Hi Joebradyiii ~
You're correct, you can find the URL, "www.elizabethbradyjewelry.com",
listed in Google's index; but the site cannot be found by searching
for the term "elizabeth brady" (with or without the quotation marks).
Search engines, and specifically Google, crawl pages and pick up your
text content to spider and deliver to those entering a search query.
While your site is attractive, there is no text content at all - and
subsequently, nothing there to be indexed and delivered by search
engines.
Google offers guidelines to assist webmasters in user-friendly and
crawler-friendly design. In its "Design and Content Guidelines"
recommends the following:
"* Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links.
Every page should be reachable from at least one
static text link.
* Offer a site map to your users with links that point
to the important parts of your site. If the site map
is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break
the site map into separate pages.
* Create a useful, information-rich site and write pages
that clearly and accurately describe your content.
* Think about the words users would type to find your
pages, and make sure that your site actually includes
those words within it.
* Try to use text instead of images to display important
names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't
recognize text contained in images.
* Make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are descriptive
and accurate.
* Check for broken links and correct HTML.
* If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL con-
tains a '?' character), be aware that not every search
engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static
pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the
number of them small."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
In addition, Google recommends the use of Lynx (a text browser) in its
"Technical Guidelines" so you can understand what the search engine
crawlers are 'seeing':
"Use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site,
because most search engine spiders see your site much
as Lynx would. If fancy features such as Javascript,
cookies, session ID's, frames, DHTML, or Flash keep you
from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then
search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
==============================
Site Specifics
==============================
A. The Term "Elizabeth Brady"
-----------------------------
On your landing page, www.elizabethbradyjewelry.com, the term
"Elizabeth Brady" is found exactly three times as follows:
* <title> tag - 1 time
* <keyword> metatag - 1 time
* <description> metatag - 1 time
As a rule, Google and the other search engines ignore metatags,
although the <title> tag and the <description> tags are given some
weight.
Your case is an exception, in that Google did pick up your description
tag to add in its snippet of information, because there is literally
nothing else for it to include in its index.
B. Text Content
---------------
Using the Lynx browser, you will see that there is nothing to see. So
far as search engines are concerned, your page has no content.
C. Alt Tags and Text Links
--------------------------
There are no text links, and what links there are included on your
image map have no ALT tags to describe what those links are.
D. Dynamic Links
----------------
Basically, your page is one large image, which search engines cannot
crawl, and the links are dynamically called using the question mark
("?") - ie., "?catId=1", which makes the rest of the site impossible
to index as well.
============================
So, What *Can* You Do?
============================
You asked, "What can I do to get this site listed to come up under the
search "Elizabeth Brady"?"
Good search engine results placement for the search terms you desire
require the following three elements:
* links TO your site
* rich text content containing those terms
* good html design to ensure
You do not have to sacrifice design or the site's looks to achieve
what you want. The same "look" can be achieved with using HTML with
CSS. You do need to add text content containing those search terms and
text links to direct the search engine crawlers to the other pages
within the site.
To be found under the search term "Elizabeth Brady", you need to have
text on your page actually using that term. The page's title and
description tags are not enough to get listed for those terms.
You also need to understand the importance of good links TO and from
your site to help with search engine rankings.
==========================================
Important Google Links For Your Reference
==========================================
I am including important links from Google's site. This information
will help you understand Google's goals and responsibility to the web
searcher (and not the webmaster or site owner).
Webmasters who follow the guidelines and avoid Google's "Thou shalt
nots" usually have no problem getting listed and showing up under the
search terms they desire.
* Google Today (absolutely the best information you
can read about the "how and why" of Google's results
- ://www.google.com/corporate/today.html
* How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google?
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
* My Web Pages Are Not Currently Listed (a good 'primer'
on how and why Google works so well)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html
* PageRank Information (covers both Google's PageRank and
SERPS)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
* Webmaster Guidelines (contains both the dos and don'ts)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
* Google Facts & Fiction (can you buy your way to a
high ranking in Google?)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
* Search Engine Optimizers (some good advice on what to look
for if you're going to hire a Search Engine Optimizer)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
* Frequently Asked Questions (pretty much what it says, but
definitely worth wading through)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html
================================
Other Sources of Information
================================
Webmaster World's Brett Tabke has written "Successful Site in 12
Months with Google Alone - 26 steps to 15k a day." in which he
explains in detail the importance of the topics covered above. You can
read it yourself here:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm
There is also good information from many of the top search engine
optimization experts, such as
* Detlev Johnson, Search Engine Guide
- http://www.searchengineguide.com/detlev/
* Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch
- http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
* Jill Whalen, High Rankings
- http://www.highrankings.com/
* Shari Thurow, Web Pro News (and quoted all over the Internet)
- www.webpronews.com/
who all have columns or newsletters to which you can subscribe and
keep abreast of the best way to use good content for better
positioning in search engine results.
In addition, Webmaster World - http://www.webmasterworld.com/ - has
discussion boards on most of the search engines. While some of the
discussions are anecdotal and/or questions for information, there is
usually enough discussion to keep abreast of what seems to be
happening.
There is an entire section devoted to Google at:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/
It never hurts to keep track of the discussions; but remember, trying
to optimize for search engines only is like trying to hit a moving
target. You'll notice among the more experienced contributors to the
discussions - plus the SEO experts listed above - that there really is
no substitute for content, relevant links and good HTML.
Search strategies -
===================
Using Google search, I checked the listings for your website,
"www.elizabethbradyjewelry.com", including links TO and pages
containing the terms. In addition, I relied on bookmarked resources
from reliable sources which are used regularly in the course of my
business.
================
Summary
================
You can achieve your stated goal, that is, being found under the
search term "Elizabeth Brady" with some redesign and reworking of your
site to include text content and those other elements to actually give
search engine crawlers something to index and return for that search
query.
Best regards,
Serenata
Google Answers Researcher |
