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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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Comments

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

Posted by: Dave Starr at November 4, 2005 3:43 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

Posted by: Troy Myers at December 4, 2005 5:28 PM

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!

Posted by: Dave Taylor at December 5, 2005 5:57 AM

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

Posted by: zan at July 14, 2006 9:03 AM

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

Posted by: Darren at December 1, 2006 7:04 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"?

Posted by: Dave Taylor at December 2, 2006 11:06 PM

Hi Dave,

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

Thanks
Darren

Posted by: Darren at December 12, 2006 2:47 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?

Posted by: Holly at March 20, 2007 10:35 PM

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

Posted by: Picasso at April 21, 2007 11:50 AM

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?

Posted by: Holly at February 6, 2008 1:35 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.

Posted by: Dimitry at March 11, 2008 1:04 PM

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!

Posted by: Dave Taylor at March 12, 2008 11:18 AM

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

Posted by: DEE BUEBENDORF at May 5, 2008 5:26 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

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