Can’t Be Found On Google? Here Are 7 Reasons Why They Can’t Index Your Site

Are you struggling to get your website found on Google? Are you afraid your competitors are snapping up all your potential customers?

 

In order to place you in their search engine results Google needs to be able to “crawl” your website using a series of programs called spiders which move from link to link taking note of your coding and content. If Google can’t do that then your site won’t be listed in their search results!

 

QuickSprout have put together the infographic below describing the indexing process in more detail as well as listing seven common reasons why Google can’t index your site.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/12/23/cant-be-found-on-google-here-are-7-reasons-why-they-cant-index-your-site/

 

3 SEO Vulnerabilities to Avoid When Changing the Design of Your Site

Updating the design and structure of your site from time to time is a requirement of the age of online marketing. Designs get stale, technology evolves, and your customers are always looking for the next big thing, so eventually, whether it’s two years or six years down the line, you’ll have to rebuild your website from the ground up.

 

It’s an exciting opportunity for the entrepreneur enthusiastic about the future of the brand. It’s a new challenge and another project for the design and development team. But for the search marketer trying to maintain and build on their site’s current level of success, the whole process can be a nightmare. Pulling one version of your website down and putting another one up is like swiftly pulling a tablecloth out from under a set table without breaking or moving anything; it’s next to impossible unless you know what you’re doing.

 

Fortunately, many of us have gone through the process before and have escaped at least relatively unscathed. Chances are, you’re going to see a bit of volatility no matter what, but you can mitigate the effects by watching out for these three common vulnerabilities:

 

1. A Changing URL Structure.

The biggest problem you’re likely going to face as you update your website is a disconnection between your old URL structure and your new URL structure. In a perfect world, you would maintain an identical URL structure, thereby preventing the possibility of a discrepancy, but then you probably wouldn’t need to be updating your site in the first place.

 

There’s one critical danger here, which can have a rippling effect that permanently damages your domain authority and crashes your ranks. Your URLs have history with Google, and Google likes links with history. Its search engine algorithm has come to expect your site to be in a very specific structure and a very specific order, and when it goes to crawl your new site, if it doesn’t see what it expects to see, it triggers a red flag. Historical links, with lots of credibility, that suddenly disappear in favor of entirely new links can wreak havoc on your domain authority, putting you in the same position as a site for a brand that just launched.

 

The problem is compounded by external links. Naturally, you’ve built a number of links on external sites pointing to various internal pages of your domain in an effort to improve your authority. If any of those links become no longer relevant, the page rank those links pass will become useless, and you’ll have a profile full of dead links pointing to nowhere, further damaging your domain authority and possibly interfering with your inbound traffic.

 

Fortunately, there is a simple—but admittedly painstaking—strategy you can use to ensure this outcome doesn’t occur. First, you’ll need to set up a Webmaster Tools account and crawl your site or use an alternative tool to generate a list of all the URLs found on your current website structure—and don’t forget about all your subdomains! Then, if you can, do everything you can to keep that link structure as similar as possible.

 

For any old links that do not have an immediate counterpart in the new site, or for links whose names have changed, you’ll want to set up 301 redirects. Fortunately, setting up 301 redirects is easy, and once they’re in place, any traffic that would encounter your old URL will be automatically pointed to the new one. This should prevent any damaging crawl errors from Google, and will definitely keep all your inbound external links accurate and functional.

 

2. Design and CMS Pains.

Unless you’re working for a very small business, your new website is going to be in the hands of many individuals from many teams and many different departments. Everybody is going to have their own perspectives on what would be best with the site. Multiple opinions, collaborating together can ultimately culminate in the greatest final product, but you can’t forget about Google’s perspective.

 

Graphic designers want to make the most visually appealing site possible, but there are some design principles that need to be balanced in order to fit with Google’s priorities and prevent a nosedive in your ranks. For example, most designers would prefer a site designed with minimalism, with only a handful of links in the navigation and as little onsite content as possible. However, Google likes to see lots of high-quality pages, and without ample onsite content, the search engine may find it difficult to understand your purpose. There is always room for a compromise, so work with your designers to find a good balance that works for both of your goals.

