.: Confused About Google's Index, Link Dampening, & No. of Links?
By:Glenn Murray
Category:Home / Internet Marketing / Search Engine Optimization
I recently received another 'please help' email from a gentleman named Ian who runs an adventure company in Tanzania (http://www.betheladventure.co.uk ). Ian was concerned about the effect of a variety of issues including indexing and link dampening, and was desperate for help. Unfortunately, he had read some fairly misleading articles in the past, so he had a somewhat mixed up understanding of the factors at play. Because I suspect he's not alone in his concern and confusion, I decided to publish the details of our discussion.
Ian's email consisted of several questions. I've listed each separately below, followed by my response.
Q: When I search for the number of backlinks to my site using "link:www.betheladventure.co.uk", I see only 23 results. It appears that only 23 of our backlinks have survived Google's dampening link filter. Is there a time delay before they are credited to a site? "
A: Firstly, I think you may have the dampening link filter a little confused. According to the dampening link filter theory, your links are found and recognized by Google, you just don't get the full benefit from them until a given period of time has elapsed. The dampening link filter (if it exists) doesn't stop links from appearing in Google's results when you search for them. (The only reason your backlinks might not appear in a Google search is if Google hasn't yet indexed the pages containing the links.) Also, don't worry too much about things like the dampening link filter. For a start, it's far from established / accepted fact. Many well regarded SEO experts don't believe in it at all. Furthermore, even if it does exist, it only affects those businesses with the budget to generate the huge numbers (hundreds or thousands probably) of links reputedly required to trigger it. If your number of backlinks suddenly increases by 20, that's no problem.
And secondly, don't believe everything Google tells you. By searching for "link:www.betheladventure.co.uk", you generally only see a small percentage of actual links to your site. The best way to search for links is to search for just the URL "www.bethaladventure.co.uk" , then on the page that displays next, select "Find web pages that contain the term "www.bethaladventure.co.uk" ". When you do it this way, you'll see all the pages that contain your URL. In most cases, the URL will be an active link (or at least it should be, and you should ask them to make it so). When you do this search, you'll see that your site has about 169 links, not 23.
Q: Another question is about indexed pages (using site:www.betheladventure.co.uk). I understand this is a record of pages that have been changed. I had 32, it went down to 28 and now this morning it is down to 26. Do they only keep the pages for a month or is there more to the indexed pages than I realized?
A: The number of indexed pages is simply the number of pages on your website that Google 'knows about'. Theoretically, the only time the age of a page comes into play is when the page is too young*, i.e. Google spiders haven't visited it yet, or Google hasn't updated its index. As to why the reported number of indexed pages is reducing, I suspect it's just a temporary shift. The number of results in Google's searches varies pretty much constantly.
*Actually, technically speaking, it has been suggested that Google is not capable of indexing all 11.5 billion pages currently believed to be online (and the 10 million more that are added every day), and that as it indexes new pages, old pages are pushed out of the index. (This is a very rough description of the theory - if it's happening at all, it's likely to be far more complicated than this.) If this is happening, it may explain why the reported number of indexed pages is reducing. Although I think it's a long shot, a good way to deal with it is to maintain high quality content, to keep increasing it, to keep generating backlinks, and to generate a Google sitemap. To find out more about sitemaps, go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login . To download a free - and very useful - tool for generating a sitemap, go to http://johannesmueller.com/gs/ .
I know there's a lot of confusion surrounding these issues, so I hope you've found this exchange helpful.
Happy indexing!
Article keywords: seo, search engine, optimisation, optimization, google, rank, article, copywriter, submission
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
* Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company Article PR and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.DivineWrite.com or www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.
.: New Search Engine Optimization Articles
1). How to Improve Search Engine Ranking
Powerful 4-step process to improve search engine ranking
2). How to Make Websites that Search Engines Love
How you can apply the fundamental basics to create a website that the search engines will love to spider.
3). Articles Are Seeds of Knowledge - A Biblical Look at Duplicate Content
Article Marketing compared to the successful distributon of the Christian Bible.
The Christian Bible is the Worlds most successful publication, with over 6 billion copies printed, similar to the total World Population.
4). Content Management Systems Equal Business Suicide!
One of the fastest way to minimise your chances of web business success is to use a Content Management System (CMS).
5). Importance of Search Engine Marketing Firms
Literally speaking, there is no business in todays world of World Wide Web, which doesnt have online business. To reach ever growing population of internet all across the world it is mandatory to have a good online presence for any business. Moreover, meeting customers online is the cheapest possible way.
6). Internet Search Engines, Important Details Everybody Should Know
Internet Search Engines see something totally different than what we see when we look at a webpage. It is all in the webpage code. Have you ever seen webpage code? Place one of your webpages into your browser.
7). Why Websites Get Banned From Search Engines
These are methods and techniques that end up getting websites banned from Google and other search engines.
.: Top Search Engine Optimization Articles
1). SEO Contests: Good or Bad?
As a webmaster you probably already know what a SEO Contest is or you surely came across some of them or even participated in. Some of the major SEO contests organized are the v7ndotcom elursrebmem (by v7n.com), Ambachdotcom, Carcasherdotcom, and more recently the Cpayscom2 Online Casino where the winner gets $10,000 for ranking number one on MSN. Now the big question is whether it is good or bad to organize SEO Contests.
2). High Paying Lateral Keywords
If you run AdSense on your site you know that some words pay more than others, much more in fact. More than likely you have also learned that terms like "structured settlements" and "mesothelioma" can produce incredibly high PPC revenue, if they show up on your site at all. Unfortunately hundreds of thousands of other webmasters are "on" to this practice judging by the number of sites created regularly to capitalize on the phenomenom.
3). Is Your Website Invisible? The Google Sandbox Solution
What is the Google Sandbox? How Do You Know if You’re Stuck in the Sandbox? Does the Sandbox Really Exist, or is it Just the Google Algorithm? Why Do You Get Sandboxed? Is There a Way to Trick the Sandbox Filter?
4). An SEO Glossary - Common SEO Terms Defined
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become an essential weapon in the arsenal of every online business. Unfortunately, for most business owners and marketing managers (and even many webmasters), it's also somewhat of an enigma. This is partly due to the fact that it's such a new and rapidly changing field, and partly due to the fact that SEO practitioners tend to speak in a language all of their own which, without translation, is virtually impenetrable to the layperson.
5). Creating Sitemaps For Google, MSN AND Yahoo! - The Easy Way
If you own or maintain a website or intend to own one, wouldn’t it be great if you get frequent visitors who find satisfaction in getting exactly the information they need from your page?
While that satisfaction largely depends on the contents of your website, how you get to be accessed by website users is the most critical factor of website development.
6). How to Make a Sitemap For Your Website In Five Steps.
A website's sitemap can be compared to the table of contents of a book. The sitemap is important because it guides visitors to the parts of the website in which they are interested. The sitemap allows surfers to reach their destination without wasting time.
Sitemaps are also important from the point of view of search engines. If the search engine finds a sitemap it is much more likely that your page will be fully visited (spidered) and indexed; allowing web surfers to find your pages in their searches.
7). 301 Redirect - The SEO way to rename or move files or folders
In this article I will discuss page redirection techniques, what works and what to avoid.
What is page redirection and why would you want to use it?
Let’s say you rename a page on your website, for whatever reason. Perhaps you decided to revamp your entire naming convention, perhaps you decided to restructure your site and need to move pages into different folders, or you just realized that you are missing valuable keywords.