Why can't I find my site in Google?

Would you be kind enough to point me the right direction: If I search for my website in Google like this "Holiday Sun Direct" I am not listed. However if I search Google like this "holidaysundirect" I am listed. Can you tell me how to correct this on my website please, or point me in direction of someone who could help me?

Dave's Answer:

Without realizing it, you're really asking a huge, critically important question for every business, online or off. What I believe you're really asking is how do I ensure my business is maximally "findable" in the search engines?

There are entire industries that have cropped up to help you answer that question and plenty of books too, including my own highly acclaimed Growing Your Business with Google.

To even start to answer your question, we need to step back and talk about how search engines work and what the search engine developers are trying to accomplish in the first place. Let's start with this statement: The very best search engine would be one where you could have an informative and valuable content page appear for just about any search you could imagine.

Flipping that around, it means that the best way for you to produce a Web page that's going to be highly ranked in the search engine results is to create good content and ensure that you've framed the page and otherwise crafted it to make it as simple as possible for the search engines to quickly ascertain your main topic and keywords.

There are lots of ways to accomplish this goal - as explained in my book, and many other places - but one of the most obvious is to ensure that you talk about your specific subject as frequently as possible. Instead of saying "Holiday Sun Direct" the first time you mention it, then "HSD" or "Sun" subsequently, reiterate the same phrase a few more times. It helps the search engines know that, indeed, "Holiday Sun Direct" is the key topic on the page.

You'll also notice that I say "page", not "site". That's another important idea: search engines no longer pay attention to Web sites, but instead focus on individual pages. This makes sense when you realize just how much variety there can be on larger sites, where they might have completely diverse information in different categories or sections. The focus on pages is profound, because instead of having "one good page" or a "pretty home page", you need to ensure that every single page on your Web site helps clarify your company's offerings, the services you provide, and, of course, the specific topic of that page.

So when you ask "why can't I find my site when I search for ..." you're really asking the million dollar question, but I suggest you ask it slightly differently anyway. Try this one: "why can't my customers find me when they search for..."

Then I'd say it's time to start reading up on the subject and attending a few workshops and seminars.

Hope that helps out!

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Categorized: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (Article 4257, Written by Dave Taylor)
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Reader Comments To Date: 36

Dave Starr said, on November 4, 2005 3:43 PM:

Excellent point on thinking as the customer would, Dave. It's perhaps the 'most missed' point in many search engine optimizing strategies.

Looking for 'holidaysundirect' shows me that the questioner is in the business of renting out holiday homes, particularly in the Mediterain. Somehting I might be interested in at some time. But if I were searching now on Google, why would I type in "holidaysundirectMediterraneanSomething" or "Holiday Sun Direct". I'd be interested in holiday homes rental, sublet, etc., none of which the subject site seems to rank very high on.

Holiday Sun Direct is just a business name to a stranger, it could just as easily be 'Joe's Vacation Rental'. It isn't "Joe's" name that will attract me, it's the position of "Joe's" (I seldom ever go past the first page) and the inventory I'll see when I click on "Joe's" site.

Focus on that part of the equation and I feel you're business will really pick up.

Best regards
Dave

Troy Myers said, on December 4, 2005 5:28 PM:

Dear Dave: Bought your book and I love it. Very helpful and I hope profitable. The question I have is. I have my business listed on Google but my key words are glow in the dark paint. One out of 7 mil. How does one find where how low I am in the food chain easily. Besides going through each page. If I type www.GloNaion.com my links to other sites show up and I come up but what I need is when someone types in Glow in the dark Paint where am I.
Thanks for your help
Troy Myers

Dave Taylor said, on December 5, 2005 5:57 AM:

Thanks for your note, Troy. There's no really easy way to ascertain your placement after a certain point because the Google API only returns the first 200 results (as I recall) so if you're lower than that, even the best tool isn't going to work. Instead, if you can see that you're not in the first dozen pages or so, you just need to get more inbound links that reinforce your keywords, and just keep working on your site. Good luck!

zan said, on July 14, 2006 9:03 AM:

I just want crawlers to find my link so google will finally find my site!

Darren said, on December 1, 2006 7:04 PM:

Hi Dave,

I have also purchased your book, Building Your Business with Google. However, you don't talk too much about how Dynamic Pages affect Google index rankings.