 

Similarly, other members of your team may have strong preferences when it comes to selecting a CMS, either due to price or personal opinions. There are hundreds of CMS options out there, with varying compatibilities and functionality with SEO. Be sure to do your research and vet your options when considering a transition.

 

3. The Same Old Mistakes.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, transitioning to a new site is an opportunity to fix all the mistakes that were holding you back with the old site. Passing over this opportunity, or failing to give it its due attention, is a critical mistake and a vulnerability you cannot afford to neglect.

 

Throughout the planning and design process, run an audit of your current efforts on your current site. Where are you ranking? How much traffic are you getting? Where is that traffic going and how is it behaving? What problems are inherent in your navigation, and what gaps are there in your meta data?

 

Your first priority when designing a new site, from an SEO perspective, is your navigation. It needs to be simple and intuitive, but fleshed out enough so that any new visitor will know exactly where to go. It also needs to have strong anchor pages with keywords related to your business, and clear sitemaps for Google to read and understand your site.

 

Second, you’ll need to examine which of your pages tend to attract or retain the most traffic, and look for ways to replicate its success in your other pages (in terms of design, content, and purpose). While not directly linked to the process of getting a new site up and running, this is also a good idea to review your ongoing tactics and find ways to improve them.

 

Even though the process is ripe with SEO vulnerabilities that could shake up your rankings or traffic flow, your website rebuild is an opportunity, first and foremost. Treat it as such, and you’ll be able to reap the benefits.

 

No matter how much you plan or how closely you monitor the progress of your site transfer, it’s likely that there will be some hiccups in your web traffic and search standings. Try not to obsess over them; as long as you dedicate yourself to following the same (or improved) ongoing best practices as you did with your old site, you’ll see similar patterns of growth with the new one. Remember that SEO is a long-term strategy, and any short-term volatility you experience during the site transfer (as long as you’ve accounted for the critical vulnerabilities) is temporary.

 

http://www.audiencebloom.com/2015/02/3-seo-vulnerabilities-avoid-changing-design-site/

 

5 Simple SEO Tips for Better Rankings

Many people believe that SEO is hard but this is not true. Basic SEO configurations are very easy to implement and sometimes this is all you need to do to for maximum exposure on all major search engines.

 

If you are looking for a quick guide with simple but yet effective SEO tips then you are on the right page, read on!

 

1. Optimize Your Titles, URL and Descriptions

 

This is probably the oldest tip in the SEO industry but it is still the most important. Have a look at the examples below and ask yourself these questions:

 

• Which one is more descriptive?
• Which one is catchy and friendlier to the user?
• Which one gives you a very good idea of what the website is about without clicking?
• If you saw both in the search results, which one would you choose?

I am sure that the ‘first example’ is your answer to the above questions and this is expected because it presents:

 

• A unique and meaningful title
• A catchy description
• A well formatted URL

 

Examine your website using this way of thinking and if there is room for improvement in your titles and descriptions, this is your first priority and a great first step for getting better rankings.

 

2. Provide Useful and Fresh Content

 

One of the reasons you have a website or blog is to provide content to build an audience, keep your existing readers happy or gain new customers. By content we mean anything from articles, videos, infographics, slideshows, music, comments, reviews or anything else that is suited for your niche.

 

If your content is static, old or out of date then most probably your visitors will go away quickly and never come back. What is your first reaction when you visit a website that has out-of-date content? It’s exactly the same as the users visiting your website.

 

A couple of years ago we used to say to our clients that updating was not a very important SEO factor but this has changed due to the competition. There is big competition in every keyword you search and those websites that have the most useful and fresh content have more chances of winning the race.

 

Does this mean that you have to post new content daily? Not necessarily. Your publishing strategy depends on a number of other factors as well.

 

3. Improve Your Website’s Loading Time

If this is the first time you are reading that page speed is important for SEO then soon after reading this post you should do whatever is needed to improve the loading time of your website. If you have read about this before and have not yet done anything about it, you are doing a big mistake.

 

Because this is important I will keep it simple:

 

 

Page speed is a ranking factor – if you have two similar websites and the one is faster than the other, you can expect that it will also rank higher (provided that other things are equal).

 

Faster websites generate more conversions – This means more sales, more RSS subscribers and more clicks on your ads (if you are using Adsense for example).

