Hi all: I hope everyone is enjoying the conference in Coventry. I am unfortunately too ill to get there so hope that there will be a full report forthcoming. I am running a web hosting and design company at school as a way to get decent experience (and Linux brain-washing) to my 6th form. It is all going quite well and we now have several clients. I am using Mambo as it is easy to use and makes for good screen shots in the portfolios. However, one of my customers has complained that their site does not appear on any search engines. I have tried several options relating to the meta tags (which I have been told are somewhat deprecated), but still no sign of the sites. My main site comes up pretty high on Google so it is a bit of an oddity. Any suggestions? Paul -- De omnibus dubitandum
Paul Taylor wrote:
Hi all:
I hope everyone is enjoying the conference in Coventry. I am unfortunately too ill to get there so hope that there will be a full report forthcoming. I am running a web hosting and design company at school as a way to get decent experience (and Linux brain-washing) to my 6th form. It is all going quite well and we now have several clients. I am using Mambo as it is easy to use and makes for good screen shots in the portfolios. However, one of my customers has complained that their site does not appear on any search engines. I have tried several options relating to the meta tags (which I have been told are somewhat deprecated), but still no sign of the sites. My main site comes up pretty high on Google so it is a bit of an oddity. Any suggestions?
Google ranks based on page links and the importances of the linking page. Short of link-spamming wikis and blogs, the only way to rise up the Google rankings is to host interesting and highly rated content. Of course, if the company is commercial, they might want to pay for a Google ad, which would link certain search terms to their site. Tony
On Thursday 24 February 2005 17:49, Tony Whitmore wrote: Might be an obvious statement but......Ensure you are running Mambo search engine friendly also. By default it is not Andy
Paul Taylor wrote:
Hi all:
I hope everyone is enjoying the conference in Coventry. I am unfortunately too ill to get there so hope that there will be a full report forthcoming. I am running a web hosting and design company at school as a way to get decent experience (and Linux brain-washing) to my 6th form. It is all going quite well and we now have several clients. I am using Mambo as it is easy to use and makes for good screen shots in the portfolios. However, one of my customers has complained that their site does not appear on any search engines. I have tried several options relating to the meta tags (which I have been told are somewhat deprecated), but still no sign of the sites. My main site comes up pretty high on Google so it is a bit of an oddity. Any suggestions?
Google ranks based on page links and the importances of the linking page. Short of link-spamming wikis and blogs, the only way to rise up the Google rankings is to host interesting and highly rated content. Of course, if the company is commercial, they might want to pay for a Google ad, which would link certain search terms to their site.
Tony
-- Regards Andy Trevor Technical Director Cutter Project Limited http://www.cutterproject.co.uk
On Thu, 2005-02-24 at 12:19, Paul Taylor wrote:
Hi all:
I hope everyone is enjoying the conference in Coventry. I am unfortunately too ill to get there so hope that there will be a full report forthcoming. I am running a web hosting and design company at school as a way to get decent experience (and Linux brain-washing) to my 6th form. It is all going quite well and we now have several clients. I am using Mambo as it is easy to use and makes for good screen shots in the portfolios. However, one of my customers has complained that their site does not appear on any search engines. I have tried several options relating to the meta tags (which I have been told are somewhat deprecated), but still no sign of the sites. My main site comes up pretty high on Google so it is a bit of an oddity. Any suggestions?
Not sure of the answer to this, but I think the meeting at Sun went very well. BECTA do seem to have a changing attitude - probably no choice now that FLOSS is gaining momentum at a rate worldwide but we are making progress. We have I believe established SchoolforgeUK as the collective voice for education with BECTA which effectively means with the DfES so at last we have an official line of communication. Key things were the need to educate the strategists, DfES etc Marketing strategy based on positives - Social inclusion, involving kids in the community and learning from the experience, stability and security, flexibility, equal opps, etc as well as the cost savings. More soon via the SchoolforgeUK website. -- Ian Lynch <ian.lynch@zmsl.com> ZMS Ltd
On Thursday 24 February 2005 12:19, Paul Taylor wrote: ...
I am running a web hosting and design company at school as a way to get decent experience (and Linux brain-washing) to my 6th form. It is all going quite well and we now have several clients. I am using Mambo as it is easy to use and makes for good screen shots in the portfolios. However, one of my customers has complained that their site does not appear on any search engines. I have tried several options relating to the meta tags (which I have been told are somewhat deprecated), but still no sign of the sites. My main site comes up pretty high on Google so it is a bit of an oddity. Any suggestions?
Hi Paul, What does your client actually mean by, "does not appear on any search engines"? That statement seems pretty dogmatic, but is also extremely vague. Does it mean that the reference is in page one point million of two million pages (ie there, but too far down to find) when searching by business category (which is what one would expect of any new site) or that there are no hits whatsoever if one searches explicitly for the client's name itself (which would be odd)? In the latter case, has the site been submitted to the search engines in question? Does the client's name appear as actual text on the site (as well as in meta tags)? There's a whole lot of other scenarios between the above extremes; and to give useful advice probably needs more detail about the problem. Can you give a URL so that we can look at the site itself? Good networking, Roger
On Thursday 24 February 2005 22:01, Roger Beaumont wrote:
On Thursday 24 February 2005 12:19, Paul Taylor wrote:
What does your client actually mean by, "does not appear on any search engines"? That statement seems pretty dogmatic, but is also extremely vague. Sorry about that, it was rather vague. Does it mean that the reference is in page one point million of two million pages (ie there, but too far down to find) when searching by business category (which is what one would expect of any new site) or that there are no hits whatsoever if one searches explicitly for the client's name itself (which would be odd)?
