SEO problems
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I need some basic seo advise. I registered and verified a site with google last week -www.www.henryshandmadesoap.com.... It's my first site so I'm new to this but I didn't expect to fare so badly.
I live in Ireland so I set Ireland in google's webmaster settings but it hasn't had much affect. I also filled in the meta tags for each page.
Just after registering I ranked on page 5 for the search 'handmade soap ireland' and on the front page, position 3 for the more local 'handmade soap co clare'. Not great but it could be worse, so messed around with the home page a bit - introduced a small bit of text, and entered 'home' in the canonical url slot. I promptly slipped to page 7, so I reset the canonical url for home to blank (as I originally had) and the next thing I know, I've disappeared completely (well, I gave up with page 10) in both Ireland and Co Clare searches. I checked to see if the site's indexed (it is) and submitted a site map but still no good.
I know the site could be more text rich but I can't figure out why I ranked one minute, albeit tenuously, and disappeared the next. After all, there aren't even that many people making handmade soap in Ireland and I could count on one hand the number in Co Clare.
One possibility is that I registeredhttp://www.henryshandmadesoap. com with google and didn't include /conc/. However my server had already set up a redirect and in any event, I still ranked initially even without /conc/. Can anyone offer some advise?
I live in Ireland so I set Ireland in google's webmaster settings but it hasn't had much affect. I also filled in the meta tags for each page.
Just after registering I ranked on page 5 for the search 'handmade soap ireland' and on the front page, position 3 for the more local 'handmade soap co clare'. Not great but it could be worse, so messed around with the home page a bit - introduced a small bit of text, and entered 'home' in the canonical url slot. I promptly slipped to page 7, so I reset the canonical url for home to blank (as I originally had) and the next thing I know, I've disappeared completely (well, I gave up with page 10) in both Ireland and Co Clare searches. I checked to see if the site's indexed (it is) and submitted a site map but still no good.
I know the site could be more text rich but I can't figure out why I ranked one minute, albeit tenuously, and disappeared the next. After all, there aren't even that many people making handmade soap in Ireland and I could count on one hand the number in Co Clare.
One possibility is that I registeredhttp://www.henryshandmadesoap. com with google and didn't include /conc/. However my server had already set up a redirect and in any event, I still ranked initially even without /conc/. Can anyone offer some advise?
Thanks for the post,
Ok, I know there are potential improvements, but what I don't understand is why I ranked modestly for a few days and then for some reason simply disappeared. Is that not unusual? I know I'm a small fish but this is a small pond. At the moment I don't show up for the narrowest of searches. I checked to see if I'm indexed and I am, but god knows where.
Confused
hbenagh
Ok, I know there are potential improvements, but what I don't understand is why I ranked modestly for a few days and then for some reason simply disappeared. Is that not unusual? I know I'm a small fish but this is a small pond. At the moment I don't show up for the narrowest of searches. I checked to see if I'm indexed and I am, but god knows where.
Confused
hbenagh
I think the essence of sandboxing is that you can be indexed for your business name for example, but be excluded on more sophisticated (usually commercial/competitive) search terms.
I have personally had sites indexed quickly only to see them disappear after a couple of days. Into the sandbox.
There are some tools on the web that purport to tell you if your site is sandboxed. Try one of those and let us know what you find.
Ollie
I have personally had sites indexed quickly only to see them disappear after a couple of days. Into the sandbox.
There are some tools on the web that purport to tell you if your site is sandboxed. Try one of those and let us know what you find.
Ollie
Try this: go tohttps://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/toolbox/SubmitSitePage?FORM=WSUT... and submit your site to Bing - believe it or not, it works better for Google than submitting your site directly to Google - especially if your domain is brand new.
Secondly, go tohttp://www.pingomatic.com and submit pings to all the common services.
Don't know if this will solve your problems immediately, but it should help.
Secondly, go tohttp://www.pingomatic.com and submit pings to all the common services.
Don't know if this will solve your problems immediately, but it should help.
Key things going against you as a new site.
Age of domain name
Few if any 'back-links'
Sandbox effect - Google sometimes waits for a period before trusting a site enough to index it. That would explain why you disappeared.
I wouldn't have said your keywords were that competitive but there's no escaping the above for any new website.