Q and A: Why doesn't Google show all our backward links?

Dear Kalena...

I came across your site as I was searching for "why doesn't google show my links?". Yahoo and MSN show over 200 links to our www.Rubber-Bracelets.com site, but Google shows 2! What's up with that? We have the keywords in our domain name and I can't find us in the first five pages for "rubber bracelets". What gives? Of course, people aren't searching for rubber bracelets like they once were, but it appears in Google Suggest that there are still a good number of searches. Can you help?

Thanks!
Tony

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Tony

First up, what makes you think that having keywords in your domain automatically makes your site more relevant for searches involving those keywords? What if I purchased a domain like www.safe-kids-toys.com and loaded it up with porn? Do you think Google's algorithm will automatically assume my content is about "safe kids toys" just because my domain suggests it is? Uh uh. It doesn't work like that. I answered a similar question about keyword domains just yesterday.

Secondly, Google never displays the true number of backlinks your site has, only a sampling of the ones they consider to be important. You can get a better indication of who is linking to you from Yahoo Site Explorer.

Lastly, if your site is under 9 months old or has recently undergone a major re-design, it could be suffering from Google's aging delay for new sites. If that's the case, it won't rank in Google for your target keywords until it is released from limbo. It's Google's little screening process to help them weed out the dodgy sites from the authentic ones.

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Q and A: Why can't I find my site for target search terms?

Dear Kalena...

I have two websites one www.dhcottages.co.uk which ranks 1 for the search terms I use and the other www.tacksuperstore.co.uk which I can't even find. I have done everything I know to help improve the listing position. Can you help?

Leanne

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Leanne

You don't say how long either site has been online, but if either of them are less than 9 months old, it could be that one or both of them is suffering the Google aging delay for new sites. Google has indexed over 1,000 pages on your second site, so you'd think at least a few of those pages would appear in the search results, but it's difficult to tell without knowing your target search terms and seeing how well optimized your site is for those terms.

It may also be an indexing problem, so be sure to run your site code through a text-based browser such as Lynx to see your site the way a search robot would see it. You should also run your home page through the HTML validator to check for coding errors, as your page did seem to take an unusually long time to load, which could signal a problem. The alternative is to verify your site in Google's Webmaster Tools and review the site indexing statistics and diagnostics for potential problems.

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Q and A: Is my site in the Google Sandbox?

Dear Kalena...

I have owned a site of more than 70 pages for 1 month. Even Google indexed a part of them and I submitted to other directories, but I have no visitors (health.com.md). Where is my mistake? Does this mean that I am in Google sandbox? Thank you all for your time.

Oleg

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Oleg

Google last indexed your site on 18 April so at least some pages of the site are being indexed. If the site is only a month old, then it is highly likely that you are experiencing Google's "sandbox", more accurately known as the Aging Delay, which can effectively make new sites invisible in Google for up to 9 months.

I see that you have a Google verification meta tag in the site, so you have likely uploaded an XML sitemap and verified your site in Google's Webmaster Tools. You should check your site's statistics here regularly to ensure it is being fully indexed and also track the Google search queries the site is being found for.

Once your site is released from the aging delay, you will start to see the number of search queries increase and your traffic will soon follow.

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Q and A: Why does my site rank in MSN and Yahoo but not Google?

Dear Kalena...

My web site www.narenmunna.com appears for some keywords in MSN and Yahoo in the first page itself, but not for the same in Google. What is the reason?

Webmaster Naren

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Naren

Simple. Your site has no link popularity and zero PageRank right now. Is it less than 9 months old? If so, then the site is probably still suffering from the Google Aging Delay. Even if it isn't, then you'd better work on your link popularity pronto.

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Q and A: How will search engine ranking be affected if I change domain names?

Dear Kalena...

As always, I am very much enjoying your insightful newsletters.

I have a question for you: If I change domain names and keep the identical website on the new domain, how will search engine ranking be affected?

