Requesting reconsideration
Watch a video on why your site may not be appearing in search results and how to get it reconsidered.
If your site isn't appearing in Google search results, or it's performing more poorly than it once did (and you believe that it does not violate our webmaster guidelines), you can ask Google to reconsider your site.
In addition, if you recently purchased a domain that you think may have violated our guidelines before you owned it, you can use the reconsideration request form to let us know that you recently acquired the site and that it now adheres to the guidelines.
To request reconsideration of your site:
1. First, make sure you've added your site to your Webmaster Tools account, and verified site ownership.
2. Sign in to Google Webmaster Tools.
3. On the Dashboard, under Talk to Google in the list on the right, click Request reconsideration and follow the steps.
Hidden text and links
Hiding text or links in your content can cause your site to be perceived as untrustworthy since it presents information to search engines differently than to visitors. Text (such as excessive keywords) can be hidden in several ways, including:
* Using white text on a white background
* Including text behind an image
* Using CSS to hide text
* Setting the font size to 0
Hidden links are links that are intended to be crawled by Googlebot, but are unreadable to humans because:
* The link consists of hidden text (for example, the text color and background color are identical).
* CSS has been used to make tiny hyperlinks, as little as one pixel high.
* The link is hidden in a small character - for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph.
If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages. When evaluating your site to see if it includes hidden text or links, look for anything that's not easily viewable by visitors of your site. Are any text or links there solely for search engines rather than visitors?
If you're using text to try to describe something search engines can't access - for example, Javascript, images, or Flash files - remember that many human visitors using screen readers, mobile browsers, browsers without plug-ins, and slow connections will not be able to view that content either. Using descriptive text for these items will improve the accessibility of your site. You can test accessibility by turning off Javascript, Flash, and images in your browser, or by using a text-only browser such as Lynx. Some tips on making your site accessible include:
* Images: Use the alt attribute to provide descriptive text. In addition, we recommend using a human-readable caption and descriptive text around the image.
* Javascript: Place the same content from the Javascript in a no script tag. If you use this method, ensure the contents are exactly same as what is contained in the Javascript and that this content is shown to visitors who do not have Javascript enabled in their browser.
* Videos: Include descriptive text about the video in HTML. You might also consider providing transcripts.
If you do find hidden text or links on your site, either remove them or, if they are relevant for your site's visitors, make them easily viewable. If your site has been removed from our search results, review our webmaster guidelines for more information. Once you've made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.
Site removed from the Google index
Google may temporarily or permanently remove sites from its index and search results if it believes it is obligated to do so by law, if the sites do not meet Google's quality guidelines, or for other reasons, such as if the sites detract from users' ability to locate relevant information. We cannot comment on the individual reasons a page may be removed. However, certain actions such as cloaking, writing text in such a way that it can be seen by search engines but not by users, or setting up pages/links with the sole purpose of fooling search engines may result in removal from our index. Please read our Webmaster Guidelines for more information.
If your site is blocked from our index because it violates our quality guidelines, we may alert you about this using our Webmaster Tools. Simply sign in to our Webmaster Tools, add your site URL, and verify site ownership. The Overview page provides information about the indexing of your site.
If you receive a notification that your site violates our quality guidelines, you can modify your site so that it meets these guidelines, then submit your site for reconsideration.
Cloaking, sneaky Javascript redirects, and doorway pages
Cloaking
Cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines. Serving up different results based on user agent may cause your site to be perceived as deceptive and removed from the Google index.
Some examples of cloaking include:
* Serving a page of HTML text to search engines, while showing a page of images or Flash to users.
* Serving different content to search engines than to users.
If your site contains elements that aren't crawlable by search engines (such as rich media files other than Flash, JavaScript, or images), you shouldn't provide cloaked content to search engines. Rather, you should consider visitors to your site who are unable to view these elements as well. For instance:
* Provide alt text that describes images for visitors with screen readers or images turned off in their browsers.
* Provide the textual contents of JavaScript in a noscript tag.
Ensure that you provide the same content in both elements (for instance, provide the same text in the JavaScript as in the noscript tag). Including substantially different content in the alternate element may cause Google to take action on the site.
Sneaky JavaScript redirects
When Googlebot indexes a page containing JavaScript, it will index that page but it cannot follow or index any links hidden in the JavaScript itself. Use of JavaScript is an entirely legitimate web practice. However, use of JavaScript with the intent to deceive search engines is not. For instance, placing different text in JavaScript than in a noscript tag violates our webmaster guidelines because it displays different content for users (who see the JavaScript-based text) than for search engines (which see the noscript-based text). Along those lines, it violates the webmaster guidelines to embed a link in JavaScript that redirects the user to a different page with the intent to show the user a different page than the search engine sees. When a redirect link is embedded in JavaScript, the search engine indexes the original page rather than following the link, whereas users are taken to the redirect target. Like cloaking, this practice is deceptive because it displays different content to users and to Googlebot, and can take a visitor somewhere other than where they intended to go.
Note that placement of links within JavaScript is alone not deceptive. When examining JavaScript on your site to ensure your site adheres to our guidelines, consider the intent.
Keep in mind that since search engines generally can't access the contents of JavaScript, legitimate links within JavaScript will likely be inaccessible to them (as well as to visitors without Javascript-enabled browsers). You might instead keep links outside of JavaScript or replicate them in a noscript tag.
Doorway pages
Doorway pages are typically large sets of poor-quality pages where each page is optimized for a specific keyword or phrase. In many cases, doorway pages are written to rank for a particular phrase and then funnel users to a single destination.
Whether deployed across many domains or established within one domain, doorway pages tend to frustrate users, and are in violation of our webmaster guidelines.
Google's aim is to give our users the most valuable and relevant search results. Therefore, we frown on practices that are designed to manipulate search engines and deceive users by directing them to sites other than the ones they selected, and that provide content solely for the benefit of search engines. Google may take action on doorway sites and other sites making use of these deceptive practice, including removing these sites from the Google index.
If your site has been removed from our search results, review our webmaster guidelines for more information. Once you've made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.
Duplicate content
Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. Mostly, this is not deceptive in origin. Examples of non-malicious duplicate content could include:
* Discussion forums that can generate both regular and stripped-down pages targeted at mobile devices
* Store items shown or linked via multiple distinct URLs
* Printer-only versions of web pages
However, in some cases, content is deliberately duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic. Deceptive practices like this can result in a poor user experience, when a visitor sees substantially the same content repeated within a set of search results.
Google tries hard to index and show pages with distinct information. This filtering means, for instance, that if your site has a "regular" and "printer" version of each article, and neither of these is blocked in robots.txt or with a noindex meta tag, we'll choose one of them to list. In the rare cases in which Google perceives that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we'll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. As a result, the ranking of the site may suffer, or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index, in which case it will no longer appear in search results.
There are some steps you can take to proactively address duplicate content issues, and ensure that visitors see the content you want them to.
* Consider blocking pages from indexing: Rather than letting Google's algorithms determine the "best" version of a document, you may wish to help guide us to your preferred version. For instance, if you don't want us to index the printer versions of your site's articles, disallow those directories or make use of regular expressions in your robots.txt file.
* Use 301s: If you've restructured your site, use 301 redirects ("RedirectPermanent") in your .htaccess file to smartly redirect users, Googlebot, and other spiders. (In Apache, you can do this with an .htaccess file; in IIS, you can do this through the administrative console.)
* Be consistent: Try to keep your internal linking consistent. For example, don't link to http://www.example.com/page/ and http://www.example.com/page and http://www.example.com/page/index.htm.
* Use top-level domains: To help us serve the most appropriate version of a document, use top-level domains whenever possible to handle country-specific content. We're more likely to know that www.example.de contains Germany-focused content, for instance, than www.example.com/de or de.example.com.
