# I can't find my website!



## Rhys (Jun 11, 2008)

I have a website - www.sagephotoworld.com which is actually a redirected domain name that points at a page on my main site. I have on the domain redirection service, meta tags that describe the site and so on but when I search, I can't find the site. Onthe site itself I have meta tags describing it but still can't find it via google despite the fact googe lists it.

Any suggestions?


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## dslrchat (Jun 11, 2008)

What do you mean you can't find it?
Searching where?


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## maytay20 (Jun 11, 2008)

That's weird I just googled it and it is the first thing that came up.  But if you put in sage photo world with spaces it disappears.  Do you have it i the metadata with all different variations of spaces in the words?


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## Rhys (Jun 11, 2008)

On the Domain redirection site I have the meta tags as: 


> photography, photographer, columbia, south carolina, commercial, wedding, family, business, legal, occasional, event, photo, photos, servicemen, conflicts, abroad, bar, style, flair, church, limosene



I have the site description as:


> Photography for all occasions in Columbia South Carolina. Licensed, insured photographer specializing in commercial, wedding, family, event, business, social and legal photography.


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## dslrchat (Jun 11, 2008)

So your issue is you cant find on google?


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## maytay20 (Jun 11, 2008)

add into that your name, website name in many different ways.  ie:  sagephoto world, sage photo world, sagephotoworld, sage photography world.  Also possibly add your contact number, address (If you have a studio).  I have had clients find me by googling my phone number more than once.


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## Rhys (Jun 11, 2008)

Trouble is with 123-reg I can only put 200 characters as a meta tag


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## Kenny32 (Jun 11, 2008)

Rhys,

Meta tags do not update within minutes of you putting them on there. It can take weeks, even months before your site will show up on Google.

The key to this is to get a lot of unique hits on your website. The more hits you get, the more likely it'll rise in Google's ranks. 

Have you submitted your link to Google? Doing this will make the process a little faster. http://www.google.com/addurl/

Hope this helps.


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## dslrchat (Jun 11, 2008)

Over the years I have found using the add url actually slows and messes up your index.
https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount
make a google account, verify and also make a sitemap.


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

1) Don't use frames

2) Why are you redirecting?

3) Meta tags don't do anything for search rankings, especially not if they're on the redirecting page.


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## tranceplant (Jun 11, 2008)

ok google uses the dmoz database so you have to add your URL on one of the categories. FInd the one youw ant and submit your site.

http://www.dmoz.org/


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

It's been years since Google was pinned to the DMOZ. Having a link in DMOZ can help improve Google's perception of the trustworthiness of your site but it is by no means necessary in any way. I've made top 5 placements worldwide on Google and Yahoo and none of those sites have ever been in the DMOZ.


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

I know you guys are trying to help but every thread in this post (save mine) is complete misinformation.


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## tranceplant (Jun 11, 2008)

dmoz worked for me and it will work for him... just try it. it's free anyways and it can only help


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

It doesn't hurt to submit to DMOZ, but that doesn't mean it's going to "help." At least not nearly as much as you think. Google cares much more about content, relevancy, and links than a DMOZ listing. DMOZ is largely a thing of the past.


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

And no, it won't work for him. There are too many other things wrong with his website. You're making a correlation that's spurious. Good performance on search engines happens in addition to or in spite of a DMOZ listing, not _because_ of one.


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## Rhys (Jun 11, 2008)

Hmm.... Just went to dmoz and found I wasn't listed with lycos at all! I listed on Dmoz so that should improve things a bit.


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

All right then. In one ear and out the other!

You guys carry on with your misinformation conference. Have fun!


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## Rhys (Jun 11, 2008)

Alpha said:


> 1) Don't use frames
> 
> 2) Why are you redirecting?
> 
> 3) Meta tags don't do anything for search rankings, especially not if they're on the redirecting page.



I'm redirecting as my webspace is www.sageworld.co.uk and on that site I host www.sagephotoworld.com and www.sageworld.org. The domain names are hosted by 123-reg.co.uk while the webspace is hosted by fvs. I see no point in blowing money on separate webhosting deals. Best advice I ever had was to host the domain and the webspace independently as then I can change the webspace host.


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## tranceplant (Jun 11, 2008)

Alpha said:


> All right then. In one ear and out the other!
> 
> You guys carry on with your misinformation conference. Have fun!



oh stop being a troll... instead of saying we are making things wrong, why don' you just help the poor guy.

ANyways I know where you are coming from.  If you do hardcore reference for google of course dmoz is not enough and of course you need to do a lot more.  But for him right now for someone that has no idea what he is doing this very first step is good. 

Now please post of concrete  changes he should do


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

I'm not being a troll. 

1) Get rid of the redirect. It's a bad idea unless absolutely necessary.

2) Get rid of the frames. They'll ruin your chances.

3) Continue to add keyword-rich content in natural language to the site.

4) Accumulate relevant links to the site.

Beyond that you can PM me for my consulting rates.


