Need help? Check out our Support site, then


WordPress.com Forums » Off Topic

Search engines not working well for me

  1. puckcircle
    Member

    My blog is http://sharkcircle.wordpress.com

    I am getting people to my blog when they search for the name of my blog, "shark circle," or the name of something that has been included in the body of my blog.

    However, no one that doesnt know about my blog or doesnt stumble upon it from searching something similar to what I wrote in the body, is ever going to find it. My blog is a "San Jose Sharks Blog," as well as an NHL blog. But there are tons of NHL blogs out there, only 7-10 Sharks ones. Yet when I search "San Jose Sharks Blog" in google, it's not there in the first 10 search results, or the second 10, or anywhere. Thats the main place people should be finding my blog, when they search for the sharks, and blogs on the sharks; I'm sure people look for new blogs on their teams every once in awhile, yet no one is finding mine.

    I registered with the search engines, I think. I mean I did everything it said to do in the how-to article here. Whether everything actually got registered okay on the search engine's end, I have no idea, and I dont know how to check.

    So what should I do? How do it make it so my blog actually shows up when people search for what its about? This isnt even that competitive a search. There are only 7-10 sharks blogs like I said. The problem isnt just that every other sharks blog is coming in before me, its that sites like this are. http://www.nfl-kids-jersey.com/nhl-jerseys/san-jose-sharks-c426/san-jose-sharks-15-dany-heatley-blue-jersey-factory-outlets-p3638.html

    Thats some football website that happens to sell a sharks jersey. Its not a sharks blog, its selling jerseys. Thats a website I got from searching "san jose sharks blog." I found that, but not my blog. Tons of examples like this.

    What should I do?

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

  2. lettershometoyou
    Member

    Can I make a suggestion right off the bat (or, in your case, stick?)

    You have a sidebar with a colour combination of a light-teal blue background with orange text. I tried to read it and found it impossible. My eyes started to hurt, and then I got a headache. If you can make the text a colour that doesn't clash, that would be a huge improvement.

    Another thing is I suggest is patience. You obviously know your stuff, have an opinion, and write regularly, but getting an audience and links back to your blog take time. Once you start gaining links to your posts, you will go up in search engine rankings. Also, make sure you are properly tagging your posts and your photos. Don't stick dozens and dozens on them, but don't just let them go with one or two. I get most of my search engine visits via tags on photos.

  3. puckcircle
    Member

    Thanks lettershometoyou for the feedback.

    For tags, I have just bene putting players names, teams names... Should I be putting "San Jose Sharks Blog" if that's a term I think people will use to search a lot?

    And yes, Ive been meaning to change that color, but I dont know to change the link color there without changing the link color everywhere.

  4. dribblingpensioner
    Member

    I agree the colour's are very bad, add tags to al your posts such as San Jose Sharks forget about the word blog and also NHL add a category to your posts and a category widget in the sidebar.

    Forget about getting onto the first or second web search page if you have a title the same as the big sites, its the number of hits that get you there.

  5. raincoaster
    Member

    I must disagree: YOU are not working well for Search Engines.

    Your blog has no title in the header, just a JPG.

    You're using the least SEO'd theme of all the 150 or so at WordPress.com.

    You're only using three or four tags per post. Don't go insane with them, but you could use six.

  6. lettershometoyou
    Member

    Good point, rain.

    I usually use a maximum of 12, mixing up categories and tags.

    Another thing:
    Unless I'm blind and simply can't function without coffee, I've noticed something else on your Shark blog.

    I subscribed to the comments, and got an email saying you'd replied to my first comment. All well and good. When I click on the link on the bottom of the email that says: See all comments on this post, it brings me back to the post, but I find none of the comments posted already. I keep looking for a link to them on the post, but find none.

  7. teamoyeniyi
    Member

    I have to agree the colours need some work. I wouldn't stay, even if I was a fan.

    Take Raincoaster's advice.

    It takes a while for search engines to move you up the ranks. Google is quite quick, but Bing and Yahoo are months behind (in some cases) in indexing.

  8. puckcircle
    Member

    Thanks everyone for the feedback.

    @raincoaster I dont know what any of that means. If the theme wasnt ready and doesnt work with the search engines, wordpress shouldnt have published it, or given me some sort of warning about it. I designed my whole blog with that theme, have been using it for months, and this is the first Im hearing that search engines dont work well with it. I dont see how thats my fault.

    No title in header, just a JPG? I dont know what that means. I uploaded a custom header like wordpress told me. Ive always been under the impression that you can either upload a custom header or put type there, not both.

    @Ian/lettershometoyou Thanks for letting me know about this. I have no idea what it means but maybe someone else does?

    @teamoyeniyi I want to change the colors, I just dont know how. I dont think I ever figured that out, but if I did I dont remember now. Does anyone know how I can change the font/link color of my "recent posts" and everything else that is in my hard-to-read orange?

    I thought it was less of an issue because when you toggle over each link it changes to an easy to read blue, but I guess not.