 

More page views – When a website loads fast users are likely to visit more than one page before they leave.

 

 

How can you improve the speed of your website? I know that it is not an easy task especially if you are not a technical person but it is important to handle page speed without further delays.

 

If you cannot afford to hire an SEO or a developer to make your web site load faster, what you can do is the following:

 

• Remove big images
• Remove unnecessary JavaScript files
• Use sprites instead of small images to minimize http redirects
• Move to a faster hosting provider
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) service
• Use resources from Google for more tips and tools

 

4. Implement Google Authorship

 

When Google introduces a new feature that is related to their search results, you have to follow their path without delay. The good news is that Google authorship is a feature very useful to the searches as well because:

 

• They get to know before clicking a link, who wrote it, how popular he/she is (from the number of circles) and they can easily find more about the author by clicking the image and or name.

For authors and webmasters Google authorship is important because:

 

• They get higher click through rates (CTR) – studies have confirmed that searches are more likely to click a result that shows the author image as well.
• It’s an indication of Google trust – if Google shows your image next to your results it’s a sign that they trust you and your website.

All you need to do to implement Google authorship is a Google+ profile and then link your content with your profile. Being active on Google+ is also recommended for greater exposure.

 

5. Register your Website with Google and Bing Webmaster Tools

 

In a previous post, when I was explaining the 10 most common SEO mistakes, I said that not having your website registered with the webmaster tools is like driving with your eyes closed. This is true and I cannot think of any valid reason as to why you should not take advantage of the plethora of information given to you by both Google and Bing.

 

Some people believe that by not registering your website with Google you can ‘hide’ things from them and slip under their radar and reach the top of the search results. This is not a ‘hide and seek’ game, good long term rankings can only be achieved if you follow valid methods and techniques. For the record: Google already knows everything they need to know about your website with or without submitting it to webmaster tools.

 

Once you go through the registration process and perform some basic configurations you will get notified if there is a problem with your website and also start looking at some interesting facts about your website like:

 

• Number of index pages
• Number of incoming links
• Search queries
• Crawl errors
• Number of internal links

 

Conclusion

 

The above 5 tips are simple but at the same time they are also very important.  If you are running a blog, ecommerce store or content driven website and you are not getting traffic from search engines, then you need to ensure that you have implemented the above 5 tips correctly.

 

https://www.reliablesoft.net/5-simple-seo-tips-for-better-rankings/

The Best 404 Error Pages (And How to Prevent Them From Ever Happening Again)

In your time on the Internet, you’ve probably stumbled across a 404 page or two. In technical terms, a 404 page is a page on a website that a user is directed to if they try to navigate to a page that either doesn’t exist or can’t be found on the server.

Back in the early days of the Internet, 404 errors usually transported you to a jarringly generic page which proclaimed, “The page cannot be found,” and provided some suggestions to help you find what you were looking for. Nowadays, many websites boast useful, funny, or just plain bizarre custom 404 pages.

• NPR’s amusing 404 page gives you a list of articles about lost people (like Amelia Earhart), places (like the city of Atlantis), and things (like your luggage).
• Blue Fountain Media’s 404 page lets you play Pac-Man in your browser.
• This brilliant 404 page from Nouveller recreates the ill fated system security interface from Jurassic Park. Type a few things into the Control Console and see what happens!

While entertaining 404 pages can be fun to come across, 404 pages are no fun when they appear on your site — and cause your visitors to click away in frustration. Here are a few ways you can prevent your visitors from encountering the dreaded 404:

 

Monitor Your Site for 404s

 

You can use tools like Google Webmaster Tools or Google Analytics to monitor how many 404 errors your site’s visitors are getting. While a certain amount will be attributed to mistyped URLs, if you notice an increase in 404s, you can bet you’ve got either:

• A broken link on your site
• A page you’ve deleted or changed the URL for that users are still trying to access, or
• Another website linking to your site with a mistyped URL

 

Once you know where users are running into 404 errors on your site, you can fix broken links or apply redirects.

 

Keep Track of Your URL Structure

 

To avoid 404 errors caused by pages that have been moved, deleted, or had their names changed, try to avoid doing any of those things. It sounds like a simple concept because it is simple — in theory. In practice, however, there are plenty of valid reasons you may need to move or delete a page. You might misspell the URL of the original page, you might decide to consolidate two or more pages into one, or the page may simply become irrelevant.

