Q and A: How can we get Google to index and update all our pages?
Dear Kalena...
Thanks for being generous with your time and knowledge!
Here's the short version of our situation and my question: Googlebots faithfully visit our site [URL removed] virtually every night and do major downloading everytime, and yet most of our cached pages remain outdated (such as January 24, 2005). How can we get Google to index and update all our pages?
Now for the backstory and why this is an urgent problem. We noticed a dip in our rankngs in last month and discovered that Google had kicked off Jagger III. At first we attributed our sinking rankings to this, but after digging further, we discovered we had a major problem with our site. (Jagger was a blessing in disguise.) Our slide has been going on for some time (I believe we have been getting false positives when checking our rankings for keyword searches).
Unknown to us (and for reasons unknown), in January or earlier, virtually all our internal links had mutated and began pointing to [URL removed] instead of [URL removed], where x is the name of a page. In fact, if you do a Google index check for [URL removed], you'll get 150 pages. But for [URL removed] it's only 67. This means that 83 pages are indexed EXCLUSIVELY as [URL removed].
Here's the rub: All external links to our site are for [URL removed], and none are for [URL removed], so the 83 [URL removed] pages have no (or little) credibility in Google's eyes. Bottom line result: while our 67 [URL removed] pages do very well for the appropriate keyword searches (top 5-15), the [URL removed] pages for the most part don't show up on the radar. And MANY of our products are listed on those pages.
We have fixed the internal links so that they all point to [URL removed], but, as I say, Google just isn't re-indexing most of the pages. In fact, many of the [URL removed] pages haven't been indexed in quite awhile. Google just seems to keep indexing the same old handful of pages. I don't understand the logic.
Am I explaining this OK? Any ideas on how to get Google to index ALL the pages after visiting?
Rick
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Rick
Apart from putting me to sleep with your question *yawn*, if I didn't know better, I'd swear you were trying to blogslam to get links to your site. So I've removed your URL to save you from yourself.
In answer to your question, just two words: Google Sitemaps.
Thanks for being generous with your time and knowledge!
Here's the short version of our situation and my question: Googlebots faithfully visit our site [URL removed] virtually every night and do major downloading everytime, and yet most of our cached pages remain outdated (such as January 24, 2005). How can we get Google to index and update all our pages?
Now for the backstory and why this is an urgent problem. We noticed a dip in our rankngs in last month and discovered that Google had kicked off Jagger III. At first we attributed our sinking rankings to this, but after digging further, we discovered we had a major problem with our site. (Jagger was a blessing in disguise.) Our slide has been going on for some time (I believe we have been getting false positives when checking our rankings for keyword searches).
Unknown to us (and for reasons unknown), in January or earlier, virtually all our internal links had mutated and began pointing to [URL removed] instead of [URL removed], where x is the name of a page. In fact, if you do a Google index check for [URL removed], you'll get 150 pages. But for [URL removed] it's only 67. This means that 83 pages are indexed EXCLUSIVELY as [URL removed].
Here's the rub: All external links to our site are for [URL removed], and none are for [URL removed], so the 83 [URL removed] pages have no (or little) credibility in Google's eyes. Bottom line result: while our 67 [URL removed] pages do very well for the appropriate keyword searches (top 5-15), the [URL removed] pages for the most part don't show up on the radar. And MANY of our products are listed on those pages.
We have fixed the internal links so that they all point to [URL removed], but, as I say, Google just isn't re-indexing most of the pages. In fact, many of the [URL removed] pages haven't been indexed in quite awhile. Google just seems to keep indexing the same old handful of pages. I don't understand the logic.
Am I explaining this OK? Any ideas on how to get Google to index ALL the pages after visiting?
Rick
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Rick
Apart from putting me to sleep with your question *yawn*, if I didn't know better, I'd swear you were trying to blogslam to get links to your site. So I've removed your URL to save you from yourself.
In answer to your question, just two words: Google Sitemaps.
Labels: search engine optimization (seo)
2 Comments:
Thanks for at least hearing me out and for the tip. Wasn't trying to blogslam (new word for me, but I get the picture / accusation). As for the yawner aspect... I was just trying to give you a clear picture of my problem. Besides, this is website talk, for Christ's sake, not open mike night at a comedy club.
Quite true Rick. Sorry about that, but you caught me pre-caffeine fix. And readers seem to prefer me when I'm mean. Go figure?
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