How can I get Google to re-Index sites?

[Seamaster]

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I made my sites, posted a link on Gumtree, they got indexed by Google and appeared on page one for the keywords.

Over the weeks they have slipped down the ranks to page 10+ and have not been reindexed as they are still showing old page infomration in the search results.

I've tried reposting the links on Gumtree but there hasnt been an update of the information listed in Google.

I've also added them to Google Webmaster tools and submitted the sitemap and I've posted the links in other places that might get crawled.

Its a bit of a pain because my sites are slipping down Google and no longer get any traffic but as I change them or add content they don't seem to be getting updated by Google.

Is this a familiar story? Should I dump the sites and move on?

How can I get google to crawl and index my sites more often?

Thanks.

[Top banana]

Yes this is normal, if you dont add new content why do you think google needs to come back?

One link from a gumtree is not enough to rank well, you need to add more content as often as possible and build more links into your site.

Read this: 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website : SEO Book.com

[Seamaster]

Yes this is normal, if you dont add new content why do you think google needs to come back?

Why would I not be adding new content?

Even if I wasnt adding new content how would google know I wasnt adding new content without crawling the site?

How soon after the site has been indexed do you need to add more content for google to decided your page is a page it needs to come back to? How long is that 'window period' you elude to?

One link from a gumtree is not enough to rank well

I'm not talking about linking from gumtree to get ranked, I'm talking about posting on Gumtree to get indexed - which does work - although not for reindexing, which this thread is about.

[Barry]

Its a very familiar story.

Don't worry about it, keep adding a little content every now and then and while you waiting make another site.

Ta

Baz

[fizzbird]

How soon after the site has been indexed do you need to add more content for google to decided your page is a page it needs to come back to? How long is that 'window period' you elude to?

You need to be thinking on a monthly basis, not day to day. Google has 100 billion other sites to look at and will prioritise as they see fit.

I'm not talking about linking from gumtree to get ranked, I'm talking about posting on Gumtree to get indexed - which does work - although not for reindexing, which this thread is about.

Spamming gumtree isn't the smartest thing to do - once you are indexed steer well clear, you can't force google to push you back up the rankings by seeding links on gumtree. You can however get yourself labelled as a spammer.

It took me 12 months to make any decent money in this game and most other people will tell you the same. Stop complaining about google and go and make some decent sites.

[Seamaster]

Spamming gumtree isn't the smartest thing to do - once you are indexed steer well clear, you can't force google to push you back up the rankings by seeding links on gumtree. You can however get yourself labelled as a spammer.

It took me 12 months to make any decent money in this game and most other people will tell you the same. Stop complaining about google and go and make some decent sites.

I'm not really complaining, just want to understand how it works. I understand initial indexing I think but no idea about re-indexing.

Re-listing an ad on gumtree has had some benefits i.e. sales from clicks but not re-indexing so it is slightly worth it in the short term.

[Sandis]

I think we have misunderstanding between indexing and rankings.

You can check your site pages indexed using this command in Google:

site:domain.co.uk (domain obvisouly is your domain name).

Next thing is to rank. To do that you need content and links.

This means you have built 10 pages of good content, now - you need to get quality incoming links from directories, related sites, even forums, blogs, write press releases, submit to article directories, some good link exchanges etc.

Key factor - quality can be seen as links form related, estabilished sites that are on the same or close topics.

So: If there are 100000 sites targeting the same keyword? who is going to rank at top - the one with most quality links.

Thats your mission now. Add more content and get quality links.

[fizzbird]

Thats your mission now. Add more content and get quality links.

I agree with everything you say. Although I think the real source of this confusion, which seems to crop up 3 times a day just lately, is the way that Google initially indexes a site?
It's common knowledge (almost) that a site will land on page one at first to enable Google to weigh up the metrics. After a week most sites temporarily drop out altogether and then come back to a position which truly reflects the site's current status.
Climbing your way back up can be hard work and a bit like a game of snakes and ladders, but worth it in the long run.
The problem is that people see their site on page one initially and think it should stay there. If only it was so simple?

[Sandis]

Good point - Google does this lately indeed. Seen this lately a lot. So back to the basics - more content and more links the only way to the top of the google.

p.s. I agree, I wish it was all that easy. Luckily it's not

[Seamaster]

My query was to do with getting google to re-crawl my sites and update the change I had made to them in their 'index' getting them ranked them.

I agree with everything you say. Although I think the real source of this confusion, which seems to crop up 3 times a day just lately, is the way that Google initially indexes a site?
It's common knowledge (almost) that a site will land on page one at first to enable Google to weigh up the metrics. After a week most sites temporarily drop out altogether and then come back to a position which truly reflects the site's current status.

I did not know that was standard practice.

Does this mean that the information in smingles big thread is a bit of a red herring? That the on page SEO approach is not as useful as it first appears?

From now on I will make sure my sites are fully optimized for sales when they launch so I can make the most of their brief stay on page one.

[fizzbird]

My query was to do with getting google to re-crawl my sites and update the change I had made to them in their 'index' getting them ranked them.



Does this mean that the information in smingles big thread is a bit of a red herring? That the on page SEO approach is not as useful as it first appears?

No it's not a red herring, it's good advice but more of a basis to build upon rather than a simple solution. You can move up the rankings quite quickly if you take on board what smingle advises and keep working on it.
Obviously the stronger your site is on day one then the less of an uphill battle it will be climb back up.

[karenlb]

One of the advantages of using Wordpress is that it notifies the search engines that your sitemap has been updated. I have just made a post, and Google's bot visited about 5 minutes later visiting the robots.txt and sitemap.xml.

Posts I made yesterday are today appearing in Google for their keywords pushing other sites off page 1.

You have to give the search engines a reason to come and look at your site - lots of new original content is one way. A one landing page site with only a few product descriptions on it is never going to rank as highly as a site which has new product reviews added two or three times a week (at a minimum). You want your site to be seen as an authority site.

Then the higher you appear and the better site you manage to create, the more likely it is that people will want to exchange links with you.

[verentia]

Seamaster, I would suggest you do what you need to ds, that is: create links, add (quality) contents - with SEO in mind and let Google do it thing.

I have seen my sites bounce from page to page in Google, but if you keep at it overtime it
well become consistent and move up the rank.

[Seamaster]

One of the advantages of using Wordpress is that it notifies the search engines that your sitemap has been updated. I have just made a post, and Google's bot visited about 5 minutes later visiting the robots.txt and sitemap.xml.

That is good information. I did start off one site with Wordpress but I found it frustrating to work with compared to notepad and html/css. If it has other benefits I guess I should go back and give it another try.

Thanks.

Question: would I get the Wordpress benefit if I had my main static pages at root and then a Wordpress installation at 'domain.co.uk/blog/' and posted new cotent to the blog? Would it help rank the whole site and the landing page?

Example:
strongcheeses.co.uk/index.html <-- this page has come reviews of cheees and my main price comparison and where I want users to land first
strongcheeses.co.uk/blog/cheese-fair <-- a post about a cheese fair I went to
strongcheeses.co.uk/blog/more-cheese <--- lots more posts about cheese

Would that work or would google see the blog as something seperate?
Would google see the index page as something else and will its ranking pull down the rank of the blog?
Does content on the index page hold more weight than on the other pages?

[karenlb]

For me I found Wordpress easy - because I don't know html - but I'm getting to grips with CSS now so I can customise themes etc.

I can only speak as I find - and I have found it easy to use, and easy to optimise with the right plugins and have so far done well in the search engines.

I can't answer you other question - you might be better off starting a new thread.