 

You can avoid 404s on these pages by keeping track of your site’s URL structure in an Excel document or even a paper notebook and being proactive when you need to move or delete a page. Rather than allowing these pages to become dead links, you can redirect users who try to access them to the new URL or another page.

 

Use 301 Redirects

 

A 301 redirect is a way to automatically redirect users who land on a page of your site that doesn’t exist to another page of your choosing. Applying 301 redirects is an incredibly useful way to ensure your visitors don’t land on a 404 page. Use redirects for:

• Common typos. (For example, Fiver.com redirects to Fiverr.com)
• Pages you’ve moved to a new URL.
• Pages you’ve deleted, if there’s another relevant page users can visit instead.

 

Applying 301 redirects is easy. If you’re using WordPress, you can download a plugin to redirect traffic if a user tries to navigate to a page that has been deleted or moved. If you know PHP, you can use that to create 301 redirects.

 

Don’t Make Your 404 Page a Dead End

 

Even by following all these tips, you won’t be able to guarantee no one will ever get a 404 error when trying to visit your site. Since users will be ending up on these pages anyway, use them as an opportunity to direct users to the part of your site they do want to see — or at least to some of the other useful, relevant content you’ve got on your site.

 

You can use your 404 page to:

• Showcase your most popular posts or products, like Betabrand does.
• Help users find the page they’re looking for by including a search box, like WordPress does.
• Put users in touch with you by linking to your social media channels, email address, or help center, like Dropbox does.
• Encourage users to make a purchase, subscribe to your newsletter, or sign up, like eHarmony does.
• Direct users back to your homepage or another relevant page on your site, like Hootsuite does.

 

As you’re working on updating your 404 pages and redirecting users to other areas of your personal or business website, there are still some thing your website will still need in order to keep users engaged. And potentially making a purchase decision.

 

Here are 5 of those tips for your website:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most businesses stick to functional websites and don’t focus too much on re-branding or changing their website. Why mess with it if it works, right? Sometimes a simple design refresh can make a huge difference. Other times, you just need a complete change to stay up to date with the times.

http://blog.fiverr.com/best-404-error-pages-prevent-ever-happening/

12 Tips for Keyword Selection to Guide Your Content Marketing SEO

Some content marketers do not take their time in terms of keyword selection for natural search engine rankings. They shirk proper research and analysis, or merely take wild stabs at whether a keyword phrase is worth pursuing in the first place which is a reckless way of approaching it.

If you continually create content without thinking through search engine optimization (SEO) and keywords, you will rank for something (content does resonate with search engine algorithms). Yet, you will consistently run the risk of short changing your SEO strategy — and your company’s ability to gain a fair share of relevant search engine traffic — for branding, conversions and much more.

Every single piece of content on a specific website or in a blog post is not necessarily going to lift a company to number one on Google for a keyword phrase that people use 15,000 times a month. But you can get more out of SEO with just a small bit more effort.

As much as your time and your skills allow, you should consider the following questions and factors that affect content marketing and SEO in every piece of online content you create and distribute. To make the process easy, we have created a short checklist that you can reference when thinking through keyword possibilities for your website or blog content.

Ask yourself the questions in this checklist as you begin your SEO efforts — you can learn a bit more about the details involved in each point below:

1.  Have I mined keyword research resources?

It’s not altogether uncommon to go straight to Google for ideas (though your AdWords account provides more in-depth data than this free tool), but Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, and other tools can provide more insights. We are partial to SEMrush, which suggests possible keywords that you may have overlooked in your own pages and posts (it analyzes more than 95 million keywords). You can also tune into the words people use at Social Mention. I’ve even checked the index at the back of a book for ideas.

Here are some keyword phrases we found at SEMrush. Within a few minutes, we had an Excel spreadsheet filled with 30,000 keyword ideas from a Fortune 100 company. Despite some high rankings, it is clear that the company has plenty of opportunities to rank better:

                                     

Even if you find keywords among the data that’s available, it is very important to know if people are searching for them or not. Your list might look good, but search counts really matter. Yes, sometimes you should target a keyword phrase with over 1,000 monthly searches. But quite often, you may want something less competitive. I don’t rule out keyword phrases with 50 searches a month, but I also don’t jump at ones with 30,000 searches. If you do go that high, it’s because the keyword phrase is relevant and the website has much going for it, especially in terms of inbound links.