* Syndicate carefully: If you syndicate your content on other sites, Google will always show the version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you'd prefer. However, it is helpful to ensure that each site on which your content is syndicated includes a link back to your original article. You can also ask those who use your syndicated material to block the version on their sites with robots.txt.
* Use Webmaster Tools to tell us how you prefer your site to be indexed: You can tell Google your preferred domain (for example, www.example.com or http://example.com).
* Minimize boilerplate repetition: For instance, instead of including lengthy copyright text on the bottom of every page, include a very brief summary and then link to a page with more details.
* Avoid publishing stubs: Users don't like seeing "empty" pages, so avoid placeholders where possible. For example, don't publish pages for which you don't yet have real content. If you do create placeholder pages, use robots.txt to block these from being crawled.
* Understand your content management system: Make sure you're familiar with how content is displayed on your web site. Blogs, forums, and related systems often show the same content in multiple formats. For example, a blog entry may appear on the home page of a blog, in an archive page, and in a page of other entries with the same label.
* Minimize similar content: If you have many pages that are similar, consider expanding each page or consolidating the pages into one. For instance, if you have a travel site with separate pages for two cities, but the same information on both pages, you could either merge the pages into one page about both cities or you could expand each page to contain unique content about each city.
Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results. If your site suffers from duplicate content issues, and you don't follow the advice listed above, we do a good job of choosing a version of the content to show in our search results.
However, if our review indicated that you engaged in deceptive practices and your site has been removed from our search results, review your site carefully. If your site has been removed from our search results, review our webmaster guidelines for more information. Once you've made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.
If you find that another site is duplicating your content by scraping (misappropriating and republishing) it, it's unlikely that this will negatively impact your site's ranking in Google search results pages. If you do spot a case that's particularly frustrating, you are welcome to file a DMCA request to claim ownership of the content and request removal of the other site from Google's index.
Keyword stuffing
"Keyword stuffing" refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in Google's search results. Filling pages with keywords results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site's ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.
To fix this problem, review your site for misused keywords. Typically, these will be lists or paragraphs of keywords, often randomly repeated. Check carefully, because keywords can often be in the form of hidden text, or they can be hidden in title tags or alt attributes.
Once you've made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our webmaster guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.
Little or no original content
One of the most important steps in improving your site's ranking in Google search results is to ensure that it contains plenty of rich information that includes relevant keywords, used appropriately, that indicate the subject matter of your content.
However, some webmasters attempt to improve their page's ranking and attract visitors by creating pages with many words but little or no authentic content. Google will take action against domains that try to rank more highly by just showing scraped or other auto-generated pages that don't add any value to users. Examples include:
* Thin affiliate sites: These sites collect pay-per-click (PPC) revenue by sending visitors to the sites of affiliate programs, while providing little or no value-added content or service to the user. These sites usually have no original content and may be cookie-cutter sites or templates with no unique content.
* Doorway pages: Pages created just for search engines
* Auto-generated content: Content generated programatically. Often this will consist of random paragraphs of text that make no sense to the reader but that may contain search keywords.
* Scraped content: Some webmasters make use of content taken from other, more reputable sites on the assumption that increasing the volume of web pages with random, irrelevant content is a good long-term strategy. Purely scraped content, even from high-quality sources, may not provide any added value to your users without additional useful services or content provided by your site. It's worthwhile to take the time to create original content that sets your site apart. This will keep your visitors coming back and will provide useful search results.
There is no problem in being an affiliate as long as you create some added value for your users and produce valuable content that gives a user a reason to visit your site. For example, you could create product reviews, ratings, and product comparisons.
If your site has been removed from our search results, review our webmaster guidelines for more information. Once you've made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.
Link schemes
Your site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:
* Links intended to manipulate PageRank
* Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
* Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
* Buying or selling links that pass PageRank
The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page's visitors?
It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the buzzing blogger community can be an excellent place to generate interest.
Once you've made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.
Automated queries
Google's Terms of Service do not allow the sending of automated queries of any sort to our system without express permission in advance from Google. Sending automated queries absorbs resources and includes using any software (such as WebPosition Gold™) to send automated queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage ranks in Google search results for various queries.
Parked domains
A parked domain is a placeholder page for a domain that is not yet developed into a website. Often this is entirely legitimate - for example, a webmaster may put up an "Under construction" while the site itself is being built.
However, some webmasters register domains and park them in order to monetize those pages. Typically this is done by filling the pages with ads in the hope of gaining pay-per-click (PPC) revenue.
These parked pages don't provide value to searchers, so we don't typically return them in our search results. If you have parked domains, activate the domains and fill them with useful content to make them eligible for being indexed and returned in search results.
If your site has been removed from our search results, review our webmaster guidelines for more information. Once you've made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.
Friday, December 26, 2008
More information for publishers | Search Engine Optimization
Developing mobile sites
We believe the mobile web is becoming increasingly important, but it's not always easy to know where to start. So, we've put together this page of tools available for developers of mobile content, to help ease the way.
Mobile markup
Mobile web pages come in several markup dialects, including WML, XHTML Basic, XHTML MP and cHTML. WML is an older standard that is supported by many browsers, and still widely used in some markets. cHTML is used primarily in Japan, but also some parts of Europe. XHTML Basic and XHTML MP are almost identical subsets of HTML, used globally, but particularly in North America and Europe. XHTML dialects are the newest and most expressive of markups, and are gaining usage. XHTML Basic 1.1 and XHTML MP 1.2 are a good choice for new development, but your choice will vary according to your target market.
Validation
Valid pages are likely to render correctly on more mobile devices.
Published mobile markup standards include:
* XHTML Basic 1.1
* XHTML MP 1.2
* cHTML
* WML 1.3
Validators include the following:
* Mobile-friendly XHTML Validator (W3C)
* Mobile-readiness checker (.mobi)
* mobileOK Basic Checker (TAW)
* WuRML (shadowplay.net)
Emulation
You may be confident that your page is valid XHTML or valid WML, but are you certain that it's going to look right on a real phone screen? Use an emulator to test your page, and avoid the hassle of buying them all.
* Phone Simulator (Openwave)
* Mobile emulator (.mobi)
* i-mode emulator (DoCoMo)
* User-Agent Switcher (Firefox plug-in)
* wmlbrowser (Firefox plug-in)
* XHTML Mobile Profile (Firefox plug-in)
Google resources
* About mobile sites and the Google index
* Best practices for mobile developers
Other resources
* W3C Mobile Web Best Practices
* .mobi Switch On! Guides
* The Wireless FAQ
* mobileOK Basic Tests
* WURFL (Wireless Universal Resource File)
First Click Free
If you offer subscription-based access to your website content, or if users must register to access your content, then search engines cannot access some of your site's most relevant, valuable content.
Implementing Google's First Click Free (FCF) for your content allows you to include your restricted content in Google's main search index. Our intention is to protect your content while allowing for its inclusion in Google's search index. First Click Free has two main goals:
* To include high-quality content in Google's search index, providing a better experience for Google users who may not have known that content existed.
* To provide a promotion and discovery opportunity for webmasters of sites with restricted content.
To implement First Click Free, you need to allow all users who find a document on your site via Google search to see the full text of that document, even if they have not registered or subscribed to see that content. The user's first click to your content area is free. However, once that user clicks a link on the original page, you can require them to sign in or register to read further.
In order to successfully crawl your site, Google needs to be able to crawl your content without filling out a registration form. The easiest way to do this is to configure your webservers not to serve the registration page to our crawlers (when the User-Agent is "Googlebot") so that Googlebot can crawl these pages successfully. You can choose to allow Googlebot access to some restricted pages but not others. More information about technical requirements.
Friend Connect
Note: Google Friend Connect is currently a beta release and will be available only to a limited number of site owners. To find out more, please visit http://www.google.com/friendconnect/.
