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Long-term indexing problems

  1. laetans
    Member

    Hello.

    I've never successfully had my blog indexed by any search engines (I've been blogging at least once a week for the past six months or so). I've tried:

    --using Google's webmaster tools with http://www.laetans.com, laetans.com, and laetans.wordpress.com, waiting a few weeks each time with no success.

    --resetting my privacy settings (changing it to private and then back to public) and then waiting a few weeks.

    --submitting my blog to ping-o-matic...

    Here's the weird thing I noticed: when I enter laetans.com or http://www.laetans.com in ismyblogworking.com, it tells me that my blog is not indexed that that I need to go to wordpress.ORG for support

    BUT!!

    When I enter laetans.wordpress.com, it tells me I need to go to wordpress.COM.

    My blog comes up in searches in other places it's been mentioned (my twitter account, comments I've made, articles I've written) but the blog itself remains absent.

    Is that normal? Unrelated? Unsolvable? I really like wordpress, but if I can't get my blog indexed I'm thinking of just moving elsewhere... because why pay for a domain name if no one can find me anyway?

    Thanks!

    My blog is laetans.com.

    The blog I need help with is laetans.com.

  2. raincoaster
    Member

    There is no www in your domain name.

    There are lots of reasons a blog might not be indexed.

    Here is a bit more information: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Flaetans.com&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0 so you may need staff help. I'll flag this for their attention.

  3. 1tess
    Moderator

    I just added "increase traffic" to the tags here on the right side of this topic. Clicking that tag should give you some information useful to your search for more readers.
    specifically that link is:
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/tags/increase-traffic

    Note that timethief has often posted an excellent article many times, and it has good advice worth paying attention to. Here is one link to her advice:
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/i-dont-even-exist?replies=2#post-1021972

  4. 1tess
    Moderator

    And just a quick look at your site, in my opinion: using tags such as "uncategorized" "wordpress" or "blogging" are worthless in terms of getting indexed on any search engine. Especially "uncategorized."

  5. laetans
    Member

    Thanks to you both for your quick responses. And yes, I know that using "wordpress" as a tag is useless--and was quite aware when I was tagging the... two...? posts that have it. It was my way of venting semi-ironic poseur frustration at myself and the universe, though of course by looking at what's up there most recently it just makes me look like an idiot. The most-used tags are actually about Latin and writing, and I would think that Latin grammar is unusual enough that if my tags and categories were the issue then search engines would have picked up on those.

  6. 1tess
    Moderator

    Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to be critical or anything. The note about your tags was my opinion only, but you just said Latin grammar" rather than simply "Latin" which is a more specific tag.

    At any rate, timethief (another volunteer) has some excellent advice more encompassing increasing traffic than my simple mention of tagging your posts specifically.

    The "modlook" tag is still there so for any other problem staff will take a look at your blog.

  7. auxclass
    Member

    Are you pasting in from a Word Processing program? Do you have this checked?

    Dashboard >> Settings >> Writing >> WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically

    Also I just checked a friends blog here and he has one category "Un-Categorized" and his blog is indexed by Google just fine

  8. laetans
    Member

    Oh my!! Thanks auxclass! Even if that isn't the solution, it should definitely help! I often copy-paste from Word or from Pages on my iPad. I also sometimes use the WordPress app and don't know if there are issues with that as well.

    And no worries 1tess, your advice is totally valid, I was just self-conscious about the most recent posts and their tags, haha. I'm definitely going to work on being more specific in future.

  9. raincoaster
    Member

    I don't think the tags are an issue. They're not helping, but they're not hurting. The analysis shows there are some HTML errors in the blog that the blogger did not introduce, and staff will have to fix that.

    FYI to make that change auxclass suggested take effect on your pre-existing posts, go to the Posts bulk editor, switch the last 50 or so to Draft, then switch them back to Public. That forces the change to work on those posts.

  10. 1tess
    Moderator

    @Mike,
    No I wasn't implying that "uncategorized" would keep anyone from being indexed by search engines! But it is a waste of a tag: more specific the better. It also helps when you have 600 + posts to find the ones you want if your tags are specific.

    At any rate though, there is something wrong beyond the tagging for laetans. Her site should have been indexed by Google et al by now.

    This thread is still modlooked. Maybe it has something to do with the info rain linked to. It is above my paygrade to help here.

  11. 1tess
    Moderator

    ~~~raincoaster
    g'evening

    your advice for this situation=excellent…

  12. raincoaster
    Member

    Thanks.

  13. laetans
    Member

    Thanks again about the XHTML advice. I went and changed the previous posts as suggested and already everything is looking much healthier. I don't know if it was that or if someone with real power did something without me knowing about it, but I'm hopeful that if I give it another few weeks it will sort itself out (finally!). Again, thanks so much!

  14. auxclass
    Member

    @Tess - just wanted to point out to the OP that uncategorized should also index fine - did not want them to run around in a panic on the Tags - yes good Tags and Categories should help the quality of the index and also find related Posts - I am a great believer in making things easy for my visitors to fine related content - so I handcraft related Posts for many of my Posts

    A note about my friends blog - it is just an online diary for his friends and family and so he does not care about the search engines

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