Hi Stopdan ~
Please remember that the Google Answers Researchers are independent
contractors, and not employees of Google. We do not have any "insider"
information about Google's closely-guarded search algorithms, and the
answers we give are based on information available on the Internet and
other resources and our personal experience and knowledge.
To answer your question: the first and most obvious clue you provide
about your difficult in getting listed in Google's index is the "26
URLs pointing to one site".
Pointing 26 URLs to one site, and then masking them, will pretty much
keep you from getting listed on Google. Consider what Google says
about that in its "Quality Guidelines - Specific Recommendations":
"* Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
* Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.
* Don't send automated queries to Google.
* Don't load pages with irrelevant words.
* Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains
with substantially duplicate content.
* Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines,
or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate
programs with little or no original content."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Google offers some reasons your site may not be indexed in it's
Webmaster Information:
"Your page was manually removed from our index, because
it did not conform with the quality standards necessary
to assign accurate PageRank. We will not comment on the
individual reasons a page was removed and we do not offer
an exhaustive list of practices that can cause removal.
However, certain actions such as cloaking, writing text
that can be seen by search engines but not by users, or
setting up pages/links with the sole purpose of fooling
search engines may result in permanent removal from our
index ..."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html#B3
If you think your site may fall into this category, Google suggests
you might try 'cleaning up' the page and sending a re-inclusion
request to help@google.com, although they "do not make any guarantees
about if or when we will re-include your site."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html#B3
========================
What You Can Do
To Get Listed (Or
Re-Listed) In Google
========================
You didn't say how your URLs were redirected, but if you aren't using
a 301 redirect (ie., "pointing" or "parking" the domain to point to
the "one site" you refer to on the server level), you should do so.
If you have 26 individual pages using a cloaked or masked redirect,
this is considered a doorway page. Those pages should contain content
of their own that incorporates the search words or terms under which
you wish to be found.
The page you are presently directing those URLs to should likewise
contain rich content using the search terms you want to be found
under.
========================
Google's Suggestions
& Recommendations
========================
Google offers other suggestions and recommendations on what you can do
to increase your chances to be included in its search engine index in
its "Design and Content Guidelines", "Technical Guidelines", and
"Quality Guidelines - Basic principles", which can be found here:
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
The more of those suggestions and recommendations your site meets, the
more relevant it becomes and your chances of being included increase.
Since Google's responsibilities are to deliver *** RELEVANT ***
results to the searcher, the more you include in your page, the higher
the likelihood of being included.
========================
Google's PageRank
& Links to Your Page
========================
Google explains its search engine and the importance of linking and
PageRank in "Our Search: Google Technology", which you can find here:
- ://www.google.com/technology/index.html
In PageRank Explained, you can see the importance of links from sites
with relevant content:
"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 ... 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."
- ://www.google.com/technology/index.html
PageRank and the importance of linking is also explained in
"Submitting Your Site":
"The best way to ensure Google finds your site is for
your page to be linked from lots of pages on other
sites. Google's robots jump from page to page on the
Web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to you,
the more likely it is that we'll find you quickly."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
=====================
Summary
=====================
Fix any doorway pages to the "one site" so they are not perceived as
doorway pages and that you are not penalized for it.
Make sure the site you want indexed has sufficient content, rich in
the words and phrases under which you want to be found by searchers to
Google.
Establish links to and front relevant sites, and beware of
participating in link farms or linking schemes - that will get you
penalized as well.
Don't use unauthorized software, such as WebPosition Gold, to submit
your pages or check your rankings, that too can get you penalized.
If you haven't submitted your site to the Open Directory Project and
Yahoo!, Google suggests:
"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."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html#B2
If you feel you may have been penalized for doorway pages or other
problems Google may penalize you for, you can write to help@google.com
and ask for re-inclusion.
If you haven't submitted your site to Google, you can use the Add URL
submission form, although there is no guarantee if or when you will be
included. The form is located here:
- ://www.google.com/addurl.html
=====================
Search Terms
=====================
On Google
- Doorway pages
On Webmaster World (http://www.webmasterworld.com)
- Doorway pages
I also relied on Google's Information pages and bookmarks, as well as
personal experience and familiarity with search engine optimization.
Best of luck,
Serenata |
Clarification of Answer by
serenata-ga
on
31 Aug 2003 11:50 PDT
Aha ...
Now we have a whole new set of issues, which are totally different and
beyond the scope of your first question.
The good news is your site IS listed in Google (try a search on
www.realestatestop.com) and your site does show up!
This first page (before the default2.asp) is a doorway page. Not only
that, there is nothing really there to be indexed at all. There is
little text, and most of that is in the form of a graphic, with no ALT
text. There is very little actual "text content" to be indexed or
returned by Google's search engine (or any other, for that matter).
It looks pretty to your visitor, but here is basically what a search
engine would see "Recreational, Commercial, Residential Sales &
Appraisals Online Mortgage Application Real Estate Stop"
There is some javascript, which some search engines may be able to
crawl and index, but in this case, it's more for the weather and some
graphic application than it is for content or information. You don't
need that first page at all, and should make default2.asp your
'landing page' for the site. Add more text content using the words and
terms you want to be found under, and you'd have a better start.
About those search terms -
===========================
I noticed, too, in your choice of metatags that your first choice is
"real estate", which is an extremely broad topic with over 8 million
pages in its index. Obviously, the competition is pretty fierce, so
you want to concentrate on content which contains text rich in the
words or terms you *do* want to be found under.
Review the Content Guidelines relative to Title Tags and Alt Tags,
especially alt tags, none of your graphics use alt tags, so the
graphics, even if they are links, don't mean anything to a search
engine. Search engine bots cannot read graphics.
The content guidelines are here:
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Links ... you really do need to cultivate links from relevant sites to
your own site. There are only 4 - 6 external links - and actually only
two outside sources. The importance of links is discussed in my
original answer.
As your pointers to your domain, from your description, that is on the
server level and there are no actual 'sites' for those other domains.
Pointers such as those are quite all right, so long as you're not
trying to list those domains with a search engine. A lot of people
have 'parked' domains they own but have not developed and have them
pointing to an existing website.
If you want an in-depth site evaluation, you might review Google
Answers' pricing guidelines and then submit a question. If you'd like
me to help, you can ask for me in the subject line or within the
content of the question.
I hope this helps now !
Serenata
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