Google Friend Connect lets you grow traffic by easily adding social features to your website and makes it more engaging for your visitors. By copying a snippet of code, you can equip your site with social features, enabling your visitors to log in with existing credentials and see who among their friends is already registered at that site. It also gives them one-click access to invite friends from their existing friends lists on other sites, such as Facebook or orkut.
With Google Friend Connect, you can make your site more engaging with social applications created by Google and the Open Social developer community. By adding rich, relevant, and interactive gadgets to your site, visitors will interact more actively with content on your site and spend more time on your site.
Enabling Friend Connect on your site won't impact your site's rankings in Google's search results.
We believe the mobile web is becoming increasingly important, but it's not always easy to know where to start. So, we've put together this page of tools available for developers of mobile content, to help ease the way.
Mobile markup
Mobile web pages come in several markup dialects, including WML, XHTML Basic, XHTML MP and cHTML. WML is an older standard that is supported by many browsers, and still widely used in some markets. cHTML is used primarily in Japan, but also some parts of Europe. XHTML Basic and XHTML MP are almost identical subsets of HTML, used globally, but particularly in North America and Europe. XHTML dialects are the newest and most expressive of markups, and are gaining usage. XHTML Basic 1.1 and XHTML MP 1.2 are a good choice for new development, but your choice will vary according to your target market.
Validation
Valid pages are likely to render correctly on more mobile devices.
Published mobile markup standards include:
* XHTML Basic 1.1
* XHTML MP 1.2
* cHTML
* WML 1.3
Validators include the following:
* Mobile-friendly XHTML Validator (W3C)
* Mobile-readiness checker (.mobi)
* mobileOK Basic Checker (TAW)
* WuRML (shadowplay.net)
Emulation
You may be confident that your page is valid XHTML or valid WML, but are you certain that it's going to look right on a real phone screen? Use an emulator to test your page, and avoid the hassle of buying them all.
* Phone Simulator (Openwave)
* Mobile emulator (.mobi)
* i-mode emulator (DoCoMo)
* User-Agent Switcher (Firefox plug-in)
* wmlbrowser (Firefox plug-in)
* XHTML Mobile Profile (Firefox plug-in)
Google resources
* About mobile sites and the Google index
* Best practices for mobile developers
Other resources
* W3C Mobile Web Best Practices
* .mobi Switch On! Guides
* The Wireless FAQ
* mobileOK Basic Tests
* WURFL (Wireless Universal Resource File)
First Click Free
If you offer subscription-based access to your website content, or if users must register to access your content, then search engines cannot access some of your site's most relevant, valuable content.
Implementing Google's First Click Free (FCF) for your content allows you to include your restricted content in Google's main search index. Our intention is to protect your content while allowing for its inclusion in Google's search index. First Click Free has two main goals:
* To include high-quality content in Google's search index, providing a better experience for Google users who may not have known that content existed.
* To provide a promotion and discovery opportunity for webmasters of sites with restricted content.
To implement First Click Free, you need to allow all users who find a document on your site via Google search to see the full text of that document, even if they have not registered or subscribed to see that content. The user's first click to your content area is free. However, once that user clicks a link on the original page, you can require them to sign in or register to read further.
In order to successfully crawl your site, Google needs to be able to crawl your content without filling out a registration form. The easiest way to do this is to configure your webservers not to serve the registration page to our crawlers (when the User-Agent is "Googlebot") so that Googlebot can crawl these pages successfully. You can choose to allow Googlebot access to some restricted pages but not others. More information about technical requirements.
Friend Connect
Note: Google Friend Connect is currently a beta release and will be available only to a limited number of site owners. To find out more, please visit http://www.google.com/friendconnect/.
Google Friend Connect lets you grow traffic by easily adding social features to your website and makes it more engaging for your visitors. By copying a snippet of code, you can equip your site with social features, enabling your visitors to log in with existing credentials and see who among their friends is already registered at that site. It also gives them one-click access to invite friends from their existing friends lists on other sites, such as Facebook or orkut.
With Google Friend Connect, you can make your site more engaging with social applications created by Google and the Open Social developer community. By adding rich, relevant, and interactive gadgets to your site, visitors will interact more actively with content on your site and spend more time on your site.
Enabling Friend Connect on your site won't impact your site's rankings in Google's search results.
Browser compatibility | Site design and content
Browser compatibility
Users typically view your website using a browser. Each browser interprets your website code in a slightly different manner, which means that it may appear differently to visitors using different browsers. In general, you should avoid relying on browser specific behavior, such as relying on a browser to correctly detect a content-type or encoding when you did not specify one. In addition, there are some steps you can take to make sure your site doesn't behave in unexpected ways.
Test your site in as many browsers as possible
Once you've created your web design, you should review your site's appearance and functionality on multiple browsers to make sure that all your visitors are getting the experience you worked so hard to design. Ideally, you should start testing as early in your site development process as possible. Different browsers - and even different versions of the same browser - can see your site differently. You can use services such as Google Analytics to get a good idea of the most popular browsers used to view your site.
Write good, clean HTML
While your site may appear correctly in some browsers even if your HTML is not valid, there's no guarantee that it will appear correctly in all browsers - or in all future browsers. The best way to make sure that your page looks the same in all browsers is to write your page using valid HTML and CSS, and then test it in as many browsers as possible. Clean, valid HTML is a good insurance policy, and using CSS separates presentation from content, and can help pages render and load faster. Validation tools, such as the free online HTML and CSS validators provided by the W3 Consortium, are useful for checking your site, and tools such as HTML Tidy can help you quickly and easily clean up your code. (Although we do recommend using valid HTML, it's not likely to be a factor in how Google crawls and indexes your site.)
Specify your character encoding
To help browsers render the text on your page, you should always specify an encoding for your document. This encoding should appear at the top of the document (or frame) as some browsers won't recognize charset declarations that appear deep in the document. In addition, you should make sure that your web server is not sending conflicting HTTP headers. A header such as content-type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 will override any charset declarations in your page.
Consider accessibility
Not all users may have JavaScript enabled in their browsers. In addition, technologies such as Flash and ActiveX may not render well (or at all) in every browser. We recommend following our guidelines for using Flash and other rich media, and testing your site in a text-only browser such as Lynx. As a bonus, providing text-only alternatives to rich-media content and functionality will make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site, and also make your site more accessible to users who use alternative technologies such as screenreaders.
Users typically view your website using a browser. Each browser interprets your website code in a slightly different manner, which means that it may appear differently to visitors using different browsers. In general, you should avoid relying on browser specific behavior, such as relying on a browser to correctly detect a content-type or encoding when you did not specify one. In addition, there are some steps you can take to make sure your site doesn't behave in unexpected ways.
Test your site in as many browsers as possible
Once you've created your web design, you should review your site's appearance and functionality on multiple browsers to make sure that all your visitors are getting the experience you worked so hard to design. Ideally, you should start testing as early in your site development process as possible. Different browsers - and even different versions of the same browser - can see your site differently. You can use services such as Google Analytics to get a good idea of the most popular browsers used to view your site.
Write good, clean HTML
While your site may appear correctly in some browsers even if your HTML is not valid, there's no guarantee that it will appear correctly in all browsers - or in all future browsers. The best way to make sure that your page looks the same in all browsers is to write your page using valid HTML and CSS, and then test it in as many browsers as possible. Clean, valid HTML is a good insurance policy, and using CSS separates presentation from content, and can help pages render and load faster. Validation tools, such as the free online HTML and CSS validators provided by the W3 Consortium, are useful for checking your site, and tools such as HTML Tidy can help you quickly and easily clean up your code. (Although we do recommend using valid HTML, it's not likely to be a factor in how Google crawls and indexes your site.)