Thanks!
Marco


Kalena's Answer:

Dear Marco

If you are moving your site to an entirely new domain, you've got to be careful that your search rankings and link popularity aren't negatively affected. This can occur if you use the standard 301 "permanently moved" redirects on your old pages, or worse, use no redirects at all.

Technically, your new domain is treated as a brand new site, regardless of whether the content you use on it has been published on another domain and therefore, Google will subject it to the aging delay for new sites.

To avoid losing all those hard-earned rankings for the six to nine month Google limbo that is the aging delay, it's recommended that you use 302 "temporarily moved" redirects on your old domain pages until your new domain has aged the required time in Google. You can then safely switch the redirects to 301's. You can read more about this method in Scottie Claiborne's article: Switching to a New Domain Without Losing Your Google Rankings.

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Q and A: Is my site in the Google Sandbox?

Dear Kalena...

Hello, I have read some of your comments with great interest. Like others, my site keyword listing on google have been dropped (am I in the "sandbox"?). This accounted for quite a bit of traffic for me hence my desire to do everything possible to rectify the situation.

I would be grateful for any help you might be able to provide.

Regards,
Nicholas

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Nicholas

The fact that your site was ranking for certain keywords and is no longer suggests that the problem is not sandboxed-related. Nor does it seem to be Google's aging delay. I think your ranking issues are due to a new algorithm introduced by Google in November which particularly affected sites containing adult-content.

Learn more via this site and this FAQ.

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Q and A: Why doesn't Google index my site any more?

Dear Kalena...

My client's site (www.coaching.uk.net ) has been recently converted to Joomla (around 6 months ago). The content is the same as previously. However Google no longer indexes the site.

The other search engines pick it up with no problems, and all my other Joomla sites are picked up by Google.

Can you suggest any reasons why this one should be an exception??!

Carrie

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Carrie

I've taken a look at the site and here's what I see:

1) You've got a Google Toolbar PageRank of zero.

2) You've got zero backward links listed on Google.

3) Google last cached your site on 7th November.

4) According to their Site Status Tool, Google does not know about all your site pages.


Seeing this, I doubt that Joomla that is causing the problem, it is more than likely that the re-design has triggered the site to get stuck in Google's Aging Delay. This delay can impact new or existing sites and can last up to 9 months. You're not the only one with a Joomla site facing similar problems.

Something to keep in mind when working with dynamic technologies and CMS's like Joomla: Google has stated in the past that they don't index pages containing session ids. I've seen such sites indexed before, so perhaps Google is getting better at this. But why take the risk? Make sure that your site either doesn't use session ids or contains a way for searchbots to grab the data via a parameter-clean URL. You can check how a search engine robot would see your site by downloading a text-based browser like Lynx and running your URLs through it.

See this post for advice on what to do while you're waiting in Google aging limbo.

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Q and A: Why is Google only indexing my home page?

Dear Kalena...

I have a problem. My site is http://www.info-junction.net.

I first made the site in Joomla, 3 months back. At that time Google just indexed my home page. I was using opensef - a module that changes your dynamic page into a static html kind of looking page which is search engine friendly.

But no use - only the first page got indexed. I have seen numerous sites that use Joomla and are higly ranked with 6 PR.

So I thought may be I am doing something wrong, so changed the whole site to plain html, also added a xml sitemap, the site map was picked up by Google with no problems. Now when Google last indexed it again, it indexed only the home page. So I am Pissed Off once again :) .

Please take a look and advise me what to do in order to get the whole site indexed.

Abu

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Abu

I hate to tell you this, but you probably wasted a lot of time redesigning your site. Sites made with Joomla CMS are usually indexed with no problems. The issue wasn't your site design, it was the age of your site. When you launch a new site (or extensively re-design an existing one), Google generally places the site in a limbo area for a period up to 9 months. This is called the Google Aging Delay and during this time it will seem as though only your home page is indexed.

