Ever Feel A Little ‘Lost’ (does Google know you exist?)

You don’t know where you are in Google or even if Google knows your site exists! So how can you tell? What are the basics of getting your site indexed by Google and, stage #2, ranked well? Hmmm, let’s address that…

For the uninitiated it can be very confusing . You’ve had a web site for a while, maybe years, but it doesn’t seem to get you any extra business. So what’s the best way to address that?

First things first, let’s see if you are in Google’s index (  a good analogy would be to find out whether your ‘book’ is available in Google’s  ‘library’?)

The thing that you have to get your head around is this:  once uploaded, your web site IS on the Internet. That DOESN’T mean Google recognises that fact! Consequently unless somebody types your exact www.address into Google, or any search engine, you will never be found!

It’s a fact that 80% of the content on the Web falls into this category!

What we want, of course, is that when anybody types a phrase into a Google or Yahoo or Bing search box that YOUR site comes up as being relevant to what they typed…

First things first though, let’s check if Google knows you exist.

Type: site:yoursitename.com into the Google search box below – obviously put YOUR domain in there, .co.uk if not .com etc. – don’t worry about the www bit, but do add the site: bit…

Hopefully you’ll see that your Home page, at least, is indexed ( don’t worry if the results don’t show all your pages at this stage) you just want the reassurance of knowing that the Google knows you exist and that’s a start!

Getting them to LOVE you and to sit, panting with expectation, waiting on your next utterance is stage #2!

If they say they’ve no record of your site? Oops! There could be a number of reasons for this but I suspect the main one might be that your web design fellow has done a crappy job and Google simply can’t find you.

Here’s a video showing the basics of on site SEO:

Get the free SEOptimum – 31 Days To Re-Animate A Dead Site guide, over there on the right, and mail it to the twit you hired to build your site. You have to work REALLY hard at creating a site that Google can’t find and index these days. I call these ‘Lost’ sites ‘Cousin Kevin’ sites as they were probably built by a pubescent friend of the family who has since moved on to discover far more interesting things like GIRLS!

Related posts:

1. Ever feel like people just don’t want you around?
2. Let’s Not Make Google Angry!