Recognized Expert
Go Back   Recognized Expert > Marketing Discussion Forums > Site Analysis and Tracking

Register Tags Groups FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read
  #1  
Old 07-19-2008, 02:51 AM
IslandPhotography's Avatar
New Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Lahaina, HI.
Posts: 7
iTrader: (0)
Question Am I on Google?

How can I tell if I'm on Google?
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 07-19-2008, 03:00 AM
Josh Sommers's Avatar
Techie
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Posts: 205
Blog Entries: 20
iTrader: (0)
Send a message via Skype™ to Josh Sommers
Default Re: Am I on Google?

There are a couple of ways to tell...

The quick and dirty way:
Search for site:yourwebsite.com on Google

If you see your website in the results you can rest assured that your site is included in Googles index.
The "Official" way:
http://www.recognizedexpert.com/expe...gger-blog-104/ (This will show you how to add Google webmaster tools on blogger, but it is pretty much the same for any website. You may need help with this.)

Google Webmaster Tools will show you, directly from google, what has been indexed and what knows about your website.
__________________
Blog | Stumble | LinkedIn
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 07-19-2008, 03:03 AM
IslandPhotography's Avatar
New Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Lahaina, HI.
Posts: 7
iTrader: (0)
Default Re: Am I on Google?

That was easy! Thank you.

How can I tell how many of my web pages Google can see?
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 07-19-2008, 03:08 AM
Josh Sommers's Avatar
Techie
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Posts: 205
Blog Entries: 20
iTrader: (0)
Send a message via Skype™ to Josh Sommers
Default Re: Am I on Google?

Take for example when you search for site:cnn.com (This will show you how many pages from "CNN.COM" are indexed.)

In the top right of the Google search results page you should see something like:
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,530,000 from cnn.com. (0.14 seconds)

This means that Google can see about 3,530,000 pages from cnn.com (I wish I had a site that was that big!)
__________________
Blog | Stumble | LinkedIn
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 10-21-2008, 04:56 PM
New Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 6
iTrader: (0)
Default Re: Am I on Google?

Is it important to add my website's sitemap through Google's webmaster tools? I've been toying with the idea, but after looking into what it takes to manually do it, I want to make sure its worth the time to learn how to write out the code before I start.

Also, when I search my website's name on Google it shows an old title for the site - will this fix itself or do I have to do something?

Last edited by Jasen.Hartford; 10-21-2008 at 04:59 PM.
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 10-21-2008, 10:29 PM
Josh Sommers's Avatar
Techie
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Posts: 205
Blog Entries: 20
iTrader: (0)
Send a message via Skype™ to Josh Sommers
Default Re: Am I on Google?

Sitemaps
There are two types of site maps. XML (the nearly unreadable ones) and HTML (The kind that are friendly for human users.)

XML (Google) Sitemaps
If you can have XML sitemaps generated and re-submitted automatically I would say go for it, and be sure to hook it up to Google Webmaster Tools as well as in your robots.txt file (see below)

Quote:
Originally Posted by robots.txt entry
User Friendly Sitemaps
If you cannot have an XML site map generated automatically (most static sites, Weebly, Blogger, etc.) I would recommend having a human friendly site map. More or less a page that links to every other page of your website in an organized manner. (personally I would only do this if I had fewer that 80 pages on my site)

Google Webmaster Tools
Even if you do not go the XML sitemap route, I would still recommend signing up and authenticating your site for http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

You will get a lot of great information as well as the ability to opt in to a few "Google only" features. (Enhanced image search, faulty page warnings, crawl rate increase, crawl error checking, etc.)

Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page) Update
Hold tight, if you changed your page <title> Google will eventually update it in it's results. It can sometimes take a while for new sites, but continue to link build, add content and market it as this will only help the process take place faster.

Great looking site by the way! I'm about to review it too.
__________________
Blog | Stumble | LinkedIn
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 10-22-2008, 12:30 PM
New Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 6
iTrader: (0)
Default Re: Am I on Google?

I tried to click on the link on robots.txt was unable to pull up the post.

Thank you for your help Josh, you have been an incredibly valuable resource!
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 10-22-2008, 12:42 PM
New Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 6
iTrader: (0)
Default Re: Am I on Google?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh Sommers View Post


User Friendly Sitemaps
If you cannot have an XML site map generated automatically (most static sites, Weebly, Blogger, etc.) I would recommend having a human friendly site map. More or less a page that links to every other page of your website in an organized manner. (personally I would only do this if I had fewer that 80 pages on my site)
I want to make sure I understand what you are talking about. I should make a single page that links to every page on my website (there's around 20pgs) and then publish this page? Should this linking page be visible or invisible to users (keep in mind I'm using Weebly to construct the site)?
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 10-22-2008, 10:50 PM
Josh Sommers's Avatar
Techie
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Posts: 205
Blog Entries: 20
iTrader: (0)
Send a message via Skype™ to Josh Sommers
Default Re: Am I on Google?

Here is a great example of a User Friendly Sitemap: Apple - Site Map

The reason you want this page is because when Google finds it, it will ensure Google will be able to find a link to every page of your site. A page that isn't indexed by the search engines will never get organic search traffic.

You may want to add it in your main navigation to ensure that Google will find it, and for your users it will be a quick way to get to deeper pages within your site.

Ignore the link in the sitemap. It was just an example of the content that would be found in the Robots.txt file. Here's a working example. http://www.recognizedexpert.com/robots.txt
__________________
Blog | Stumble | LinkedIn
Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!Stumble!
Reply With Quote

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
SEO by vBSEO 3.2.0 ©2008, Crawlability, Inc.

Copyright Sommers Communication 2008
808.891.0449
821 Kumulani Dr. Kihei, HI. 96753