I have a website called http://www.funtrav.com and can't seem to get it to index on Google. It is listed in Yahoo and MSN but not on Google. I have linked a webBlog called www.coachtourguide.com which is listed in Google to try and attract the Googlebot but with no luck yet. Would it be because I used a lot of dynamic pages on the site? What effect do dynamic pages have on SEO?

Regards
Darren

Dave Taylor said, on December 2, 2006 11:06 PM:

Darren, unless you have an excess of variables in your URL, that is, unless it looks like

www.xx.com/y.cgi?a=b&c=b&d=e&f=g&h=ijk

you should be good and having dynamic pages probably isn't what's wrong. Could you be in the "sandbox"?

Darren said, on December 12, 2006 2:47 PM:

Hi Dave,

I have finally been listed in the google index. By the way what is the "sandbox"?

Thanks
Darren

Holly said, on March 20, 2007 10:35 PM:

How can I tell if Ive been sandboxed? my site comes up when i spell a word wrong on google. For instance instead of mortgage, ill spell mortagge and it will be in the search results. Am i sandboxed?

Picasso said, on April 21, 2007 11:50 AM:

well google is a mystery, they try to keep things random , so no one makes sense of their structure!

Holly said, on February 6, 2008 1:35 PM:

Im curious about the meta tag title ..How important is it in where a sight sits in ranking? Do the title words have to be in the description and keyword meta tags?

Dimitry said, on March 11, 2008 1:04 PM:

Hi Dave,
i noticed that you have deleted the comment of one of the users that wanted to make his site fames i think it was ( www.gogoogle.co.nr ) although i found his site to be very useful!!!!!
.....any way i wanted to ask you.... don't google give the chance for people to send there site url to them to see if google find there site to be good enough to be listed in there search engines ? if yes what is the procedure.
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.

Dave Taylor said, on March 12, 2008 11:18 AM:

Hi Dimitry. I have no idea what you're talking about in regards to an area on the Google search engine where you can submit a site URL to see if it's "good enough" to make it into the engine. Sorry!

DEE BUEBENDORF said, on May 5, 2008 5:26 AM:

WHY CAN'T YOU PEOPLE EVER ANSWER MY QUESTIONS DIRECTLY? SO SIMPLE

taufan said, on August 3, 2008 9:17 AM:

I found a page on google where it tells me to put a tag on my index file or add a google page so that its bot can crawl on it. However, I can't seem to find it. Could anyone help me finding the page? Thanks.

vaans
www.operasidijerman.com

anil saini said, on March 2, 2009 4:29 AM:

my site domin not show in google it show in yahoo and msn, what problem pl. help

John said, on March 11, 2009 12:14 AM:

I'm not the most experienced when it comes to web sites, but I think that there is a difference between finding a specific URL like www.gogle.com or finding your web site when you put in carpentry work or painter. If you paid to launch your web site, as I did, shouldn't I at least be able to find it, when I am putting in a specific URL as opposed to doing a search for a restoration company?

Thanks,

Dave Taylor said, on March 11, 2009 3:59 PM:

John, generally when you search for a specific page URL on Google it's a bit ambiguous: are you looking for that page or for pages that link to that page, or to pages that *show* the link thereon? What I would recommend is picking the first 10-12 words on your home page, then searching for that, in quotes, on Google. That'll show if that specific page is in the index.

Matthew Shea said, on April 3, 2009 1:08 AM:

Yes you can submit your URL to google. So far it hasn't done jack smack for me though. Its been about 2 weeks and still nothing. Any way here is the link

http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Good Luck!

Mr. W said, on May 1, 2009 9:20 PM:

Hi Dave,

I had similar issues with Google initially not finding my site ... well, kind of finding it! It still won't find the site even if I put information that should find it, such as quotes around the introductory line. If Google does find it, it only goes to the *code page* and not the frontpage.

My site is http://mrwilliamswiki.wikispaces.com/

I have had it up for about 3 months, and this is the best Google can do for me at the moment. Since it is a wikispaces account, which is great in itself, I can't add any code, etc. to help the bots find it. Do I just require patience?

Cheers

Mr. W said, on May 10, 2009 3:12 PM:

Well, patience IS the key. For Google anyway! Not up at the other Search Engines as yet, although I have added the URL to their 'add URL' pages. Oh well, I'll keep patience at the fore.