During the aging delay, you usually can't find your site on Google for anything apart from your site name or URL. Googlebot will visit your entire site though and release all the indexed pages into the datacenter after some time has lapsed. Although this is frustrating, it is perfectly normal and helps prevent spammers from manipulating the SERPs. Just be patient and build up incoming links to your site while you wait.

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Q and A: Why isn't my site in the top 2000 results in Google?

Dear Kalena...

I just created a new site, its dead basic and mainly an affiliate site. I have linked to it from a couple of my other sites that have a Google PR of 4 & 5 but of course I need loads more links yet as it's in a very competitive sector (www.autoinsurancedeals.co.uk).

Its been indexed by Google this week but of course its not even in the top 2000. In your opinion Kalena, without a ton more links is that where it's likely to stay, outside the top 2000?. It seems to be a catch22 situation, if I don't have a decent PR, why would another site want to exchange links? I seem to find this concept of asking other sites to exchange links akin to begging :-)

Graham

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Graham

If your site is brand new, you won't be able to find it for your target keywords for up to 9 months. Why? Because nearly all new sites are subject to Google's aging delay. That explains why you can't see it in the top 2000 results right now.

As for exchanging links - reciprocal linking is soooo last year. Every link you place pointing away from your site is diluting the value of your incoming links somewhat. That doesn't mean you shouldn't link to other sites or swap links - as long as the outgoing links are useful to your own site visitors. But you shouldn't pursue reciprocal link exchanges solely for search engine value.

The most valuable links to build up your site's PageRank are non-reciprocal links from high-quality, high-traffic sites that have a similar theme to your own. How do you find these? Do a Google search for backlinks pointing to your competitor's sites by entering "link:http://site.com" in Google's search box. Take a look at the type of sites linking to your competitors and see if you can get those same sites to link to you.

Look for niche directories, portals and search engines in the insurance industry. Submit your site to those. Write some articles about auto insurance and submit them to ezines and article annoucement lists for re-publishing on other sites. Make it a condition of re-publishing that they include a link back to your site in the Author Resource box.

Hope this helps!

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Q and A: Why does my site have a Google PR0?

Dear Kalena...

My site (http://www.deepjiveinterests.com), after being live for a month and a half, still has a pagerank of zero. I know that there's recently been an update, but still -- nothing.

Its gotten some pretty good inbound links from some pretty reputable sources (mostly tech related) -- Cnet news, the guardian unlimited (a british newspaper), techmeme, blogherald, valleywag, and most recently crunchnotes, for example, all with decent PR, in the short time its been up.

Now, I was wondering if this was all because of the "sandbox" effect? If it was, I thought it had to do with how well the site ranks in the actual searches -- which it doesn't do too badly for, I suppose.

That is to say, I don't purposely target keywords / phrases, but I do get traffic from google, and for some phrases, like "digg history", which has over 26M results (if it means anything), I do rank #3 .

Anyway, its a bit of a ramble, but the question is straightforward enough -- why the PR0 still?

Thanks!
Tony

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Tony

the answer is simple: Google's Aging Delay for new sites. Best explanation is here. It can last up to 9 months, if any of my recent client sites are a good measure.

This is often incorrectly referred to as the Sandbox but the Google Sandbox is applied to sites that build links quickly rather than new sites. A good explanation of the difference between the two is here.

More info on both phenomenons can be seen here. A good way to avoid the aging delay is explained here.

Nothing for it but to wait in limbo and work on your links while you wait.

Hope this puts you out of your Google misery!

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Q and A: Why has our site disappeared from Google?

Dear Kalena...

I run a small ecommerce website for disabled people in the UK called essentialaids.com and suddenly it has disappeared from Google.

You can't even find its pages when you search for the URL itself. I haven't deliberately done anything underhand to improve rankings so I'm not quite sure why what's happening.

If you can help shed some light on this I'd be eternally grateful because I'm scared stiff and I'm not sure what to do.

All the best,

Alex

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Alex

Don't panic! Your site is still in Google. In fact, Google has indexed 138 pages on your site so far and Googlebot last visited on September 8.

