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1. erincathryn
   Member
   Jan 21, 2013, 10:27 PM

   Hello all,
   I am completely stumped here. My blog has been active for almost a year and has never actually returned when searching for it by name (either "Written Permission", "Written Permission Blog", or "Written Permission WordPress").

   I have claimed the blog through Google, I have checked with them, and there is nothing blocking it on their end. The site ranks well with other search engines (Bing and Yahoo).

   Any ideas? Is it content based? Is it a glitch somewhere? I really don't get it...

   Thanks in advance!

   The blog I need help with is writtenpermission.wordpress.com.

2. raincoaster
   Member
   Jan 21, 2013, 10:34 PM

   There are 353,000,000 results when searching "Written Permission" on Google. 70,900,000 results for "Written permission blog." I can see that your blog IS indexed with Google, it is near the bottom of the first page of the results when you google the title of your most recent post.

   You are using a lot of tags and categories, which might be affecting your ranking. Cut it to ten or twelve, not eighteen. Otherwise, I think it's just that you chose a common phrase for a title and your post titles are also the default title everyone else thinks of for book reviews. If you do more posts with original titles, tagged/categorized appropriately, it should naturally follow. Also, of course, the QUICKER you do a book review after the book comes out, the better.

3. erincathryn
   Member
   Jan 21, 2013, 10:48 PM

   I had wondered if tags/categories might have something to do with it... but as I tend to read multiple books by the same author, I had hoped to give blog readers a way to search for all topics about said author, or where I compare books, etc.

   I guess the thing that gets me is that according to my Google Webmaster Tools (which I have asked about over there, and no one really helped) the site is ranking with the strangest search terms. It seems like the tags are getting more search action than the blog name... Is this normal for a WordPress.com blog?

   For example... someone searched for a book, and the tag I have for the author popped up, but not the review I did for that book. I will be the first to admit that maybe I don't understand WordPress.com as well as I thought I did... but I just need to know why/how. And if it is an issue with content/tags, then why is the blog ranked well on Bing and Yahoo? Wouldn't it be doing poorly all around?

4. raincoaster
   Member
   Jan 21, 2013, 11:17 PM

   Yes, it's normal for the tag pages to rank higher than the individual posts.

   Each search engine applies different standards. Google really dislikes overtagging.

5. timethief
   Member
   Jan 22, 2013, 12:02 AM

   Your blog is indexed by Google (141 results).
   Latest review is here (4th from top) > http://tinyurl.com/aq4tn9e
   Check out copyscape as it will reveal how many other book reviewers are using the same phrases you used. To stand out among them your review must be unique and that's not easy to accomplish in your niche.

6. erincathryn
   Member
   Jan 22, 2013, 4:45 PM

   I am not entirely sure I agree with what is being said. The issue I am having is that the blog name itself is not even popping up when it is being Googled.

   How would calling my review on "Briar Rose" anything other than "Review: Briar Rose by Jane Yolen" make it easier to find?

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