Kisan said, on June 17, 2009 3:13 AM:

Respected Sir

My company name is Paper corporation of India

when I put in search engine paper corporation of india my co name is not showing

I need your help when I put my company name it will show first in google search engine

your faithfully
kisan

Andrew said, on August 4, 2009 4:27 AM:

I have done everything and every crazy suggestion to get the site I've just built for a friend indexed in google and nothing seems to work. I've managed to get other sites indexed in the past but for some reason not this one!!! I've even followed some outlandish suggestions like deleteing my meta description and keyword tags. The website is www.ericneal.co.uk, I have some back links and have had for weeks but still nothing.

Andrea said, on October 26, 2009 12:15 PM:

hello i got a new websit for about a week

why when i find it in google it doesnt have a green tick ?1 as in safe websit? any ideas is only a week old could it be just that

Dave Taylor said, on October 26, 2009 12:49 PM:

Andrew, is it possible that the previous owner of that URL had sufficiently bad material online that Google blacklisted it and that's why you can't get indexed?

Andrea, I'm afraid I don't know what the 'green tick' is, so I don't know how to answer that question.

darkknight said, on November 1, 2009 5:34 PM:

i f****n tryed that just two minutes ago for my friends website an' it diddn't work!:( :d :o

Gyandeep Soni said, on January 21, 2010 11:49 PM:

Dear Sir Kindly help me.
Iam a freelancing web developer. whenever i make a new site & host it. after submitting a site url in webmaster tool still we cant see in google search after entering a full url i.e. www.acetutorials.com
(above mentioned is my cleint's site)
it showing error site is not indexed check webmaster tool guidelines.

iam facing this problem every time when i host my client site.

what are the reasons? and how can i comeout with it. i hav read webmaster tool guidelines but i dint understand anythig.

Plz....plz...............plz........help me

- Gyandeep
(Genesis Web Solutions)
www.genesiswebsol.com
info@genesiswebsol.com

Joep said, on March 21, 2010 8:25 AM:

Thanks for sharing this information. I too have trouble finding my website, hope this helps!

simon said, on March 24, 2010 4:57 AM:

Hello,
I cant get my site on google (http://seallinephotographycentre.jimdo.com/)
I have tried to add it but has not appeared on google. Its been ages now. Could you help me please?

vastgoed fotografie said, on April 1, 2010 6:59 AM:

Simon,

try adding your website to directory websites. Suggest your site to google. Use the google webmaster tool to upload a sitemap. Start blogging and ad your url.

Try your best to get on sites which get crawled requently.

Good luck.

Linda said, on June 21, 2010 1:46 AM:

Why can't I find my site www.overbergarts.co.za in google

Fiona Haywood said, on August 31, 2010 5:48 AM:

I have built 2 websites, one of my own and one for a friend. Mine has been running for around 5 years or so and my friends only a few months. Neither of them show up in Google when I search for the profession/object of the website - I have all the words in keywords (I use 1 and 1 software which I love for designing). How do I ensure that google will pick them up if I simply type 'massage in Cambridge' for my friends and 'linedancing cambridgeshire' for mine? I'm getting hassle from someone who wants them to come up but I have no clue how to do it - the website addresses are:
www.alanhaywood.co.uk and www.holistictherapy.biz

I emplore you for some help! I can't do metatags, there is no scope within the software to do those - just keywords. Is there something I can do within Google to make them work with a search??

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks

Fiona Haywood -

Mitchell said, on October 3, 2010 11:26 AM:

I have a website www.blockstoy.com.But there is no updates on it.The only one page was archieved with the old content.There is no new messages here:(.What should I do?

murugan said, on December 23, 2010 6:10 AM:

Dear Dave,

I have added my url in google search enginee. My blog is now showing on google search engine. Please give your valuable comments on it.

Jeff said, on January 4, 2012 6:33 PM:

Hi Dave,

Just a very quick question, why I can find my page by using others proxies (eg: Malaysia, UK....) but not US proxies in google.com?

Thanks,
Jeff

R R Karel said, on January 17, 2012 1:31 AM:

Dear Dave
My Host Name is 000webhost.com
my website is( Domain Name ) bestmatccch4u.com
I am unable to trace through google search.
neither www.bestmatch4u.com
nor http://www.bestmatch4u.com
Please help.
Thanks

Sam said, on October 21, 2012 2:07 AM:

Hullo, I've already submitted my website www.namesfind.us to many search engines including Google may be one week passed but still I am not able to find it.anyone can help?

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Why can't I find my site in Google?

Reader Comments To Date: 36

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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