Specify your character encoding
To help browsers render the text on your page, you should always specify an encoding for your document. This encoding should appear at the top of the document (or frame) as some browsers won't recognize charset declarations that appear deep in the document. In addition, you should make sure that your web server is not sending conflicting HTTP headers. A header such as content-type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 will override any charset declarations in your page.
Consider accessibility
Not all users may have JavaScript enabled in their browsers. In addition, technologies such as Flash and ActiveX may not render well (or at all) in every browser. We recommend following our guidelines for using Flash and other rich media, and testing your site in a text-only browser such as Lynx. As a bonus, providing text-only alternatives to rich-media content and functionality will make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site, and also make your site more accessible to users who use alternative technologies such as screenreaders.
About rel="nofollow" | Site design and content
About rel="nofollow"
"Nofollow" provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines "Don't follow links on this page" or "Don't follow this specific link."
Originally, the nofollow attribute appeared in the page-level meta tag, and instructed search engines not to follow (i.e., crawl) any outgoing links on the page. For example:
Before nofollow was used on individual links, preventing robots from following individual links on a page required a great deal of effort (for example, redirecting the link to a URL blocked in robots.txt). That's why the nofollow attribute value of the rel attribute was created. This gives webmasters more granular control: instead of telling search engines and bots not to follow any links on the page, it lets you easily instruct robots not to crawl a specific link. For example:
sign in
How does Google handle nofollowed links?
We don't follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it's important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways.
What are Google's policies and some specific examples of nofollow usage?
Here are some cases in which you might want to consider using nofollow:
* Untrusted content: If you can't or don't want to vouch for the content of pages you link to from your site — for example, untrusted user comments or guestbook entries — you should nofollow those links. This can discourage spammers from targeting your site, and will help keep your site from inadvertently passing PageRank to bad neighborhoods on the web. In particular, comment spammers may decide not to target a specific content management system or blog service if they can see that untrusted links in that service are nofollowed. If you want to recognize and reward trustworthy contributors, you could decide to automatically or manually remove the nofollow attribute on links posted by members or users who have consistently made high-quality contributions over time.
* Paid links: A site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. In order to prevent paid links from influencing search results and negatively impacting users, we urge webmasters use nofollow on such links. Search engine guidelines require machine-readable disclosure of paid links in the same way that consumers online and offline appreciate disclosure of paid relationships (for example, a full-page newspaper ad may be headed by the word "Advertisement"). More information on Google's stance on paid links.
* Crawl prioritization: Search engine robots can't sign in or register as a member on your forum, so there's no reason to invite Googlebot to follow "register here" or "sign in" links. Using nofollow on these links enables Googlebot to crawl other pages you'd prefer to see in Google's index. However, a solid information architecture — intuitive navigation, user- and search-engine-friendly URLs, and so on — is likely to be a far more productive use of resources than focusing on crawl prioritization via nofollowed links.
"Nofollow" provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines "Don't follow links on this page" or "Don't follow this specific link."
Originally, the nofollow attribute appeared in the page-level meta tag, and instructed search engines not to follow (i.e., crawl) any outgoing links on the page. For example:
Before nofollow was used on individual links, preventing robots from following individual links on a page required a great deal of effort (for example, redirecting the link to a URL blocked in robots.txt). That's why the nofollow attribute value of the rel attribute was created. This gives webmasters more granular control: instead of telling search engines and bots not to follow any links on the page, it lets you easily instruct robots not to crawl a specific link. For example:
sign in
How does Google handle nofollowed links?
We don't follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it's important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways.
What are Google's policies and some specific examples of nofollow usage?
Here are some cases in which you might want to consider using nofollow:
* Untrusted content: If you can't or don't want to vouch for the content of pages you link to from your site — for example, untrusted user comments or guestbook entries — you should nofollow those links. This can discourage spammers from targeting your site, and will help keep your site from inadvertently passing PageRank to bad neighborhoods on the web. In particular, comment spammers may decide not to target a specific content management system or blog service if they can see that untrusted links in that service are nofollowed. If you want to recognize and reward trustworthy contributors, you could decide to automatically or manually remove the nofollow attribute on links posted by members or users who have consistently made high-quality contributions over time.
* Paid links: A site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. In order to prevent paid links from influencing search results and negatively impacting users, we urge webmasters use nofollow on such links. Search engine guidelines require machine-readable disclosure of paid links in the same way that consumers online and offline appreciate disclosure of paid relationships (for example, a full-page newspaper ad may be headed by the word "Advertisement"). More information on Google's stance on paid links.
* Crawl prioritization: Search engine robots can't sign in or register as a member on your forum, so there's no reason to invite Googlebot to follow "register here" or "sign in" links. Using nofollow on these links enables Googlebot to crawl other pages you'd prefer to see in Google's index. However, a solid information architecture — intuitive navigation, user- and search-engine-friendly URLs, and so on — is likely to be a far more productive use of resources than focusing on crawl prioritization via nofollowed links.
Meta tags | Site design and content
Meta tags
Meta tags are a great way for webmasters to provide search engines with information about their sites. Meta tags can be used to provide information to all sorts of clients, and each system processes only the meta tags they understand and ignores the rest. Meta tags are added to the section of your HTML page and generally look like this:
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
Example Books - high-quality used books for children
Google understands the following meta tags (and related items):
This tag provides a short description of the page. In some situations this description is used as a part of the snippet shown in the search results. More information
The Title of the Page While technically not a meta tag, this tag is often used together with the "description". The contents of this tag are generally shown as the title in search results (and of course in the user's browser). More information
These meta tags can control the behavior of search engine crawling and indexing. The robots meta tag applies to all search engines, while the "googlebot" meta tag is specific to Google. The default values are "index, follow" (the same as "all") and do not need to be specified. We understand the following values (when specifying multiple values, separate them with a comma):
* noindex: prevents the page from being indexed
* nofollow: prevents the Googlebot from following links from this page
* nosnippet: prevents a snippet from being shown in the search results
* noodp: prevents the alternative description from the ODP/DMOZ from being used
* noarchive: prevents Google from showing the Cached link for a page.
* unavailable_after:[date]: lets you specify the exact time and date you want to stop crawling and indexing of this page
* noimageindex: lets you specify that you do not want your page to appear as the referring page for an image that appears in Google search results.
As a side-note, you can now also specify this information in the header of your pages using the "X-Robots-Tag" HTTP header directive. This is particularly useful if you wish to fine-tune crawling and indexing of non-HTML files like graphics or other kinds of documents.
When we recognize that the contents of a page are not in the language that the user is likely to want to read, we often provide a link to a translation in the search results. In general, this gives you the chance to provide your unique and compelling content to a much larger group of users. However, there may be situations where this is not desired. This meta tag tells Google that you don't want us to provide a translation for this page. More information
You can use this tag on the top-level page of your site to verify ownership for Webmaster Tools. Please note that while the values of the "name" and "content" attributes must match exactly what is provided to you (including upper and lower case), it doesn't matter if you change the tag from XHTML to HTML or if the format of the tag matches the format of your page. More information
This meta tag defines the page's content type and character set. Make sure that you surround the value of the content attribute with quotes - otherwise the charset attribute may be interpreted incorrectly. More information
This meta tag sends the user to a new URL after a certain amount of time, and is sometimes used as a simple form of redirection. However, it is not supported by all browsers and can be confusing to the user. The W3C recommends that this tag not be used. We recommend using a server-side 301 redirect instead.
Other points to note:
* Google can read both HTML and XHTML-style meta tags, regardless of the code used on the page.
* With the exception of "verify", case is generally not important in meta tags.
This is not an exclusive list of available meta tags, and you should feel free to use unlisted meta tags if they are important to your site. Just remember that Google will ignore meta tags it doesn't know.
