Sitemap / problems with Google listing

JONNYB · 03-08-2011, 06:48 PM

Hi all,

I having difficulty getting my site to show in Google and i think it's down to the site map as I've checked my meta tags, description & titles and have an overall good google rating considering it's a new site.

The problem I've seen is that the individual pages are appearing separately within Google and when I look at the site map on Host Papa (my adserver) all pages have the same name and don't appear to in any kind of hierachy. I'm guessing I need to make the index file the lead and have the other sites under it but have no idea what i need to know.

It would be great if someone could let me know what what I need to do to rectify this, do I need to do something in the root folder?

Sorry I'm guessing this is quite a simple issue however this is my first time hosting a site.

Any help would really be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
John

DHDdirect · 03-08-2011, 09:10 PM

Best way to find out what Google is doing with your site is to use Google Webmaster Tools. It'll tell you such things as errors with your sitemap (once you submit one), how many of your pages are currently listed, errors in your meta data, keyword stats, etc.

JONNYB · 03-09-2011, 03:59 PM

Hi there,

Thanks for the tip off, I'll check that Google tool out.

Would you be able to tell me though how I should arrange my files so they appear under the homepage on my site may?
And is it thee root folder with mu adserver that I need to arrange them in for them to be read correctly by Google???
Thanks again, I'm sorry if these are really basic questions.

notarypublic · 03-09-2011, 04:35 PM

just a hunch, but do you have a robots.txt file?

Including it invites google and other search engines to look over all of your pages and index them.

JONNYB · 03-10-2011, 04:39 PM

Yea I have that, Host Papa set it put that on.
I also have a +67 Google rating out of 100.
I just can't understand why I am on page 9 of Google when I write the exact site name with sites with no relevance whatsoever above me.

Do you know how my site map should look? like I said there is no hierarchy to them and they all appear seperatly in Google. How do I load them to my adserver so they read right?

Sorry I'm at a real brick wall with this and Host Papa have been no help whatsoever saying it's nothing to do with them.

JONNYB · 03-10-2011, 05:52 PM

hey notarypublic,

I've just been reading over google web help and they've said that the robot.txt may be blocking Google from reading the content of my site, is this the case?
I'm getting really confused...

notarypublic · 03-10-2011, 06:38 PM

open up the robot.txt file and copy the contents onto here. For most small to average sized sites, all you should really need in there is this:

Code:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

This tells any search engine that looks at the robots.txt file (the * ) that they're allowed to index every page of your site (the fact that disallow is left blank). If there is anything after disallow, it means that google isn't indexing whatever those pages (or folder of pages) might be.

DHDdirect · 03-10-2011, 07:29 PM

It's certainly not anything to do with your hosting service. Unless of course they are playing with your domain files (i'm not sure why they would be).

Here is information about sitemaps with google.

and Here is some information about robots.txt

Have you signed up for Google Webmaster Tools yet? it helps a lot.

Personally I wouldn't have the word disallow in the robots.txt if I didn't want anything to be disallow, Just index all such as:

Code:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

** Also if you think that your site has been limited by google you can request reconsideration to be indexed here. But you'd know if you are by using the Google Webmaster Tools ;-)

JONNYB · 03-11-2011, 03:54 PM

Thanks for that, really helpful.

Yea been working through with Google Webmaster tools which is helping.

Just noticed something else that the Domain name for the subsequent pages of my site end in html, which doesn't seem right, so www.break-comms.com/Contact.html Could this have something to do with it? if so do you know how I change the file status?

Sorry if this is a dumb question.

03-08-2011, 06:48 PM	#1
JONNYB New Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 13	Sitemap / problems with Google listing Hi all, I having difficulty getting my site to show in Google and i think it's down to the site map as I've checked my meta tags, description & titles and have an overall good google rating considering it's a new site. The problem I've seen is that the individual pages are appearing separately within Google and when I look at the site map on Host Papa (my adserver) all pages have the same name and don't appear to in any kind of hierachy. I'm guessing I need to make the index file the lead and have the other sites under it but have no idea what i need to know. It would be great if someone could let me know what what I need to do to rectify this, do I need to do something in the root folder? Sorry I'm guessing this is quite a simple issue however this is my first time hosting a site. Any help would really be greatly appreciated. Thanks, John

03-09-2011, 04:35 PM	#4
notarypublic Silver Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 191	just a hunch, but do you have a robots.txt file? Including it invites google and other search engines to look over all of your pages and index them. __________________ http://www.joshualoves.com/

03-10-2011, 06:38 PM	#7
notarypublic Silver Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 191	open up the robot.txt file and copy the contents onto here. For most small to average sized sites, all you should really need in there is this: Code: User-agent: * Disallow: This tells any search engine that looks at the robots.txt file (the * ) that they're allowed to index every page of your site (the fact that disallow is left blank). If there is anything after disallow, it means that google isn't indexing whatever those pages (or folder of pages) might be. __________________ http://www.joshualoves.com/ Last edited by notarypublic; 03-10-2011 at 06:44 PM.

03-10-2011, 07:29 PM	#8
DHDdirect Gold Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Australia Posts: 369	It's certainly not anything to do with your hosting service. Unless of course they are playing with your domain files (i'm not sure why they would be). Here is information about sitemaps with google. and Here is some information about robots.txt Have you signed up for Google Webmaster Tools yet? it helps a lot. Personally I wouldn't have the word disallow in the robots.txt if I didn't want anything to be disallow, Just index all such as: Code: User-agent: * Allow: / ** Also if you think that your site has been limited by google you can request reconsideration to be indexed here. But you'd know if you are by using the Google Webmaster Tools ;-) Last edited by DHDdirect; 03-10-2011 at 07:32 PM.

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03-08-2011, 09:10 PM	#2
DHDdirect Gold Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Australia Posts: 369	Best way to find out what Google is doing with your site is to use Google Webmaster Tools. It'll tell you such things as errors with your sitemap (once you submit one), how many of your pages are currently listed, errors in your meta data, keyword stats, etc.

03-09-2011, 03:59 PM	#3
JONNYB New Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 13	Hi there, Thanks for the tip off, I'll check that Google tool out. Would you be able to tell me though how I should arrange my files so they appear under the homepage on my site may? And is it thee root folder with mu adserver that I need to arrange them in for them to be read correctly by Google??? Thanks again, I'm sorry if these are really basic questions.

03-10-2011, 04:39 PM	#5
JONNYB New Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 13	Yea I have that, Host Papa set it put that on. I also have a +67 Google rating out of 100. I just can't understand why I am on page 9 of Google when I write the exact site name with sites with no relevance whatsoever above me. Do you know how my site map should look? like I said there is no hierarchy to them and they all appear seperatly in Google. How do I load them to my adserver so they read right? Sorry I'm at a real brick wall with this and Host Papa have been no help whatsoever saying it's nothing to do with them.

03-10-2011, 05:52 PM	#6
JONNYB New Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 13	hey notarypublic, I've just been reading over google web help and they've said that the robot.txt may be blocking Google from reading the content of my site, is this the case? I'm getting really confused...

03-11-2011, 03:54 PM	#9
JONNYB New Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 13	Thanks for that, really helpful. Yea been working through with Google Webmaster tools which is helping. Just noticed something else that the Domain name for the subsequent pages of my site end in html, which doesn't seem right, so www.break-comms.com/Contact.html Could this have something to do with it? if so do you know how I change the file status? Sorry if this is a dumb question.