Hello,

I have submitted my site (www.ido-bridal) several time to goggle,
however, my site has not been index. I have several links to my site.
If you enter ido-bridal into the search box several of the site that
link to my site are listed there, but my site is not listed. My main
keywords are wedding accessories, wedding hair accessories, wedding
favors, bridal jewelry, and bridal accessories. I’m not index in any
of these keywords in goggle; however, I’m listed in other search
engines.     I was wondering if there is something wrong with my site
or if it has been suspended. Any information about my site would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thanks
Renee'

Hi Renee' ~

The good news is, you are in Google's index - although not quite the
way you indicated you are searching for it!


I performed a search on Google for "www.ido-bridal.com" (without the
quotation marks), and it produced the following results:

     "Showing web page information for www.ido-bridal.com

      Wedding accessories, wedding hair accessories,
      wedding favors, ... Welcome. To I Do-Bridal's Online
      Wedding Accessories Store. We are your one stop wedding
      store for all your wedding accessories needs. ... 


     "Google can show you the following information for
      this URL:
      Show Google's cache of www.ido-bridal.com 
      Find web pages that are similar to www.ido-bridal.com 
      Find web pages that link to www.ido-bridal.com 
      Find web pages that contain the term "www.ido-bridal.com""

==============

A Google search for "ido-bridal.com" (without the quotation marks),
produced the following results:

     "Sorry, no information is available for the URL
      ido-bridal.com

      If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by
      clicking on the following link: ido-bridal.com 
      Find web pages that contain the term "ido-bridal.com""
   - ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=ido-bridal.com&btnG=Google+Search


Clicking on the first link takes the visitor to your site, here:
   - http://www.ido-bridal.com/store.asp

and clicking on the "web pages that contain the term "ido-bridal.com""
produces 31 links to your site.

==================

A Google search for just the term "ido-bridal" (without the quotation
marks), produces more interesting results - 123 results.

In the first position is the domain www.idobridal.com (without the
hyphen in your URL).
On the second page is a URL for www.ido-bridal.co.uk
And your site is listed on the fifth page in 42nd position.

==================

Not surprisingly, I found similar results on Yahoo when I search for
just the term "ido-bridal"
   - http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=ido-bridal&sub=Search&xargs=0&fr=fp-top&b=21

==================

Now, to address your concerns about your site, "I was wondering if
there is something wrong with my site or if it has been suspended. Any
information about my site would be
greatly appreciated."

Please remember that Google Answers Researchers are independent
contractors. We are not employees of Google and we do not have any
"inside information" about Google's closely-guarded algorithms.

The information I am supplying is based on experience with search
engine optimization, knowledge gained from researching similar
questions and information available on the Internet. I'll address your
concerns and perhaps this will help you understand how to improve
placement of your site under the search terms you want.


==================
Domain Name & URLs
==================

As you can see, search engines often make no distinction in a domain
name with a hyphen, unless you use the full URL (www.ido-bridal.com).
In addition, when you do a search for your "wedding accessories",
often those domain names that actually contain the word 'wedding'
(yours uses 'bridal') come up first.

Consistency counts, too. Even on your own site, you refer to yourself
as "I Do Bridal" (without the hyphen), although your domain name is
hyphenated. To increase awareness of your name, AND your domain name,
I would suggest using the hyphen in your actual business name (to
distinguish yourself from the domain which sells wedding gowns -
idobridal.com).

Examples of your use of "I Do Bridal" when referring to your own
business on your own site are "Copyright © 2003 I Do Bridal Wedding
Accessories Store" and your contact page. Make that distinction, too,
with the links TO your page - such as Stellar Glass and others.

Use your full URL ... http://www.ido-bridal.com or
http://ido-bridal.com or even www.ido-bridal.com as well, to help make
the distinction.


To summarize, the reason you want to use the hyphen is to make the
distinction and get those who need to know used to that hyphen.


===================
Google's Page Rank
===================

Google explains the importance of PageRank in its PageRank Information
here:
   - ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html

and its "Our Search: Google Technology".

" PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by
using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's
value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a
vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer
volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page
that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves
"important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages
"important."

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google
remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages
mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google
combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find
pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes
far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines
all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages
linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query." (See
"Page Rank Explained").

IDo-Bridal.com has a PageRank of 0/10 (you can download Google's
toolbar to check your own PageRank at http://toolbar.google.com ...