What you're probably experiencing is Google's aging delay for new or re-designed sites. This can result in your site not appearing in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for any of your target keyword phrases. This is all perfectly normal and part of Google's process for reviewing sites before adding them to the main database.

I'm afraid you just have to wait it out for 6 to 9 months. You can still find your site in the meantime by conducting a domain search in Google.

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Q and A: Why have my SEO efforts pushed my Google rankings down?

Dear Kalena...

First of all, I wish to express my gratitude to you for taking time to answer all the various SEO questions raised. I have picked up a lot of quick tips through your blog, you’re really a darling, thank you.

As I have started experimenting with SEO just a few months back, I have been trying to optimize www.psoriasisandskinclinic.com for quite some time now. It is a website promoting and selling natural remedies to treat Skin Problems (eg. Psoriasis) and it’s a very competitive market. I started off by improving the usability of the site and its exposure. I have also included it in several PPC sites and trying to increase its reciprocal links.
However, recently I realized that instead of going up the generic rankings in Google, it actually fell and till now I can’t find any listings in the first 5 pages of Google search result at all if I type in several important search keywords.

Please Kalena, give me some advice as to what am I doing wrong or what can I do to improve the situation as I might lose my job if this trend continues. Much appreciated. Thank you.

Best Regards,
Joseph

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Joseph

Thanks for the blog back-slap, I appreciate it!

Regarding your site, you don't mention how new it is to the Internet. Judging by your very low Google Toolbar PageRank score and lack of listed backward links, I am assuming the site is under 9 months old. If I'm right, the site is undoubtedly still experiencing Google's aging delay for new sites and there's nothing to worry about. It's very common to see your site appear in the Google SERPs and then disappear for months.

Yahoo is showing at least 15 incoming links pointing to your site, so your link efforts appear to be working. You simply need to wait for Google to catch up.

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Q and A: Why does my site rank well on other engines but not on Google?

Dear Kalena...

I have a website http://www.sawestcoasttourism.com/
I am not able to get this site to rank any where decent on Google.
My primary search term is South African West Coast under that term I am ranked No.1 on MSN No. 10 on Yahoo ands No.13 on Dogpile On Google I am no where to be found.

I have followed every guideline provided by Google and as many SEO Forums as I can read but nothing works. I have not transgressed any of the Google No-No's as far as I know .

I am desperate as my whole business depends on this site more and more.

Kalena - please help!

Lucas

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Lucas

I've reviewed your site and here's what I've found:

1) Your site has a Google Toolbar PageRank of 2 out of 10, which either means your site has not been online long enough to build up link popularity, or it may have been given a manual penalty of some kind (doubtful).

2) Your site has 9 backward links showing in Google (other sites pointing to it), but this is misleading as Google doesn't generally show all backlinks pointing to sites, especially on sites with a PageRank of 3 or below.

3) Your Title Attribute and META Description tag are not well optimized for peak search engine performance. They could benefit from a complete overhaul by a professional SEO company or you could overhaul them yourself by following basic SEO principles. If you want to learn these principles quickly, I highly recommend taking up our SEO Starter Course at Search Engine College. You could also look at the HTML code of some of your competitor's sites and follow their lead in terms of Title and META tags.

4) Your HTML code is filled with unsupported and non-existent META tags such as < name="robots" content="revisit after 2 days">. These tags are not supported by search engines and are simply taking up valuable indexing space in your HTML code that would be better utilized by body text.

5) The text on your home page is not optimized for target keywords and phrases that your potential visitors will be searching for.

6) If your site has been live for 9 months or less, it is highly likely it is still experiencing Google's aging delay for new sites.

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Q and A: Why has my design change had a negative impact on my Google rankings?

Dear Kalena...

I just came across your site after several weeks of cruising google and my old favorite, webmasterworld to no avail. If you have any insight to throw my way, I'd really appreciate it.