Meta tags are a great way for webmasters to provide search engines with information about their sites. Meta tags can be used to provide information to all sorts of clients, and each system processes only the meta tags they understand and ignores the rest. Meta tags are added to the section of your HTML page and generally look like this:
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
Google understands the following meta tags (and related items):
This tag provides a short description of the page. In some situations this description is used as a part of the snippet shown in the search results. More information
These meta tags can control the behavior of search engine crawling and indexing. The robots meta tag applies to all search engines, while the "googlebot" meta tag is specific to Google. The default values are "index, follow" (the same as "all") and do not need to be specified. We understand the following values (when specifying multiple values, separate them with a comma):
* noindex: prevents the page from being indexed
* nofollow: prevents the Googlebot from following links from this page
* nosnippet: prevents a snippet from being shown in the search results
* noodp: prevents the alternative description from the ODP/DMOZ from being used
* noarchive: prevents Google from showing the Cached link for a page.
* unavailable_after:[date]: lets you specify the exact time and date you want to stop crawling and indexing of this page
* noimageindex: lets you specify that you do not want your page to appear as the referring page for an image that appears in Google search results.
As a side-note, you can now also specify this information in the header of your pages using the "X-Robots-Tag" HTTP header directive. This is particularly useful if you wish to fine-tune crawling and indexing of non-HTML files like graphics or other kinds of documents.
When we recognize that the contents of a page are not in the language that the user is likely to want to read, we often provide a link to a translation in the search results. In general, this gives you the chance to provide your unique and compelling content to a much larger group of users. However, there may be situations where this is not desired. This meta tag tells Google that you don't want us to provide a translation for this page. More information
You can use this tag on the top-level page of your site to verify ownership for Webmaster Tools. Please note that while the values of the "name" and "content" attributes must match exactly what is provided to you (including upper and lower case), it doesn't matter if you change the tag from XHTML to HTML or if the format of the tag matches the format of your page. More information
This meta tag defines the page's content type and character set. Make sure that you surround the value of the content attribute with quotes - otherwise the charset attribute may be interpreted incorrectly. More information
This meta tag sends the user to a new URL after a certain amount of time, and is sometimes used as a simple form of redirection. However, it is not supported by all browsers and can be confusing to the user. The W3C recommends that this tag not be used. We recommend using a server-side 301 redirect instead.
Other points to note:
* Google can read both HTML and XHTML-style meta tags, regardless of the code used on the page.
* With the exception of "verify", case is generally not important in meta tags.
This is not an exclusive list of available meta tags, and you should feel free to use unlisted meta tags if they are important to your site. Just remember that Google will ignore meta tags it doesn't know.
Flash and other rich media files | Site design and content
Flash and other rich media files
Flash Learn more...
Silverlight Learn more...
Video Learn more...
iFrames Learn more...
Best practices Learn more...
Google can index most types of pages and files (detailed list).
In general, however, search engines are text based. This means that in order to be crawled and indexed, your content needs to be in text format. (Google can now index text content contained in Flash files, but other search engines may not.)
This doesn't mean that you can't include rich media content such as Flash, Silverlight, or videos on your site; it just means that any content you embed in these files should also be available in text format or it won't be accessible to search engines. The examples below focus on the most common types of non-text content, but the guidelines are similar for any other types: Provide text equivalents for all non-text files.
This will not only increase Googlebot's ability to successfully crawl and index your content; it will also make your content more accessible. Many people, for example users with visual impairments, who use screen readers, or have low bandwidth connections, cannot see images on web pages, and providing text equivalents widens your audience.
Flash
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Google can now discover and index text content in SWF files of all kinds, including self-contained Flash websites and Flash gadgets such as buttons or menus. This includes all textual content visible to the user. In addition, we can now find and follow URLs embedded in Flash files. We'll crawl and index this content in the same way that we crawl and index other content on your site - webmasters don't need to take any special action. However, we don't guarantee that we'll crawl or index all the content, Flash or otherwise.
We're continually working to improve our indexing of Flash files, but there are some limitations:
* Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. If your webpage uses JavaScript to load a Flash file, we may not be able to discover and index the contents of that file.
* We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads another file - such as an HTML file, an XML file, or another SWF file - we may index the contents of those files, but we won't consider that content to be part of the content in your Flash files.
* We're currently unable to index the bidirectional language content (for example, Hebrew or Arabic) in Flash files.
Note that while Google can index the content of Flash files, other search engines may not be able to. Providing text equivalents of these files will help other search engines crawl and index your content.
You could also consider using sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement). sIFR (an open-source project) lets webmasters replace text elements with Flash equivalents. Using this technique, content and navigation is displayed by an embedded Flash object but, because the content is contained in the HTML source, it can be read by non-Flash users (including search engines).
Silverlight and other rich media formats
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Google can crawl and index the text content of Flash files, but we still have problems accessing the content of other rich media formats such as Silverlight. These rich media formats are is inherently visual, which can cause some problems for Googlebot. Unlike some Internet spiders, Googlebot can read some rich media files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing. Also, rich media designers often include content in the form of graphics, and because Google can't detect words included in graphics, it can miss important keywords. In other words, even if we can crawl your content and it is in our index, it might be missing some text, content, or links.
Video
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Googlebot cannot crawl the content of video files, so it's important that you provide information about videos you include. Consider creating a transcript of the video you want to include, or provide a detailed description of the video inside your HTML. If you have video content, you can host it on Google Video, YouTube, or a number of other video hosting providers. Searchers can view Google Video or YouTube videos directly from the Google search results page.
IFrames
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IFrames are sometimes used to display content on web pages. Content displayed via iFrames may not be indexed and available to appear in Google's search results. We recommend that you avoid the use of iFrames to display content. If you do include iFrames, make sure to provide additional text-based links to the content they display, so that Googlebot can crawl and index this content.
Best practices
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If you do plan to use rich media on your site, here are some recommendations that can help prevent problems.
* Try to use rich media only where it is needed. We recommend that you use HTML for content and navigation. This makes your site more Google-friendly, and also makes it accessible to a larger audience including, for example, readers with visual impairments that require the use of screen readers, users of old or non-standard browsers, and users with limited or low-bandwidth connections such as a cellphone or mobile device. An added bonus? Using HTML for navigation will allow users to bookmark content and send direct links in email.
* Provide text versions of pages. Silverlight is often used as a splash screen on the home page, where the root URL of a website has a rich media intro that links to HTML content deeper into the site. If you use this approach on your website, make sure there is a regular HTML link on that front page to a text-based page where a user (or Googlebot) can navigate throughout your site without the need for rich media.
* Consider using robots.txt to block rich media files. If you're providing text versions of content, you may want to consider using robots.txt to block access to the rich media versions.
Flash Learn more...
Silverlight Learn more...
Video Learn more...
iFrames Learn more...
Best practices Learn more...
Google can index most types of pages and files (detailed list).
In general, however, search engines are text based. This means that in order to be crawled and indexed, your content needs to be in text format. (Google can now index text content contained in Flash files, but other search engines may not.)
This doesn't mean that you can't include rich media content such as Flash, Silverlight, or videos on your site; it just means that any content you embed in these files should also be available in text format or it won't be accessible to search engines. The examples below focus on the most common types of non-text content, but the guidelines are similar for any other types: Provide text equivalents for all non-text files.
This will not only increase Googlebot's ability to successfully crawl and index your content; it will also make your content more accessible. Many people, for example users with visual impairments, who use screen readers, or have low bandwidth connections, cannot see images on web pages, and providing text equivalents widens your audience.
Flash
back to top
Google can now discover and index text content in SWF files of all kinds, including self-contained Flash websites and Flash gadgets such as buttons or menus. This includes all textual content visible to the user. In addition, we can now find and follow URLs embedded in Flash files. We'll crawl and index this content in the same way that we crawl and index other content on your site - webmasters don't need to take any special action. However, we don't guarantee that we'll crawl or index all the content, Flash or otherwise.