2. Is the keyword phrase relevant?

Does the keyword really match what your business does or who it is targeted at? Years ago, someone told us that he wanted to rank for the word “e-commerce.” It never occurred to him that this term might be a little broad. In a case like this, he should have considered “e-commerce” as part of a keyword phrase, like “e-commerce solution provider.”

It is very important to remember that the keywords you choose must look like a natural part of what you’re writing. Also, it is vital to keep in mind that the spelling can make a difference. “Swing set” may be the preferred term for playground equipment, but many people search for “swingset.” You don’t want to use the “wrong” word and appear like you can’t spell correctly. (Though with something as common as “swing set,” you could probably go with a version on one page and another spelling on a different page.)

3. Are we buying this keyword phrase through paid search?

Paid search, including buying ads on Google, is another source of keyword research that your company may already have on hand. But many companies settle for performance from paid search and skip SEO to their detriment. If you are buying a keyword for paid search, you must make sure that it is also a viable candidate for SEO and content marketing.

For example, a large specialty retailer may invest in the keyword “GE dishwasher.” If it’s working because the paid search conversions are acceptable, then it may also be worth pursuing with SEO.

Conductor, which released “Natural Search Trends of the Fortune 500” in 2010, found that Fortune 500 companies spent $3.4 million a day on paid search with nearly 100,000 keyword phrases. However, only 2 percent of their websites and keywords made it into the first 30 organic (non-paid) results on Google.

Sure, you can buy your way to the top of the paid results on the search engines, and outstanding natural search engine rankings may not come easily. But if you are paying for the keywords, that should be a signal that an SEO strategy must be given serious consideration. It’s not just about ranking so high that you can stop paying for a keyword phrase. Depending on the conversions and ROI goals, maybe you will keep a keyword phrase with both paid and natural search.

4. Are you already ranking for the keyword phrase?

As you start writing, it is good to know how well you are ranking for the topic you are covering. Are you in the Top 10, Top 15, Top 20 or all the way out at 199?

You can use online tools like Web CEO, BrightEdge, and SEOmoz to get ranking data. (To learn more about tools like these, get the “Enterprise SEO Tools: The Marketer’s Guide,” which explores the different platforms that can help you manage, track, and optimize thousands of keywords.)

5. Will my new page adequately mention the keyword phrase?

You can write some incredible material that goes into great detail about a topic with examples and fresh perspectives. But make sure that you incorporate your most strategic keyword phrases along the way. You cannot get by with just one reference in the 13th of 15 paragraphs.

Keyword density “rules” have been debated for a long time. But a top priority should always be to look out for natural opportunities to mention specific keywords. If you are using your target keyword phrase every 150-200 words, you’re probably on track. And don’t worry too much if you use them more often, as long as it doesn’t look like you forced the keyword phrase in where it doesn’t necessarily belong it will be fine. You can always scale back the references after you check on your rankings (which will also be heavily influenced by the page title, page header, the age of the website, inbound links, and many other factors).

6. How much traffic is my website receiving for the keyword phrase?

As you look in-depth into your own website analytics, you should see a lot of keyword data. You can dive deep a couple of ways, including analyzing the initial keywords used to reach your website and your internal site search data when they arrive. For example, you might discover that someone searches for “construction loan financing,” but that may prompt you to look at some options like “construction loan requirements” or “how construction loans work.” You may also need to change your content strategy to work the new keyword phrases into existing or new website pages.

Do not be too discouraged if you find that a keyword phrase is not searched that often, as it may still hold a lot of value. We look at the keyword traffic in light of rankings. For example, a keyword phrase may have only 30 or so searches a month, but that 30 may rank poorly only as a result that no one gave the keyword a boost with serious SEO. On the other hand, a keyword phrase might rank as number two on Google and still bring only a couple dozen visitors. However, this would be okay if the keywords are a good match for the services or products that you are selling. You do not need over 1,000 visitors to connect with good prospects.