This si the case. There are tags which they have asked me too put in which are quite bague such as bath, stourhead, etc. but the site itself does not come up anywhere on Google.
In the latter case, has the site been submitted to the search engines in question? I didn't know this could be done and it has not been an issue as other sites I have done appear in the top page of Google. This is fairly new to me and I am doing it in between all of my teaching load so it is a bit hit and miss. Does the client's name appear as actual text on the site (as well as in meta tags)?
Yes, but their name is their guest house which is Taumata. They must have got this from a holiday in the Antipedes as this appears quite a lot. The site is also split between two sites: B & B and Child Minding (his wife's business). Therefore, there are two subdirectories with Mambo in each one, within the httpdocs directory on the server.
There's a whole lot of other scenarios between the above extremes; and to give useful advice probably needs more detail about the problem. Can you give a URL so that we can look at the site itself?
http://www.taumata.co.uk Not pretty, but functional :)
Good networking,
Roger
-- De omnibus dubitandum
On Thursday 24 February 2005 23:28, Paul Taylor wrote:
On Thursday 24 February 2005 22:01, Roger Beaumont wrote:
On Thursday 24 February 2005 12:19, Paul Taylor wrote: <snip> In the latter case, has the site been submitted to the search engines in question? I didn't know this could be done and it has not been an issue as other sites I have done appear in the top page of Google. This is fairly new to me and I am doing it in between all of my teaching load so it is a bit hit and miss.
I've done that for you. For future reference, go to Google, then "About Google", then "Submitting your Site". Hopefully, after google does its next web-crawl, searching for "Taumata Guest House" should give a hit... It is worth going to other search engine sites and checking out how to tell them explicitly about this (or other) websites. That may not be enough, but it does at least get you into their databases.
Does the client's name appear as actual text on the site (as well as in meta tags)? Yes, but their name is their guest house which is Taumata. They must have got this from a holiday in the Antipedes as this appears quite a lot. The site is also split between two sites: B & B and Child Minding (his wife's business). Therefore, there are two subdirectories with Mambo in each one, within the httpdocs directory on the server.
There's a whole lot of other scenarios between the above extremes; and to give useful advice probably needs more detail about the problem. Can you give a URL so that we can look at the site itself?
http://www.taumata.co.uk Not pretty, but functional :)
The trouble (!) is that both guest houses and child-minding will have a helluvalot of references. Hitting exactly this/these site/s will depend upon lots of other factors. Search engine placement can be a full-time job (again, "!"), but for B&Bs there are lots of index sites (google for 'Bath +"bed and breakfast"'). Many allow you to register free of charge. When you appear on those index sites, you start to have multiple links to this site - so Google rates it higher. I expect that also applies to child-minding... Basically: 1. Manually 'register' the site with as many search engines as you can be bothered with (Google is the minimum). 2. Search for 'index' sites that will include a reference to your target and register with them. Only after that do the 'advanced' techniques of meta-tag (etc) creation start to be significant. Back from commercial to educational priorities... Set your students an exercise to investigate what factors affect search-engine placement. Both they and you could learn a lot. Hope that helps - and do feel free to mail me off-board if I can help further. Roger PS A close friend of mine runs a B & B site for a friend of his. I've learnt much from him about this particular area. That website now keeps the establishment pretty full. Google for either '"chestnut cottage" +durham' or '"chestnut villa" +durham' and you'll see what I mean. R
I thought that DMOZ only indexed 'finished' websites? Certainly used to be the case, it was in their clause when I last read through it. Also, it can (used to) take weeks for pages to appear in google. Not sure why, but the red/blue logo made the Shining spring to mind and the little boy with the finger "redrum, redrum..." probably says far more about me? Maybe I was traumatised in BD in my youth, certainly did a lot of passing through when drinking in the vicinity! Of course drinking and riding a motorbike was mandatory back then! :-) Later Adrian
On Friday 25 February 2005 10:13, adrian.wells wrote:
I thought that DMOZ only indexed 'finished' websites? Certainly used to be the case, it was in their clause when I last read through it.
I think the para you mean is 'Do not submit sites "under construction." Wait until a site is complete before submitting it. Sites that are incomplete, contain "Under Construction" notices, or contain broken graphics or links aren't good candidates for the directory.' What boils down to "not bust" is rather different to "finished"... <grin>
Also, it can (used to) take weeks for pages to appear in google.
I've never waited that long. In any event, there's now an external link from radstocknet index site (which helps anyway); and google does find that page (when the search is for "Taumata Guest House"), giving a list of 1 single page, linking only to the target site. That's not bad at all! More index listings will improve that still further: more inward links generate more traffic directly, and also raise the google rating. A much more general search - for '"bed and breakfast" +"buckland dinham"' - shows the linking page at item 5 (of a total of 10). You're getting there, Paul! Roger
participants (6)
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adrian.wells -
Andy Trevor -
Ian Lynch -
Paul Taylor -
Roger Beaumont -
Tony Whitmore