Our pages are totally Flash MX, but having been told that google
search engines do not like Flash we produced an entry page which is
still ignored.

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Request for Question Clarification by robertskelton-ga on 30 Mar 2004 12:00 PST

I think I can help, just let me know:

a) By ignored do you mean not ranking well, or not seeing your site at all?
b) How long ago did you submit the non-Flash page to Google?
c) Are there any other sites linking to this new page?

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Clarification of Question by gpwb-ga on 30 Mar 2004 15:00 PST

Not see the site at all. In fact if I search total url it still does not find it.

Non Flash page one month.

No reciprocals.

Hi there,

First of all, the page has been indexed by Google. This can be
discovered by searching for phrases that are likely to only appear on
your page:

"macromedia actionscript based GrahameSoftware may be"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22macromedia+actionscript+based+GrahameSoftware+may+be%22

"existing approach to business directories was dull and tedious"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22existing+approach+to+business+directories+was+dull+and+tedious%22

Two things stand out in the above search results - Google last indexed
the page on Mar 29 2004, and the URL is www.web-directories.com

When I use Google Toolbar to look at the page, I can see that
web-directories.com does not have a PageRank allocated, and
www.web-directories.com has a PageRank of zero. A PageRank of zero is
common for a new site.


This is what is happening
-------------------------
Google has visited and indexed your new page. Until the next major
Google update, Google won't have enough information about the page to
do much more than put it in search results, at or near the bottom.
After the next update, it would be normal for Google to:

1) Assign a PageRank based on the other pages that link to yours
2) Work out that www.web-directories.com and web-directories.com are
the same page, and treat them as such - technically they are different
pages.

The best way of looking at it is that it usually takes Google a month
or two to index and rank a page properly. You have a bonus - you are
already in the index, but it probably won't equate to many extra
visitors.


How to rank well
----------------
You need links pointing to your site. Google sees links as votes for
the usefulness and importance of a site, and without them you are
unlikely to get many visitors via Google search results.

A good start is getting a free listing at Open Directory (
http://dmoz.org ). You should also consider paying to be listed in:

Yahoo Directory ($299 per year)
http://dir.yahoo.com/

Business.com
http://www.business.com/

Each directory probably has many categories suitable for your site, so
it is worthwhile spending time finding the most appropriate one.


Other factors to think about
----------------------------
Web Directories is a very generic phrase. People searching for your
business by name might have difficulty finding you. Just do a Google
search to see how many other sites might also be adequate results for
the words "web directories"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=web+directories

The same goes for the content of your homepage - getting on the first
page of results for any of the words on that page will be very
difficult, because they are too commonplace and ambiguous. I recommend
spending a lot of time trying to figure out a more precise and less
common description for your product, something that people will search
for, something unambiguous.

More non-Flash content means more combinations of words, and more
chances of appearing in search results. Adding more content that
Google can read would be helpful.



Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

A refreshingly professional answer. Its great to learn something new
from one who really knows. Thanks