The Google Update
Ok, I know, I know...... Too long between posts. What can I say, business and family life just gets right in the way and the first thing that gets put on the back burner is the blog.
Anyhow, firstly my google worries. I did email google about my huge decrease in indexed pages for my main shopping website and I received a reply back a few days ago:-
Well, I am not sure whether to be re-assured or not..... As things stand, I now only have just over 300 pages indexed compared with a previous all time high of about 100,000. As someone mentioned on a forum I frequent, 100,000 was a little excessive for a 5000 product website - however, 300 is also a little on the low side and having checked a couple of competitors, they are still showing about 50,000 pages indexed. Although, I am guessing that one of them has about 10,000+ products online.
I think the best plan of action is still to sit things out but I have made one major change - aside from a couple of changes suggested in the previous thread (thanks all). The major change was actually a remarkably simple one to install. It was of course an osC contribution. It creates a "have you also tried searching for" line of code on each product page with links to the search results for all keywords in the product name. ie, on the thomas the tank engine - engine shed page, you will have links to search results for thomas, and, the, tank, engine, shed. This could of course create a huge number of dynamic results. Spiderable. The osC contribution can be found here and its a work of genius really, so simple to install - even I could do it in seconds.
Of course, whether or not this will make any difference in my google pages indexed - who knows..... The way google is dumping me at present, it may take a look at the large increase in pages and just dump me a little further. What I am hoping is that all the newly generated search result pages will create more links to the product info pages and therefore make them appear more important than the new pages - maybe pushing them up the ladder back into the google index.
I guess only time will tell....
The one positive to come out of google actions is that they do seem to be pushing me well up the rankings for the pages that are still indexed - so I guess, what I should be doing is really optimizing the category pages. Visitors and sales certainly havent dropped at present as I am featuring well for the higher traffic keywords. ie, taking the Thomas the tank engine example, for the phrase Thomas the tank engine I am featuring better than before and as this is well searched for, am getting more visitors. The thomas the tank engine - engine shed listing however would have vanished.
Its kind of swings and roundabouts, six of one, half a dozen of the other - Of course, what I really want is the best of both worlds - despite what I have read elsewhere, the search engines are not dead - and, bar a few quid spent on adwords bring in just about all my sales!!!
Finally on this post, as a complete aside, google has also pretty much dumped my blog. A mere 19 pages indexed - of course, this could well be due to the lack of updates, but again, its kind of annoying when it previously had over 50 pages listed - it really seems to me that despite google loving blogs, it doesnt go a bundle on blogger blogs - seems to prefer wordpress afaics!!??! I guess when I get chance, a move like Garys may be in order - but again, work and the family will probably prevent this from happening in the near future.
Anyhow, firstly my google worries. I did email google about my huge decrease in indexed pages for my main shopping website and I received a reply back a few days ago:-
Thank you for your reply. Please be assured that your site is notcurrently
banned or penalized by Google. We understand your concern;however, these changes
are consistent with the normal fluctuationsoutlined in our previous email. As we
add new pages and incorporateupdates to existing pages, you may see changes in
the ranking andinclusion of sites in our index. Because our index changes
regularly, it'spossible your site will regain its ranking. In the meantime, we
hope thatyou will review the helpful tips posted on our site.We're sorry we
can't be of further assistance in this matter.
Well, I am not sure whether to be re-assured or not..... As things stand, I now only have just over 300 pages indexed compared with a previous all time high of about 100,000. As someone mentioned on a forum I frequent, 100,000 was a little excessive for a 5000 product website - however, 300 is also a little on the low side and having checked a couple of competitors, they are still showing about 50,000 pages indexed. Although, I am guessing that one of them has about 10,000+ products online.
I think the best plan of action is still to sit things out but I have made one major change - aside from a couple of changes suggested in the previous thread (thanks all). The major change was actually a remarkably simple one to install. It was of course an osC contribution. It creates a "have you also tried searching for" line of code on each product page with links to the search results for all keywords in the product name. ie, on the thomas the tank engine - engine shed page, you will have links to search results for thomas, and, the, tank, engine, shed. This could of course create a huge number of dynamic results. Spiderable. The osC contribution can be found here and its a work of genius really, so simple to install - even I could do it in seconds.
Of course, whether or not this will make any difference in my google pages indexed - who knows..... The way google is dumping me at present, it may take a look at the large increase in pages and just dump me a little further. What I am hoping is that all the newly generated search result pages will create more links to the product info pages and therefore make them appear more important than the new pages - maybe pushing them up the ladder back into the google index.
I guess only time will tell....
The one positive to come out of google actions is that they do seem to be pushing me well up the rankings for the pages that are still indexed - so I guess, what I should be doing is really optimizing the category pages. Visitors and sales certainly havent dropped at present as I am featuring well for the higher traffic keywords. ie, taking the Thomas the tank engine example, for the phrase Thomas the tank engine I am featuring better than before and as this is well searched for, am getting more visitors. The thomas the tank engine - engine shed listing however would have vanished.
Its kind of swings and roundabouts, six of one, half a dozen of the other - Of course, what I really want is the best of both worlds - despite what I have read elsewhere, the search engines are not dead - and, bar a few quid spent on adwords bring in just about all my sales!!!
Finally on this post, as a complete aside, google has also pretty much dumped my blog. A mere 19 pages indexed - of course, this could well be due to the lack of updates, but again, its kind of annoying when it previously had over 50 pages listed - it really seems to me that despite google loving blogs, it doesnt go a bundle on blogger blogs - seems to prefer wordpress afaics!!??! I guess when I get chance, a move like Garys may be in order - but again, work and the family will probably prevent this from happening in the near future.
posted by richandzhaoyan | 11:14 PM
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