We always keep an eye out for multiple keyword phrases on a web page that rank highly in terms of SEO. You might find that a single page could support “free online checking account” and “free checking accounts online.” However, sometimes you cannot get both phrases to rank among the top three positions (maybe one keyword phrase ranks number six and the other ranks number thirteen). You might need a new priority page that just focuses on one of the phrases in order to get it to rank much better.

7. Am I getting website traffic for similar keywords?

I constantly check website analytics to see what relevant keywords people are searching for that I didn’t even include on my list of the most strategic keyword phrases. Existing and new content created in conjunction with SEO efforts can give life to a wide assortment of related keywords and phrases. For example, I may have originally targeted “laptop computer” for a given piece of content, but the way you write your content may give rise to a number of other keyword phrases like, “buying a laptop computer.” You can take credit for the impact by charting search engine traffic growth for those keywords, page views, and more.

8. Is this keyword phrase (or similar phrases) already converting?

You can track keywords through your website analytics and conversion funnels, including e-commerce (associating the keywords with the product sales). Some companies gain greater insights with call tracking services like those offered by Mongoose Metrics and Marchex and others. Call tracking technology has does have many benefits. For example, at keyword level, when someone uses a keyword phrase on a search engine and then reaches a website, a unique phone number temporarily appears in the content (replacing the regular website phone number). The phone call, which is associated with the keyword phrase, can be tracked and recorded fairly easily.

9. Are there calls to action on the page?

It is very important that you target keyword phrases in your content by including very effective calls to action. What is on offer? What exactly does it look like? Is it buried? If you drive traffic through SEO, you do not want the visitor to have to struggle in order to figure out what you want him to do as a result of viewing your content. Make it easily apparent that readers should call a toll-free number, request a demonstration, download a guide, or request more info, and then make sure you’ve made it easy for them to do it. It is also vitally important that you test the placement and colours of forms, phone numbers, and assorted offers. Many people think of SEO only in terms of keywords, but website usability and conversion opportunities can also help ensure that the SEO traffic pays off, rather than be wasted if too many people leave moments after they arrive at a website.

10. Are there related pages that could support an internal link strategy?

You can get high rankings for a single page, but your content marketing strategy will get a boost through SEO if you have related pages created to support internal cross-linking. In simple words, ensure that you create opportunities to cross-link the strategic keywords in the anchor text on several of your pages or posts to improve your odds of higher search engine rankings. It is very important not to forget to include the targeted keyword phrase within your links (or at least near the link). For example, maybe one page mentions “low cost car insurance” in passing, but those words could be included in the text of a link to another page on your site or blog that goes into more detail about the pros and cons of low cost car insurance policies.

11. How will this keyword phrase choice fit into future content?

The keyword selection options for SEO and content marketing should be based on planned content for the upcoming weeks ahead, not just the content you’re dealing with today. With a content calendar, you will start thinking about keyword possibilities even before someone writes up an article, describes a certain service, or creates a blog post. If you have a main set of keyword phrases, your content planning strategies should then reflect your keyword phrase priorities and deficiencies. For example, if you are already ranking very high for “riding lawn mowers,” maybe that doesn’t need your attention. However, you may be ranking poorly for “self propelled lawn mower,” and want to create content to address this in the near future, your keyword plans should keep this in mind.

12. Is the keyword phrase in our domain name?

Google announced in 2012 that it would drastically cracking down on low quality exact match domains (EMD) for websites that want to rank primarily on the merits of their domains. It is certain that Google wanted to deal with obnoxious domains and small websites (like this pretend domain: seocontentmarketingtipsideasforonlinemarketers.com). However, for respectable websites, the domain name still seems to influence search engine rankings.

Conclusion

We are sure you will want to weigh some other factors as well before selecting keywords, but the above list gives you a good starting point.

At a minimum, leverage the keyword research tools available to see if people are actually using the keyword phrase that you are targeting. It is inevitable that you’re going to create content that people aren’t searching for at a rate of 10,000 times a month (maybe you will need to settle for 100 in some instances when you look at alternative keyword phrases). But any new content can be a good opportunity to include your most strategic set of keyword phrases and cross-link them with your existing content.

http://www.jefmedia.ie/blog-detail/12-tips-for-keywords-selection