    Thanks again everyone! I thought I was over the frustration of wordpress but I guess not. "Yeah, so, that theme you spent weeks designing your blog around, that was listed on the wordpress official site as a working theme with no warnings, yeah, well...it doesnt actually work for search engines...

    Yeah...sorry about that..."

    I mean come on.

  9. puckcircle
    Member

    Also as for the tags,

    I was always using too many, like 20, and someone told me to use less, so now Ive been using around 12 on average including categories.

    Is that still too few? Only the last blog did I use just 6 or 7 because it was a shorter blog really only about two teams and two players. I put those four tags in, plus the league "NHL" (sometimes I double that up with National Hockey League), and that was all I felt was needed for this blog. I dont want to get labeled by the search engines as a tag-spammer if I havent already because I didnt know better the first couple months.

  10. puckcircle
    Member

    Is there an edit button?

    I just looked at my page and noticed only 5-8 tags are showing for not just the last blog (or two or three), but a lot of them. I could have sworn I added more.

    Do the categories not show up there at the top?

    Because in trying to publish no more than 12 tags/categories, usually 4 or 5 are categories. After I publish a blog with say, 15 tags + categories (total), I get a message telling me Ive gone over 10 (combined), and that I should keep it around 10 (combined).

    So just because only 6 tags are showing, I also have 6 categories, for example.

    Am I doing this wrong?

  11. noirciplume
    Member

    For tags, no more than 5-10 should do it. Just the main key points of your blog post.

    Over 10 tags, Google will think you're spamming.

  12. puckcircle
    Member

    Another issue is when you search "shark circle" in google, you get this.

    http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=shark+circle+san+jose+sharks+blog&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#pq=sharkcircle&hl=en&cp=6&gs_id=44&xhr=t&q=Shark+circle&qe=U2hhcmsgY2lyY2xl&qesig=Y0fksrqcd_6thVfaxqKJNw&pkc=AFgZ2tm7zJauXLBczt0O6PoogKLc97YN3MMvWNH3FT7uS5Za4XtTr-sjs_6IPAwwxMKAVEwBVoICv3KZQR4vZEzc8GVKZbyT5A&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&client=safari&rls=en&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=Shark+circle&aq=0p&aqi=p-p1g3&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=c6b3511900025dee&biw=1334&bih=1035

    My blog is there, its at the top... all that is good, but there no description.

    When I search NHL.com, i get this "The official National Hockey League web site includes features, news, rosters, statistics, schedules, teams, live game radio broadcasts, and video clips."

    My blog, it says nothing about it. Im sure this is because I havent put one in or something, but I dont know where Im supposed to put that description. How do I fix this?

    Thanks again everyone

  13. noirciplume
    Member

    You can always create a tagline. A tagline will appear right next to your blog title.

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/general-settings/

  14. raincoaster
    Member

    It's not WP's job to help you make the best SEO choice. If you want a theme that's SEO optimized, you should do your research and pick one.

  15. auxclass
    Member

    Google can't read - put a name in a graphic and the name does not exist for Google.

    No title no tagline - Google just thinks you are a nameless / headless blog.

    WordPress.COM has great training wheels but it is not their responsibility to keep you from whacking your SEO - great tools here - but like all tools they need to be used with skill by a craftsman for best effect.

  16. timethief
    Member

    You are not going to like my advice. However, it is good advice.

    Step 1:
    Remove all the CSS editing you did. That will allow the theme, P2 which is designed, coded and optimized for Twitter-like communication to revert to normal.

    CSS is theme specific. If you have custom CSS and later change themes, you need to delete whatever CSS you have in the Editor, otherwise, you’ll get undesired results. To ‘reset’ a theme, you need to delete the CSS in the Editor, make sure the “add to existing CSS” radio button is checked, then save. The theme will revert to normal display.

    Step 2:
    Select an appropriate theme for your blog.

  17. puckcircle
    Member

    I dont even know what SEO means. Before I decide whether to change themes can someone please tell me what is wrong with my theme.

    Also how do I put text in the header that google can read?

  18. puckcircle
    Member

    And I didnt do anything to change the theme functionality timethief so Im confused on that front too. I just changed colors and made it wider. Nothing is changed, at least not supposed to be.

  19. timethief
    Member

    Also how do I put text in the header that google can read?

    That's not possible as we cannot access metadata on free hosted WordPress.com blogs.

  20. timethief
    Member

    OPS! There are two questions that sound very similar. Here we go again. Search spiders cannot "see" or "read" text in images like the text in your header. They look for your blog title and tagline (n.b. a tagline is optional) here > Settings > General

    For the best results with regard to Google choosing what to display the blog title and tagline will not exceed about 63 characters including spaces.

  21. timethief
    Member

    @puckcircle

    And I didnt do anything to change the theme functionality timethief so Im confused on that front too.

    Of course you didn't change functionality. We can't change functionality on free hosted WordPress.com blogs. I repeat that the P2 theme is designed for people who are having Twitter like conversations.

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.

About this Topic

Tags

No tags yet.