OK Kiddies.
I discovered what happens to your search engine position when your home page doesn't validate.
Recently, Sydney Party Bus complained that their website wasn't getting indexed. In fact it is the 11 October today, and they had not been indexed since the 10th August. That's 2 months. Google wasn't indexing the HOME page. In fact the page had been removed from the search results completely. Other pages were still getting some attention from Google.
So we started looking for causes.
A recent serve move only complicated the issue, since the client assumed since his site may have been down the last time Google indexed him, so google thought the site was no longer there. Not true. Google tries lots of times before it makes the decision your pages are gone forever.
Are there any pages linking to Sydney Party Bus. yes - but only a few.
Have we done anything considered black hat? No.
Is the page returning a 200 OK header? Yes.
Has someone squeezed us out with duplicate content? No.
Are our opposition attempting to cause problems for us? No. (They're all busy working on their own sites)
I forgot something that I didn't think had the potential of stopping google index you. It's so obvious now.
Is the web page valid? Ahm... why is there another open <head> tag after the <body> tag? And it doesn't close? Well there's your problem!
The page has been fixed. It isn't strict HTML Valid, but it is ok. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the page to reappear in Google.
I've never seen what effect a poorly formated page could have in a search engine until now. The results speak for themselves.
It's time to run your website through http://validator.w3.org/
My mate over at Sydney Party Bus is having problems. His homepage seems to have disappeared from Google (other pages are still there). We've checked his website status with webmaster tools, and it seems Google hasn't even looked at his website since August, even though he works on it quite regularly. The site has not been blacklisted, and there are no reported errors apart from that, so how can you help?We just need a bit of a nudge to get Google to discover his website again. A link would be really nice, even if it is for a short time. We're not really looking to get him into a number one position - we're just seeing if we can get the website listed again.
I think this would be a good opportunity to experiment and see if just getting google to discover the site through fresh links from a few sources are enough to get the site to reappear.
If you have any other things you can suggest to help get Sydney Party Bus listed again, please leave a comment!
Google is looking to provide even more useful information when it comes to business information on Google Maps, like hours of operation, types of payment accepted, photos of the location, etc. It’s offering the job to you, making you an independent contractor of Google. And you’ll get paid!Each approved and verified approval can earn you up to $10. Verification happens when a business referral is approved by Google (that will get you $2) or by the business itself ($8 for this one). You will, however, still have to earn enough to get that sweet payout. Rack up at least $25 in referrals in one month, and Google will send a check.
The catch is - US Residents only. It makes me wonder if they'll do the same thing in Australia, or if companies like truelocal.com.au have already done a deal with Google and stitched up the potential opportunity here in Australia already. Anyway, if you're state side, I can't think of a better excuse to introduce yourself to new customers!
First - you should be clear you ARE NOT an employee of Google. You're an independant contractor Google has employed to collect information about businesses. I wouldn't be trying to sell anything, just introduce myself to the customer, and make sure I leave a business card - perhaps tips on how they can improve something, which might be related to products or services that you sell. You even have a reason to follow up - make sure the business confirms the information so you get the higher payout!
I can see a potential problem however - if Google hasn't given a clear 'area' to work, then you are competing against every other person wanting to be out there to earn a few bucks from Google. Also, I guarantee some shady characters will attempt to charge people for the privelage of being listed.
Now lets hope that they open up the opportunity to Australia!
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