We're continually working to improve our indexing of Flash files, but there are some limitations:
* Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. If your webpage uses JavaScript to load a Flash file, we may not be able to discover and index the contents of that file.
* We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads another file - such as an HTML file, an XML file, or another SWF file - we may index the contents of those files, but we won't consider that content to be part of the content in your Flash files.
* We're currently unable to index the bidirectional language content (for example, Hebrew or Arabic) in Flash files.
Note that while Google can index the content of Flash files, other search engines may not be able to. Providing text equivalents of these files will help other search engines crawl and index your content.
You could also consider using sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement). sIFR (an open-source project) lets webmasters replace text elements with Flash equivalents. Using this technique, content and navigation is displayed by an embedded Flash object but, because the content is contained in the HTML source, it can be read by non-Flash users (including search engines).
Silverlight and other rich media formats
back to top
Google can crawl and index the text content of Flash files, but we still have problems accessing the content of other rich media formats such as Silverlight. These rich media formats are is inherently visual, which can cause some problems for Googlebot. Unlike some Internet spiders, Googlebot can read some rich media files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing. Also, rich media designers often include content in the form of graphics, and because Google can't detect words included in graphics, it can miss important keywords. In other words, even if we can crawl your content and it is in our index, it might be missing some text, content, or links.
Video
back to top
Googlebot cannot crawl the content of video files, so it's important that you provide information about videos you include. Consider creating a transcript of the video you want to include, or provide a detailed description of the video inside your HTML. If you have video content, you can host it on Google Video, YouTube, or a number of other video hosting providers. Searchers can view Google Video or YouTube videos directly from the Google search results page.
IFrames
back to top
IFrames are sometimes used to display content on web pages. Content displayed via iFrames may not be indexed and available to appear in Google's search results. We recommend that you avoid the use of iFrames to display content. If you do include iFrames, make sure to provide additional text-based links to the content they display, so that Googlebot can crawl and index this content.
Best practices
back to top
If you do plan to use rich media on your site, here are some recommendations that can help prevent problems.
* Try to use rich media only where it is needed. We recommend that you use HTML for content and navigation. This makes your site more Google-friendly, and also makes it accessible to a larger audience including, for example, readers with visual impairments that require the use of screen readers, users of old or non-standard browsers, and users with limited or low-bandwidth connections such as a cellphone or mobile device. An added bonus? Using HTML for navigation will allow users to bookmark content and send direct links in email.
* Provide text versions of pages. Silverlight is often used as a splash screen on the home page, where the root URL of a website has a rich media intro that links to HTML content deeper into the site. If you use this approach on your website, make sure there is a regular HTML link on that front page to a text-based page where a user (or Googlebot) can navigate throughout your site without the need for rich media.
* Consider using robots.txt to block rich media files. If you're providing text versions of content, you may want to consider using robots.txt to block access to the rich media versions.
Images | Site design and content
Images
Watch a video on using images on your site.
When publishing images on the web, all our usual webmaster guidelines apply.
Because images are often copied by users, Google often finds multiple copies of the same image online. We use many different signals to identify the original source of the image, and you can help by providing us with as much information as you can. In addition, the information you give about an image tells us about its content and subject matter.
Don't embed text inside images - search engines generally won't be able to read it.
Tell us as much as you can about the image
Give your images detailed, informative filenames
The filename can give Google clues about the subject matter of the image. Try to make your filename a good description of the subject matter of the image. For example, my-new-black-kitten.jpg is a lot more informative than IMG00023.JPG. Descriptive filenames can also be useful to users: If we're unable to find suitable text in the page on which we found the image, we'll use the filename as the image's snippet in our search results.
Create great alt text
The alt attribute is used to describe the contents of an image file. It's important for several reasons:
* It provides Google with useful information about the subject matter of the image. We use this information to help determine the best image to return for a user's query.
* Many people—for example, users with visual impairments, or people using screen readers or who have low-bandwidth connections—may not be able to see images on web pages. Descriptive alt text provides these users with important information.
Not so good:
Better:
Best:
To be avoided
Filling alt attributes with keywords ("keyword stuffing") results in a negative user experience, and may cause your site to be perceived as spam. Instead, focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context. We recommend testing your content by using a text-only browser such as Lynx.
Anchor text
External anchor text (the text pages use to link to your site) reflects how other people view your pages. While typically webmasters can't control how other sites link to theirs, you can make sure that anchor text you use within your own site is useful, descriptive, and relevant. This improves the user experience and helps the user understand the link's destination. For example, you might link to a page of vacation photos like this: Photos of our June 2008 trip to Ireland.
Provide good context for your image
The page the image is on, and the content around the image (including any captions or image titles), provide search engines with important information about the subject matter of your image. For example, if you have a picture of a polar bear on a page about home-grown tomatoes, you'll be sending a confused message to the search engines about the subject matter of polarbear.jpg.
Wherever possible, it's a good idea to make sure that images are placed near the relevant text. In addition, we recommend providing good, descriptive titles and captions for your images.
Create a great user experience
* Good-quality photos appeal to users more than blurry, unclear images. In addition, other webmasters are much more likely to link to a good-quality image, which can increase visits to your site. Crisp, sharp images will also appear better in the thumbnail versions we display in our search results, and may therefore be more likely to be clicked on by users.
* Even if your image appears on several pages on your site, consider creating a standalone landing page for each image, where you can gather all its related information. If you do this, be sure to provide unique information - such as descriptive titles and captions - on each page.
* Not all users scroll to the bottom of a page, so consider putting your images high up on the page where it can be immediately seen.
* Think about whether you want people to share your images. If you prevent users from linking to images on your site, you'll prevent people from using your bandwidth, but you are also limiting the potential audience for your images and reducing their discoverability by search engines. Similarly, some people add copyright text or other information to their images. This won't impact your image's performance in search results, but again, you should think about the impact of this on your users.
* Consider structuring your directories so that similar images are saved together. For example, you might have one directory for thumbnails and another for full-size images; or you could create separate directories for each category of images (for example, you could create separate directories for Hawaii, Ghana, and Ireland under your Travel directory). If your site contains adult images, we recommend storing these in one or more directories separate from the rest of the images on your site.
With image search, just as with web search, our goal is to provide the best and most relevant search results to our users. Following the best practices listed above will increase the likelihood that your images will be returned in those search results.
Watch a video on using images on your site.
When publishing images on the web, all our usual webmaster guidelines apply.
Because images are often copied by users, Google often finds multiple copies of the same image online. We use many different signals to identify the original source of the image, and you can help by providing us with as much information as you can. In addition, the information you give about an image tells us about its content and subject matter.
Don't embed text inside images - search engines generally won't be able to read it.
Tell us as much as you can about the image
Give your images detailed, informative filenames
The filename can give Google clues about the subject matter of the image. Try to make your filename a good description of the subject matter of the image. For example, my-new-black-kitten.jpg is a lot more informative than IMG00023.JPG. Descriptive filenames can also be useful to users: If we're unable to find suitable text in the page on which we found the image, we'll use the filename as the image's snippet in our search results.
Create great alt text
The alt attribute is used to describe the contents of an image file. It's important for several reasons:
* It provides Google with useful information about the subject matter of the image. We use this information to help determine the best image to return for a user's query.
* Many people—for example, users with visual impairments, or people using screen readers or who have low-bandwidth connections—may not be able to see images on web pages. Descriptive alt text provides these users with important information.
Not so good:
Better:
Best:
To be avoided
Filling alt attributes with keywords ("keyword stuffing") results in a negative user experience, and may cause your site to be perceived as spam. Instead, focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context. We recommend testing your content by using a text-only browser such as Lynx.
