I am webmaster for <http://www.voxpax.org> which uses a jpg image for
its index.html, which has click-on hotspots directing website visitors
to various information pages all having to do with "peace", the
"voices of peace", "peacemakers" and "pacifism". Internally the site
has links to the United Nations, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, etc. >>>
Why no Google Listing ???

Good Day jaybeelee-ga,


After doing a Google search for "www.voxpax.org", I found that your
home page is listed in Google. Other pages are still not indexed.

To improve the chances of having the secondary pages listed in Google,
here are a few recommendations:

- The alternative tag should be present in all of your area tags. ie:
  <area shape="rect" coords="6,9,8,4" href="aboutvoxpax.html" alt="About VoxPax">
  vs. just
  <area shape="rect" coords="6,9,8,4" href="aboutvoxpax.html">

  More information and details on the area tag can be found at
  Website: The Area Tag
  URL: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_area.asp

- Although Google does follow image maps, I would still recommend using regular
  text links as an alternative to the image map. In a small font, add all the
  links in text format to the bottom of all the pages that contain image maps as  
  primary navigation. I recommend this because Google gives a lot of weight to
  text contained in a link anchor and you might find that the additional pages 
  get index a lot sooner using this method.

- You mention that you have a lot of great outgoing links in the secondary 
  pages, links to places such as United Nations and Martin Luther King. The
  external pages you link to will not give you additional or better listings
  with Google. What will give you better listings is those great pages linking
  to you. Get as many backlinks as you can and your Google listings will begin 
  to rise to the top of the search results.

- Last but not least, it might be weeks between the indexing of individual  
  pages. When the GoogleBot comes around, it tries to follow as many links as
  possible. Sometimes the GoogleBot might get distracted, and go off in another
  direction. Other times the pages might get crawled, but will take a while
  before they are actually added to the main search database.

  There are times when Google will crawl a page, and review it before adding
  it to the main index. Upon reviewing it, it might find the page not suitable
  for the index, and dispose of it. Possible reasons include content too similar
  to other pages already in the index, or maybe not enough indexable content
  (from the code I've seen on your pages, there is little worry about content
  that is not indexable - your home page will benefit from more indexable
  material, but the secondary pages are great).


Because waiting for a listings change in Google can take such a long
time, gauging progress can be difficult. You might wish to "see into
the future", and visit Google's many data centres to see what the
listings might look like with the next update.

Website: Google Tool
URL: http://www.void.be/googletool.html

At the above site you will see a text box where you enter the search
query. Below you can select which data centre you wish to search
(www-ab, www-ex, etc). Each data centre is a potential new index for
the main Google.com site. You may access those centres manually by
going to www-ab.google.com, www-ex.google.com, etc.

Beyond what I have discussed here, I don't see anything wrong with
your site that would keep you from getting listed. Overall your site
is on the friendlier side of the scale when it comes to interacting
with Search Engines.

Should you require a clarification of anything I described here,
please use the Ask for Clarification feature before rating my answer.

The above information is based on knowledge acquired over the years
from reading many Search Engine Optimisation forums and articles, as
well experience gained in promoting my own and my clients websites.

Searching for "image maps"+"google"+"friendliness" will result in
quite a few good listings on image maps and Search Engine
friendliness. Please note that some of these articles will claim that
Google cannot read Image maps. Proof of this not being the case lies
at:

Website: Google Tests - finding stuff out about Google
URL: http://www.hotshotsdesigns.co.uk/google_tests/

An additional Google search for "image maps"+"google" will display
even more information on the subject and might be of interest to you.

In closing, please keep in mind that us Google Researchers are not in
any way involved in the back-end works of the Google Search Engine. We
are independent contractors chosen by Google for the sole purpose of
researching answers to client questions. We have no power to manually
modify or influence the search results provided by the Google Search
engine.

Best of luck with your venture and more in depth Google listings!


Regards,
slawek-ga

Though I don't yet know how the google crawlers see and record web
pages - slawek-ga's answers to my questions were most helpful. Thanks