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

If you're going to redirect, have a single website attached to a domain with the other links permanently redirecting to it. Right now I see three different websites.


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## Rhys (Jun 11, 2008)

Alpha said:


> If you're going to redirect, have a single website attached to a domain with the other links permanently redirecting to it. Right now I see three different websites.



Sageworld.org (hosted on sageworld.co.uk)
SagePhotoWorld.com (hosted on sageworld.co.uk)

The sageworld.co.uk is just some crap I got stuck with by my webhost. I'm wondering whether I could use a subdomain and just change the DNS entries.


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## tranceplant (Jun 11, 2008)

If you want to optimize the rank of your website here are more of my suggestion.

How google works to give youa  better rank(not the only way but one of them). Basically google will rank you higher if you have a lot of other websites linking to your page.  SO where ever you can post that link POST IT on forum link database etc....

get ride of that redirecting thing.  Don't use frames or iframes.  And make sure every html page describe your website or the subject of your website.
example for a page on photography 101 you would have your domain name + the page called photograpgy101.html.
so it would look like this: www.domain.com/photography101.html  that can also increase your ranking.  

if you do both of those your ranking will go up.


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

Tranceplant: What's wrong with you. You basically just copied what I said.

Except I said *relevant* links. Not just any links.

Anyway, Rhys, you have to take care of that redirect thing. Have a single site with domains permanently pointing to it, and follow my other advice.


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## tranceplant (Jun 11, 2008)

Alpha said:


> Tranceplant: What's wrong with you. You basically just copied what I said.
> 
> Except I said *relevant* links. Not just any links.
> 
> Anyway, Rhys, you have to take care of that redirect thing. Have a single site with domains permanently pointing to it, and follow my other advice.



calm your horses... yes there is some things that are similar but that is what I say too everyone that ask for my advice.... don't be so uptight.  I don't know if you will agree with me but the more answers he gets the better it is for him to find the solution to his problem, similar advice or not.

If you want the credit for all of this I have no problem giving it to you.

chill out
A


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## Alpha (Jun 11, 2008)

I don't need credit. I get it automatically for being the only one giving good advice

More information isn't better if it's bad information. For some reason this particular topic always bring out the stubbornness in people. You're not helping by giving advice on things you don't know about. You're hurting, and diluting what good advice I've tried to give with utter nonsense.


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## tranceplant (Jun 11, 2008)

Alpha said:


> I don't need credit. I get it automatically for being the only one giving good advice
> 
> More information isn't better if it's bad information. For some reason this particular topic always bring out the stubbornness in people. You're not helping by giving advice on things you don't know about. You're hurting, and diluting what good advice I've tried to give with utter nonsense.



so basically you are telling me I copied you and now you say I am giving bad advice.

:thumbup:


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## dslrchat (Jun 12, 2008)

I take exception that my advice was complete "misinformation"

I agree with you that the redirect greatly hurts, but I stick with my comment on using Google webmaster tools, which includes seo forums guidelines and tips, not just "add url"

However, getting your site listed at on the first page of results can be difficult, keeping it there is more difficult. Unless you have loads of traffic.

This is not an over night venture, this could (if your lucky) take a week or it could take moths/years if ever depending on your content.

It your planning on sticking with the redirect, submitting a SiteMap is a MUST!!!


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## Alpha (Jun 12, 2008)

99% of the the time, G will crawl your website even if it isn't registered with them in WMT. But you are right that an XML sitemap can help. The most significant advantage to using WMT isn't that your website will rank better necessarily, but that you can make sure that, in G's eyes, you aren't messing anything up on your site.


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## Rhys (Jun 12, 2008)

ROTFL I just followed google's instructions and put a page called:   http://sagephotoworld.com/google0ee4810433b4ac9d.html
on my site. It couldn't see it. That tells me a lot about Google!

1. I've created a file named *google0ee4810433b4ac9d.html*.
 2. I've uploaded the file to  *http://sagephotoworld.com/* and can view  http://sagephotoworld.com/google0ee4810433b4ac9d.html in my browser.

*Verification status:* NOT VERIFIED 
We've detected that your 404 (file not found) error page returns a status of 200 (Success) in the header.


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## Alpha (Jun 12, 2008)

1) Don't modify the page.

2) Your screwy redirect could be interfering.

3) You can go the other route and put their snippet of code into an existing page if this way doesn't work.


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## dslrchat (Jun 12, 2008)

You will have to use the metatag option, this is because of the redirect.

Your ownership of website can not be verified with redirect so you will have to add the metatag they give you.


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## maytay20 (Jun 12, 2008)

Rhys said:


> Trouble is with 123-reg I can only put 200 characters as a meta tag


Oh ok.  I don't know much about meta tags.  I have a web site but just registered it with Google. Unless I did meta tags when I first set it up I don't think I have done them.  I don't remember how (sorry) But I also registered it with yahoo and MSN.


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## Alpha (Jun 12, 2008)

1) Meta tags will not improve your rankings.

2) Upwards of 150 characters in the meta tag will get clipped in the site's page description in the search results anyway.


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