Anchor text
External anchor text (the text pages use to link to your site) reflects how other people view your pages. While typically webmasters can't control how other sites link to theirs, you can make sure that anchor text you use within your own site is useful, descriptive, and relevant. This improves the user experience and helps the user understand the link's destination. For example, you might link to a page of vacation photos like this: Photos of our June 2008 trip to Ireland.
Provide good context for your image
The page the image is on, and the content around the image (including any captions or image titles), provide search engines with important information about the subject matter of your image. For example, if you have a picture of a polar bear on a page about home-grown tomatoes, you'll be sending a confused message to the search engines about the subject matter of polarbear.jpg.
Wherever possible, it's a good idea to make sure that images are placed near the relevant text. In addition, we recommend providing good, descriptive titles and captions for your images.
Create a great user experience
* Good-quality photos appeal to users more than blurry, unclear images. In addition, other webmasters are much more likely to link to a good-quality image, which can increase visits to your site. Crisp, sharp images will also appear better in the thumbnail versions we display in our search results, and may therefore be more likely to be clicked on by users.
* Even if your image appears on several pages on your site, consider creating a standalone landing page for each image, where you can gather all its related information. If you do this, be sure to provide unique information - such as descriptive titles and captions - on each page.
* Not all users scroll to the bottom of a page, so consider putting your images high up on the page where it can be immediately seen.
* Think about whether you want people to share your images. If you prevent users from linking to images on your site, you'll prevent people from using your bandwidth, but you are also limiting the potential audience for your images and reducing their discoverability by search engines. Similarly, some people add copyright text or other information to their images. This won't impact your image's performance in search results, but again, you should think about the impact of this on your users.
* Consider structuring your directories so that similar images are saved together. For example, you might have one directory for thumbnails and another for full-size images; or you could create separate directories for each category of images (for example, you could create separate directories for Hawaii, Ghana, and Ireland under your Travel directory). If your site contains adult images, we recommend storing these in one or more directories separate from the rest of the images on your site.
With image search, just as with web search, our goal is to provide the best and most relevant search results to our users. Following the best practices listed above will increase the likelihood that your images will be returned in those search results.
Comment spam | Site management
Comment spam
Comments are a great way for webmasters to build community and readership. Unfortunately, they're often abused by spammers and nogoodniks, many of whom use scripts or other software to generate and post spam. If you've ever received a comment that looked like an advertisement or a random link to an unrelated site, then you've encountered comment spam. Here are some ideas for reducing or preventing comment spam on your website.
Use anti-spam comment tools
Most website development tools, especially blog tools, can require commenters to prove they're a real live human, not a nasty spamming engine. You'll have seen these: Generally the user is presented with a distorted image (often called a CAPTCHA) and asked to type the letters or numbers she sees in the image. Some CAPTCHA systems also support audio CAPTCHAs. This is a pretty effective way of preventing comment spam. The process may reduce the number of casual readers who leave comments on your pages, but it will definitely improve the quality of the comments.
Turn on comment moderation
Comment moderation means that no comments will appear on your site until you manually review and approve them. This means you'll spend more time monitoring your comments, but it can really help to improve the user experience for your visitors. It's particularly worthwhile if you regularly post about controversial subjects, where emotions can become heated. It's generally available as a setting in your blogging software, such as Blogger.
Use "nofollow" tags
Together with Yahoo! and MSN, Google introduced the "nofollow" HTML microformat a few years ago, and the attribute has been widely adopted. Any link with the rel="nofollow" attribute will not be used to calculate PageRank or determine the relevancy of your pages for a user query. (For example, if a spammer includes a link in your comments like this:
This is a nice site!
it will get converted to:
This is a nice site!
This new link will not be taken into account when calculating PageRank. This won't prevent spam, but it will avoid problems with passing PageRank.
By default, many blogging sites (such as Blogger) automatically add this attribute to any posted comments.
Disallow hyperlinks in comments
If you have access to the server, you may want to change its configuration to remove HTML tags from comment links inside your guestbook. Spammers will still be able to leave comments, but they won't be able to publish active hyperlinks.
Block comment pages using robots.txt or META tags
You can use your robots.txt file to block Google's access to certain pages. This won't stop spammers from leaving comments, but it will mean that links in these comments won't negatively impact your site. For example, if comments are stored in the subdirectory guestbook, you could add the following to your robots.txt file:
Disallow:/guestbook/
This will block Google from indexing the contents of guestbook and any subdirectories.
You can also use the META tag to block access to a single selected page, for example http://www.example.com/article/comments. Like this:
Think twice about enabling a guestbook or comments
A lot of spam doesn't give users a good impression of your site. If this feature isn't adding much value to your users, or if you won't have time to regularly monitor your guestbook or comments, consider turning them off. Most blogging software, such as Blogger, will let you turn comments off for individual posts.
Comments are a great way for webmasters to build community and readership. Unfortunately, they're often abused by spammers and nogoodniks, many of whom use scripts or other software to generate and post spam. If you've ever received a comment that looked like an advertisement or a random link to an unrelated site, then you've encountered comment spam. Here are some ideas for reducing or preventing comment spam on your website.
Use anti-spam comment tools
Most website development tools, especially blog tools, can require commenters to prove they're a real live human, not a nasty spamming engine. You'll have seen these: Generally the user is presented with a distorted image (often called a CAPTCHA) and asked to type the letters or numbers she sees in the image. Some CAPTCHA systems also support audio CAPTCHAs. This is a pretty effective way of preventing comment spam. The process may reduce the number of casual readers who leave comments on your pages, but it will definitely improve the quality of the comments.
Turn on comment moderation
Comment moderation means that no comments will appear on your site until you manually review and approve them. This means you'll spend more time monitoring your comments, but it can really help to improve the user experience for your visitors. It's particularly worthwhile if you regularly post about controversial subjects, where emotions can become heated. It's generally available as a setting in your blogging software, such as Blogger.
Use "nofollow" tags
Together with Yahoo! and MSN, Google introduced the "nofollow" HTML microformat a few years ago, and the attribute has been widely adopted. Any link with the rel="nofollow" attribute will not be used to calculate PageRank or determine the relevancy of your pages for a user query. (For example, if a spammer includes a link in your comments like this:
This is a nice site!
it will get converted to:
This is a nice site!
This new link will not be taken into account when calculating PageRank. This won't prevent spam, but it will avoid problems with passing PageRank.
By default, many blogging sites (such as Blogger) automatically add this attribute to any posted comments.
Disallow hyperlinks in comments
If you have access to the server, you may want to change its configuration to remove HTML tags from comment links inside your guestbook. Spammers will still be able to leave comments, but they won't be able to publish active hyperlinks.
Block comment pages using robots.txt or META tags
You can use your robots.txt file to block Google's access to certain pages. This won't stop spammers from leaving comments, but it will mean that links in these comments won't negatively impact your site. For example, if comments are stored in the subdirectory guestbook, you could add the following to your robots.txt file:
Disallow:/guestbook/
This will block Google from indexing the contents of guestbook and any subdirectories.
You can also use the META tag to block access to a single selected page, for example http://www.example.com/article/comments. Like this:
Think twice about enabling a guestbook or comments
A lot of spam doesn't give users a good impression of your site. If this feature isn't adding much value to your users, or if you won't have time to regularly monitor your guestbook or comments, consider turning them off. Most blogging software, such as Blogger, will let you turn comments off for individual posts.
AJAX | Site management
AJAX
Many webmasters have discovered the advantages of using AJAX to improve the user experience on their sites, creating dynamic pages that act as powerful web applications. But like Flash, AJAX can make a site difficult for search engines to index if the technology is not implemented carefully. There are two main search engine issues around AJAX: Making sure that search engine bots can see your content, and making sure they can see and follow your navigation.
While Googlebot is great at understanding the structure of HTML links, it can have difficulty finding its way around sites which use JavaScript for navigation. We're working on doing a better job of understanding JavaScript, but your best bet for creating a site that's crawlable by Google and other search engines is to provide HTML links to your content.
