MarketPosition™ Monthly
"...Because Submitting is Not Enough."
Build Your Own Link Checking
Service with Link Defender
To
learn about WebPosition, Link Defender's side-kick, Click Here.
Studies show that
over 5% of links on the Web today are broken. That means if
you have a web site with 200 links, 10 of them are most likely broken.
Page
names change and typographical errors are all too common. Even the best
Webmasters are unable to predict when their links to third party sites
will
change or fail. The sad fact is that few links on the Web remain valid
forever.
Some HTML editing
tools include a simple link-checking feature. Unfortunately,
most of these tools have significant shortcomings. Many only check the
links on
one page at a time after you've opened it in your editor. If you have
dozens or
even hundreds of pages to deal with, link checking becomes tedious.
Even worse, some
links will appear to be valid when checked locally, but when
uploaded to a Web site, they become broken. References to local files
or
uploading to the wrong location can cause links to become broken. A case
sensitive Web server can also cause unexpected problems after uploading.
Think about how often
you've left a site after encountering a "page not found"
error. You immediately think that this is an unreliable place to do business.
Most people will leave a site after encountering just one or two broken
links. Not
only that, but search engine spiders are also unable to find all your
Web pages if
the links to them are broken.
We looked around at
various link-checking solutions this past year, but were
turned off by the high fees charged by the better services. Most services
charged
a fee for every link checked each time you scheduled a scan. Monitoring
our
entire site daily for broken links would cost several hundred dollars
or more per
year at these services.
Realizing these problems,
FirstPlace Software leveraged the fast, multi-threaded
technology from WebPosition to develop a new tool called Link Defender.
After
running the tool for the first time, we were surprised to find more than
two-dozen
broken links scattered throughout our site! Now we run Link Defender every
night
on the scheduler. A report is automatically e-mailed to our Webmaster
anytime
a broken link is found, guaranteeing that our visitors will never suffer
from dozens
of broken links again. After all, every time a visitor runs into a "page
not found"
error, we're risking the loss of another sale.
So, last month we
announced the official release of Link Defender to the public.
If you've not already tried it, visit out site to download the free
trial.
To read the article
in its entirety, click
here...... (Back to Top
of Page)
To
learn about WebPosition, Link Defender's side-kick, Click Here.
22 Reasons Why Your Page
Did Not Get Indexed
If there's one question
in search engine marketing that comes up far too often it
is: "Why hasn't my page or Web site been indexed yet?" Or, almost
as often:
"Why was my page indexed for a while and has now disappeared?"
Since MarketPosition's
first issue in September 1997, I've rarely, if ever,
repeated an article. However, the article addressing this important question
is a
classic. It provides a comprehensive review of the many pitfalls in search
engine
submission. The original article nearly two years ago included 21 reasons
for not
being indexed. This latest revision includes today's top 22 reasons. Even
SEO
veterans will find something of value here.
At one time or another
you may have used a submission tool, or submitted by
hand and then wondered why you had not been indexed. Unfortunately, there
are
many reasons that may delay or prevent you from being indexed by a search
engine. There's rarely one simple answer for why you're not being found.
Fortunately, there is usually an explanation and a way to correct the
problem if
you know what to look for.
Below are the Top
22 reasons we've compiled over the years as to why you may
not be finding your Web site or Web page in one or more search engines:
1. INDEX TIME:
First, make sure you've allowed enough time to become
indexed. The amount of time to allow is sometimes listed on the search
engine's submission page. Unfortunately, the engine's own advertised
times are often inaccurate or out of date.
WebPosition's Submitter
report and WebPosition's URL Verification
report will both tell you how much time you should allow for each engine
before being concerned about not being indexed. Average index times
often range from one to eight weeks depending on the engine. Some
engines like AltaVista and Inktomi offer paid options if you wish to be
indexed more quickly.
2. ALREADY INDEXED:
Be sure you're not already indexed but just don't
know it. Unfortunately, none of the major engines are kind enough to
e-mail or notify you as to if and when you've been indexed.
In addition, you
cannot simply do a search on a keyword that applies to
your Web site and expect it to pop up at the top. In fact, you must take
pro-active steps to optimize your pages for each search engine. If you
don't, it's very unlikely you'll find your Web site except on the most
specific of searches.
The method to determine
if a page or domain has been indexed varies
from one engine to another, and in many cases, it's difficult to tell
for sure
whether your pages are in fact in there. Never assume that you're not
indexed just because you searched for a bunch of keywords and you did
not come up in the first few pages of results. You could be there (i.e.,
indexed) but be buried near the bottom.