You can increase your own PageRank by increase the links TO your site
from relevant sites with a good PageRank themselves. Be careful of
linking farms or linking schemes, though, because Google will penalize
for participating in schemes to artificially inflate your PageRank.

A good point of reference is Google's Webmaster Information, starting
here:
   - ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html

and paying close attention to Google's Guidelines here:
   - ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html


=================================
So, What's Wrong With Your Site?
=================================

Renee, there is nothing really "wrong" with your site. As mentioned
above, there can be confusion over the name, so you want to eliminate
even a chance for confusion by using that hyphen to distinguish
yourself apart from the other "idobridal" domains and businesses.

And next, you want to work at establishing links with related
businesses ... for instance, bridal consultants, wedding consultants,
wedding planners, and other creative ways to get your name out there
as you want.


=========================
Other Things You Can Do
=========================

You're already listed in Yahoo, which is currently 'powered' by
Google's search technology, although they have announced that will
change.

Google also recommends you register with the Open Source Directory
(dmoz.org), and you can dig deep to find the correct category and list
your site with them. A good place to start would be:
   Shopping: Weddings: Accessories ... or a category you feel is more
appropriate.
   - http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=wedding+accessories


Pay attention to what is considered important. Google and other search
engines have a vested interest in delivering relevant information for
search terms. The search engines are always "tweaking" and finessing
their algorithms in order to deliver the best search results they can.
You want to try to stay current on what you can do to make sure your
site is included.

Some good sources for Search Engine optimization are Danny Sullivan's
Search Engine Watch [ http://searchenginewatch.com ] and Webmaster
World [ http://webmasterworld.com ] and periodic visits to either will
help you understand what you can do to keep your own site visible to
searchers.


Search Terms
===============

The searches performed above and personal bookmarks and other
reference material used during the course of research and day-to-day
business.


Good luck to you, Renee,
Serenata

As mentioned in the above answer, Google penalizes sites that use link
exchange schemes. The most likely reason your site has a PR0 is
because you run such a scheme:
http://www.ido-bridal.com/page.asp?id=7

Hello,

Could  you explain more about "The most likely reason your site has a PR0 is
because you run such a scheme:" What do you mean by a PRO?

Thanks,
Renee'

PR is PageRank, a rating Google gives to web pages to describe their
popularity. The scale is from 1 to 10, and can be seen by using the
Google ToolBar. Two other possibilities, outside of the 1-10 scale,
are an all grey bar, which indicates that page is yet to receive a
ranking, and an all white bar, which indicates a PageRank of zero, or
PR0.

PR0 means that after all other criteria have been considered, the page
will rank lowest. A page can be given PR0 for many reasons, and is
considered by webmasters to be an indicator of the page being
penalized for breaking Google guidelines. Often it is a simple case of
duplicate content, where the most prominent version of the page is
left alone, but copies of the same content are given PR0 to stop the
same content flooding the results pages.

My Google ToolBar shows your home page as PR0. Serenata-ga indicates
that she sees the same PageRank. While the ToolBar is not 100%
reliable when it comes to showing PR, the combination of what we have
seen and the fact your site runs a link exchange, suggests to me that
your site has been penalized for the use of a link exchange.

Hello, 

Thanks for the helpful information. What would you suggest I do to fix
this problem? I’m not a programmer or web designer, so any information
would be greatly appreciated. From what you have said I should remove
my add a link page. What would you suggest about adding links to the
web site since link popularity is very important.  I have been very
careful about picking my links and make sure that they are not part of
a link farms. Thanks for all your Help.

Sincerely,
Renee’

Hello again,

My web site is about 3 months old. Does this have something to do with
the page ranking. Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Renee'

Hello Renee'

I wouldn't worry too much about the links from your site being
perceived as a link farm ... You have placed relative content adjacent
to the links, which adds to the value of those links, and makes them
appear less like a link farm or just a straight page of links. As a
matter of fact, I had the opportunity to talk with a couple of the
foremost search engine experts in a panel this week, and your links
are the proper way to list links, that is, a link adjacent to relavent
content.

The fact that your website is relatively new may affect placement. And
a check of the links to your site show about 20. PageRank was
explained above in my Answer, and at present, there is a noted problem
with some sites and PageRank on the Toolbar. It is anticipated this
will straighten itself out in a short amount of time (which could take
a few weeks).

If you want to read discussions about the anomaly, please check
Webmaster World: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/

Hope this helps,
Serenata