Hi Nikkimoving ~
The good news is, your site IS listed in Google's index.
Try a search on your domain, www.gentlemoving.net, and you will get
the following results,
"www.gentlemoving.net/
Google can show you the following information for
this URL:
* Find web pages that are similar to
www.gentlemoving.net
* Find web pages that link to
www.gentlemoving.net
* Find web pages that contain the term
"www.gentlemoving.net""
[Link to search results here]
- ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=www.gentlemoving.net&btnG=Google+Search
=====================
Links to Your Site
=====================
You will notice that there are no incoming links to your site
(clicking on "* Find web pages that link to ..." or on "Find web pages
that contain the term ...")
It helps to understand the importance of incoming links, which is
explained in Google's "How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google? No. A2,"
"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#A2
And it further explains its technology in "Our Search: Google Technology":
"The heart of our software is PageRank?, a system for
ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page
and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. And while we
have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect
of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to provide
the basis for all of our web search tools."
and its PageRank in "PageRank Explained"
"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."
- ://www.google.com/technology/index.html
Without RELEVANT links to your site, there is little chance of ranking
well in the search engine results pages (SERPs), because so many other
sites do have important pages linked to them.
=====================
Search Engine Spam
=====================
Another reason you site isn't ranking well is the fact that the
following text contained on your site is considered "spam", that is,
meaningly expressions which have no meaning within the site's content
... voila! they're words intended to increase your SERPs ranking - or
spam.
Here's the expressions:
1. immediately at the top and making no sense at all, nor adding any
real contextual relevancy to your page,
"New York Moving Company, moving company and storage!
New york moving company ny movers nj moving and
storage. Moving company, movers, ny moving company,
brooklyn moving company, queens movers, moving company"
2. After the paragraph with the last sentence reading "Let us assist
with your next move", and above the page counter, the following text,
"new york city moving company movers new york moving
new jersey movers movers provide moving for residential
commercial corporate moves with storage and packing
gentle moving company new york city new york
gentle moving new york commercial moves
gentle moving new york city storage
gentle new york city residential moving
gentle york moving packing services
gentle movers international residential commercial
corporate moving
gentle moving long island new york storage
manhattan moving manhattan new york storage nyc
queens moving queens new york storage
brooklyn moving brooklyn new york storage
westchester county moving westchester county new
york storage"
Whatever your "intent" may be with that text, the only conclusion that
anyone can possibly reach is that it is spam, or an attempt to game
the system. Search engines have banned sites completely for those
practices.
==========================
HTML - Back to Basics
==========================
Shari Thurow, one of the leading authorities in web design and search
engine optimization (and author of the book "Search Engine
Visibility"), recently made the following observation with regard to
HTML:
"Clean HTML is absolutely imperative for search engine
indexing. Browsers are extremely forgiving when it comes
to displaying pages with "unclean" HTML (unclosed tags,
no quotation marks, etc.). Search engine spiders are
not so forgiving. Even something as simple as a missing
quotation mark on the <.a href="page.html"> can cause a
spider to not index text or a link." (See: Link Exchange
Digest, July 3, 2003, "Clean HTML")
- http://list.audettemedia.com/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0307&L=led&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&F=&S=&P=282
She explained how errors in HTML can affect your ability to be
indexed, and ultimately, ranked.
1. DOCTYPE Declaration
----------------------
DOCTYPES are essential to the proper rendering and functioning of web
documents in compliant browsers. It is also essential for the search
engines to understand and follow the coding contained on your pages.
DOCTYPE is explained and discussed further in "A List Apart",
- http://www.alistapart.com/stories/doctype/
and in Web Design Group's article, "Choosing a DOCtype",
- http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html
You do not have a DOCTYPE Declaration and you should add one to every
page on your site.
2. Title and Alt Tags
----------------------
Put those title and alt tags to work for you! Use key word rich words
in both. Instead of repeating "Tracy B. Ostrov - Personal Coaching,
Business Coaching" in every page's title, use a dozen or so
descriptive words (terms you would like to be found under) first in
your page titles.
You have no alt tags on the graphics at all - and that includes the
graphics you are using for site navigation. It is no surprise, then,
that the ONLY page Google has in its index is your 'home' page.
Your navigation, without any alt tags to put a name to those graphics,
are buried within Javascript to make pretty rollover buttons. This may
look nice in your browser, but have you taken a look at what it looks
like if you turn Javascript off?
And what about those who browse with graphics turned off completely?
What are they NOT seeing that they should be seeing?
Google recommends using a text only browser, which will give you a
very sobering look at your site (and what it looks like, to some
degree, to search engine crawlers):
"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, ...
keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser,
then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling
your site." [From Google's Technical Guidelines]
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Adding descriptives to the alt tags will give the crawlers something
to 'index', since they cannot read graphics - it also makes your site
more 'user-friendly' and will help with accessibility issues.
3. Dump the Cursor Trailer
----------------------------
This is not only annoying, it just screams "amateur", which doesn't do
a thing to build your credibility as a reliable mover. Why should any
visitor/viewer of your site entrust his household contents to you for
moving if you can't get your website right?
4. Get an HTML editor
-----------------------
If you're serious about your business and looking professional, it
might behoove you to hire a web designer who understands the basics of
HTML and what constitutes user-friendly web design.
Your first page has something seriously wrong with it. I'm not sure
what it is, but if you take a look at
http://209.151.82.77/screenshot/gentlemovers.jpg , you'll get an idea
of what your visitors are seeing. (Note: this will only stay up for
three days, then it will be removed).
Where are links to inside pages? The only "link" is the "link" button
way out there at the right. This leads to one link and the 'spam
within the graphic.
Where is the confidence-building information a viewer expects to see,
such as "About Us", so they can know who is behind the website? The
privacy policy? and the other information a visitor expects to see?
Without it, it doesn't provide what you need to turn visitors into
customers.
People are leery of sites that don't work to build credibility, and
there is none here.
===============================
What about www.moveeast.com?
===============================
The move east site doesn't have a doctype declaration, either. On the
other hand, they have well written HTML that would be hard to
interpret any other way in with any DOCtype.
They have "about 52" links TO their site and "about 1,650" other sites
that "contain the term www.moveeast.com".
The make good use of their ALT and TITLE tags on every page; they also
have information about pricing, payment, insurance, referrals, which
help build their credibility. They have an About Us page which helps,
too.
==========================================
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
* Remove Content from Google's Index (just in case you feel
a burning need to start all over again)
- ://www.google.com/remove.html
================================
Other Sources of Information
================================
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 terms
==============
Except for those searches specifically mentioned above, I have relied
on resources and information I have bookmarked and refer to on a daily
basis.
Add relevant links to your site, clean up the HTML to make it user and
search engine friendly and you should be able to notice traffic
referrals from Google and the other search engines.
Best of luck,
Serenata
Google Answers Researcher |
