's dropping listings for pages with a
page rank of 0, even dropping those with a PR of less than 4, but with
*all* the changes that have been occuring since May, I can't say with
certainty that is the reason it hasn't listed your site.
On the other hand, since you only started gathering relevant links
since June, six weeks is not excessive in waiting to get listed.
My advice is to give some thought to the few suggestions above and to
continue to get those links from relevant sites to yours ... and have
patience!
These things do not happen overnight.
Searching webmasterworld -
- page rank 0
- PR0
I trust this answers your question.
Good luck - and keep up the good work.
Serenata |