In addition, it's
not very practical to check the status of a number of
pages on each major engine each week. Fortunately, WebPosition Gold
has a URL verification feature in the Reporter that makes this process
much easier. Each time you run a mission, it will report which URLs exist
and do not exist in each engine. If you're using WebPosition and are not
finding your URLs after submitting, be sure to see this page for common
pitfalls to watch out for.
3. MISSING PAGE:
Make sure you have uploaded the pages to your site
before submitting them. This one will seem obvious to many people, but
submitting a page that does not exist or submitting with a subtle typo
in
the URL is a goof we might all make at one time or another. If you're
using WebPosition's Submitter, there's a checkbox on tab 2 labeled
"Verify that each page exists on Web site before submitting."
This option
defaults so that WebPosition will verify that all your URLs are valid
and
actually exist before submitting them. This is important since not all
search engines will notify you if the URL does not exist when you submit.
4. ROADMAP FROM
HOME PAGE: Some engines have been known to
drop pages that cannot be traveled to from the home page. HotBot has
been rumored to do this. You may want to consider submitting your home
page that links either directly or indirectly to your doorway pages. Think
of your Web site as a series of roads (i.e., links) from one page to
another. If there's no road from your home page to the page you want
indexed, a search engine may decide the page is unimportant or of
low-quality. You could submit the page directly, but the engine may reject
it or may drop it at a later date when it finds no "road."
5. EXTERNAL LINKS:
Some search engines such as Google and HotBot
have been known to refuse to index Web sites that do not have any other
Web sites linking to them. Or, they may index your home page but refuse
to index any other pages until you achieve at least one or more links
from
another domain. Or, they may index you for a while but then "prune"
their
database later of all Web sites that did not achieve any external links
within a certain period of time. However, do not worry! You simply need
to
establish some links and when that's done, resubmit both your pages and
the pages that link to you. Once you have links to your Web site, it
becomes much easier to get indexed, stay indexed, and to achieve top
rankings.
To check your link
popularity and for tips on how to increase the links to
your Web site see our free service.
6. FRAMES:
If you have content inside HTML frames, this can cause
problems with submissions. For example, the search engine may index
the main content of the page, but not the surrounding menu frame.
Visitors to your site will then find some information but may not see
the
associated menu! It's generally best if you can create non-framed
versions of your pages. You should then submit the non-frames versions
of your pages, which can of course link to your framed Web site.
Alternatively, you can enter your relevant text within the NOFRAMES
area of a framed page that most search engine spiders will read.
However, don't expect to achieve high rankings while optimizing the
NOFRAMES area. Optimizing a NON-framed page will often achieve
better results.
To read the article in
its entirety, click
here...... (Back to Top
of Page)
To
learn about WebPosition, Link Defender's side-kick, Click Here.
Search Engine Positioning
Firm Makes Inc 500
You know search engine
marketing has come of age when an SEO firm hits the
Inc 500 list. Last month iProspect announced 2785 percent growth over
five
years. That placed the firm as the 47th fastest growing company on Inc
Magazine's list, and the 5th fastest growing marketing firm on the list.
Such
growth coincides with predictions by US Bancorp that search engine marketing
will continue to be the hottest segment of online marketing in 2004.
IProspect
Press Release
WebPosition
Gold 2.1 Free Trial.
To learn more about WebPosition, Click Here.
Last Month:
Last month we talked
about several important topics including:
U.S. Bancorp Analyst:
"The search market has become the Holy Grail of
Internet Marketing."
Reader Shares His Secret to Fast Google Indexing
WebPosition Gold 2.1 Released
LookSmart Class Action Settlement: You May Be Entitled to Hundreds of
Free Clicks or Even a Cash Refund
AllTheWeb and AltaVista Merging: What It Means To You
MSN Canceling LookSmart Contract
Programmers: Work from Anywhere at Competitive Rates
If you missed these
or other key discussions, you can find the back issues at:
http://www.marketposition.com
This article is
copyrighted and has been reprinted with permission
from FirstPlace Software, the makers of WebPosition
Gold.
FirstPlace Software helped define the SEO industry with the
introduction of the first product to track your rankings on the major
search engines and to help you improve those rankings. A
free trial of
WebPosition Gold is available from their Web site.
View the "Best
of MarketPosition"
To read the article
in its entirety, click
here...... (Back to Top
of Page)
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