Urban Lowdown ( www.urbanlowdown.com) is about 4 years old and has gone through many growth spurts over the last year and a half as I've been making the site as optimized as possible, including changing the fundamental structure of the site, including navigation and design several times.

Every update I've made so far has, after an initial dip, has resulted in an increase in traffic (99% of which is driven by search engines, primarily google...)

Until the last update which I made a month and a half ago. I made a substantial design change, with some navigational changes, but nothing fundamental. The url structure is the same, my tags (h1 etc) are the same - there is nothing I can see that I've done which is
beyond cosmetic.

The result has been fairly disastrous. Two months ago I was 600+ unique visitors a day and 2,000 page loads. Since the last update, I am down to 150 - 200 uniques a day and holding there.

I am pretty baffled by this, although the main culprit seems to be my indexed (google) pages. I have sitemaps for all of my main sections and have several thousand pages which used to be indexed and are reflected by the sitemaps.

Over the last few weeks, my indexed pages have dropped to 200, up to 600, 900, and in the two hundreds again. Articles which used be rank in the top 5 don't even show up in the indexes any more. Urban Lowdown has been my pet project that I have done totally on my own time and money, and it's so depressing to watch what's been happening.

If you can shed any light on where exactly I may have screwed things up, I would be eternally grateful.

kind regards,
Gordon

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Gordon

It sounds like a typical case of Sandboxitis to me. Google almost always places an aging delay on newly launched sites, but sometimes existing sites that undergo a design change can trip a filter that places them in the Google Sandbox for an undisclosed period of time. While in the Sandbox, the site seems to disappear from the Google SERPs for related keywords and can sometimes only be found for the domain name or site name.

Naturally, this can cause webmasters to panic, but it usually wears off after a few months and the site re-emerges in the rankings once again. As for your site, you are showing a healthy Google Toolbar PageRank of 5 out of 10, over 11,800 pages indexed by Google and 74 backward links pointing to your site from other sites, indicating no serious damage. I think you simply have to play the waiting game for a few weeks and things will naturally revert to normal.

In the meantime, you might want to lessen your reliance on Google for traffic and start marketing your site via other channels.

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Q and A: Why isn't Google indexing my site?

Dear Kalena...

My site has not been indexed in Google for the last one month. I submitted articles, blogs to different sites and submitted links to 100 directories. Could you please tell me what are the strategies I should adopt to get listed in Google? My site got indexed in Yahoo and MSN.

J

Kalena's Answer:

Dear J

It would have helped if you'd included your site URL in your question! Without that, I can only guess at the problem. Here are my best guesses:

1) If your site has only recently been launched, you are probably experiencing Google's aging delay for new sites, which can last up to 9 months.

2) You say you've submitted "links to 100 directories". If this has been done as part of some dodgy link scheme, then Google may have penalized you for it. Brush up on why here.

3) If only a few pages on your site have been indexed, your site's navigation may be preventing or discouraging Googlebot from finding all your content. Create a search engine friendly navigation structure and prepare and upload an XML sitemap to Google Sitemaps.

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Q and A: Why is Google indexing fewer pages on our site?

Dear Kalena...

Thanks for all your great advice. My question is this:

We have had www.livingwithanxiety.com for several years now. We just
recently did a major update and finally, after years, we changed our
meta tags, titles, and so on. We have been submitting an xml sitemap
to google now for about three months. We topped out at about 42 pages
being indexed, but today, we looked and have only 9. What happened? Is
it because of the changes? Traffic literally has halved. Hmm...

Thanks again for all you do!

Sincerely,
Nashell

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Nashell

I've checked and Google has currently indexed 25 pages on your site.

If you were ranking for particular keywords before your site update, the changes you made may have negatively impacted that. If you are certain your new page content, META and Title tags have been optimized well for target keywords, it is more likely that you have been caught up in the Google aging delay or Sandbox effect for re-designed sites.

You should continue to update and submit your XML sitemap whenever you add new content, build more incoming links and wait for Google to let you out of rankings limbo. Be patient!

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