Design for accessibility
We encourage webmasters to create pages for users, not just search engines. When you're designing your AJAX site, think about the needs of your users, including those who may not be using a JavaScript-capable browser (for example, people who use screen readers or mobile devices). One of the easiest ways to test your site's accessibility is to preview it in your browser with JavaScript turned off, or to view it in a text-only browser such as Lynx. Viewing a site as text-only can also help you identify other content which may be hard for Googlebot to see, such as text embedded in images or Flash.
Avoid iFrames - or link to their content separately
Content displayed via iFrames may not be indexed and available to appear in Google's search results. We recommend that you avoid the use of iFrames to display content. If you do include iFrames, make sure to provide additional text-based links to the content they display, so that Googlebot can crawl and index this content.
Develop with progressive enhancement
If you're starting from scratch, a good approach is to build your site's structure and navigation using only HTML. Then, once you have the site's pages, links, and content in place, you can spice up the appearance and interface with AJAX. Googlebot will be happy looking at the HTML, while users with modern browsers can enjoy your AJAX bonuses.
Of course, you'll likely have links requiring JavaScript for Ajax functionality. Web developer Jeremy Keith labeled this technique Hijax, and it's a way to help AJAX and static links coexist.
When creating your links, format them so they'll offer a static link as well as calling a JavaScript function. That way you'll have the AJAX functionality for JavaScript users, while non-JavaScript users can ignore the script and follow the link. For example:
foo 32
Note that the static link's URL has a parameter (?foo=32) instead of a fragment (#foo=32), which is used by the AJAX code. This is important, as search engines understand URL parameters but often ignore fragments. Since you now offer static links, users and search engines can link to the exact content they want to share or reference.
While we're constantly improving our crawling capability, using HTML links remains a strong way to help us (as well as other search engines, mobile devices and users) better understand your site's structure.
Follow the guidelines
In addition to the tips described here, we encourage you to also check out our Webmaster Guidelines for more information about what can make a site good for Google and your users. The guidelines also point out some practices to avoid, including sneaky JavaScript redirects. A general rule to follow is that while you can provide users different experiences based on their capabilities, the content should remain the same. For example, imagine we've created a page for Wysz's Hamster Farm. The top of the page has a heading of "Wysz's Hamster Farm," and below it is an AJAX-powered slideshow of the latest hamster arrivals. Turning JavaScript off on the same page shouldn't surprise a user with additional text reading:
Wysz's Hamster Farm -- hamsters, best hamsters, cheap hamsters,
free hamsters, pets, farms, hamster farmers, dancing hamsters, rodents,
hampsters, hamsers, best hamster resource, pet toys, dancing lessons,
cute, hamster tricks, pet food, hamster habitat, hamster hotels, hamster birthday gift ideas and more!
A better implementation would display the same text whether JavaScript was enabled or not, and in the best scenario, offer an HTML version of the slideshow to non-JavaScript users. More information about hidden text.
Many webmasters have discovered the advantages of using AJAX to improve the user experience on their sites, creating dynamic pages that act as powerful web applications. But like Flash, AJAX can make a site difficult for search engines to index if the technology is not implemented carefully. There are two main search engine issues around AJAX: Making sure that search engine bots can see your content, and making sure they can see and follow your navigation.
While Googlebot is great at understanding the structure of HTML links, it can have difficulty finding its way around sites which use JavaScript for navigation. We're working on doing a better job of understanding JavaScript, but your best bet for creating a site that's crawlable by Google and other search engines is to provide HTML links to your content.
Design for accessibility
We encourage webmasters to create pages for users, not just search engines. When you're designing your AJAX site, think about the needs of your users, including those who may not be using a JavaScript-capable browser (for example, people who use screen readers or mobile devices). One of the easiest ways to test your site's accessibility is to preview it in your browser with JavaScript turned off, or to view it in a text-only browser such as Lynx. Viewing a site as text-only can also help you identify other content which may be hard for Googlebot to see, such as text embedded in images or Flash.
Avoid iFrames - or link to their content separately
Content displayed via iFrames may not be indexed and available to appear in Google's search results. We recommend that you avoid the use of iFrames to display content. If you do include iFrames, make sure to provide additional text-based links to the content they display, so that Googlebot can crawl and index this content.
Develop with progressive enhancement
If you're starting from scratch, a good approach is to build your site's structure and navigation using only HTML. Then, once you have the site's pages, links, and content in place, you can spice up the appearance and interface with AJAX. Googlebot will be happy looking at the HTML, while users with modern browsers can enjoy your AJAX bonuses.
Of course, you'll likely have links requiring JavaScript for Ajax functionality. Web developer Jeremy Keith labeled this technique Hijax, and it's a way to help AJAX and static links coexist.
When creating your links, format them so they'll offer a static link as well as calling a JavaScript function. That way you'll have the AJAX functionality for JavaScript users, while non-JavaScript users can ignore the script and follow the link. For example:
foo 32
Note that the static link's URL has a parameter (?foo=32) instead of a fragment (#foo=32), which is used by the AJAX code. This is important, as search engines understand URL parameters but often ignore fragments. Since you now offer static links, users and search engines can link to the exact content they want to share or reference.
While we're constantly improving our crawling capability, using HTML links remains a strong way to help us (as well as other search engines, mobile devices and users) better understand your site's structure.
Follow the guidelines
In addition to the tips described here, we encourage you to also check out our Webmaster Guidelines for more information about what can make a site good for Google and your users. The guidelines also point out some practices to avoid, including sneaky JavaScript redirects. A general rule to follow is that while you can provide users different experiences based on their capabilities, the content should remain the same. For example, imagine we've created a page for Wysz's Hamster Farm. The top of the page has a heading of "Wysz's Hamster Farm," and below it is an AJAX-powered slideshow of the latest hamster arrivals. Turning JavaScript off on the same page shouldn't surprise a user with additional text reading:
Wysz's Hamster Farm -- hamsters, best hamsters, cheap hamsters,
free hamsters, pets, farms, hamster farmers, dancing hamsters, rodents,
hampsters, hamsers, best hamster resource, pet toys, dancing lessons,
cute, hamster tricks, pet food, hamster habitat, hamster hotels, hamster birthday gift ideas and more!
A better implementation would display the same text whether JavaScript was enabled or not, and in the best scenario, offer an HTML version of the slideshow to non-JavaScript users. More information about hidden text.
Moving your site | Site management
Moving your site
If you're planning on moving your site to a new domain, here are some tips that will help you retain your site's ranking in Google's search results. Your aim is to avoid 404 (File Not Found) errors when users click on links to your site.
* If you're changing your domain because of a rebrand or redesign of your site, you might want to think about doing this in two phases: first, move your site; and secondly, launch your redesign. This manages the amount of change your users see at any stage in the process, and can make the process seem smoother. Limiting the number of changes at any one time can also make it easier to troubleshoot unexpected behavior.
* Use a 301 Redirect to permanently redirect all pages on your old site to your new site. This tells search engines and users that your site has permanently moved. We recommend that you move and redirect a section or directory first, and then test to make sure that your redirects are working correctly before moving all your content.
Don't do a single redirect directing all traffic from your old site to your new home page. This will avoid 404 errors, but it's not a good user experience. It's more work, but a page-to-page redirect will help preserve your site's ranking in Google while providing a consistent and transparent experience for your users. If there won't be a 1:1 match between pages on your old site and your new site (recommended), try to make sure that every page on your old site is at least redirected to a new page with similar content.
* Check both external and internal links to pages on your site. Ideally, you should contact the webmaster of each site that links to yours and ask them to update the links to point to the page on your new domain. However, if this isn't practical, make sure that all pages with incoming links are redirected to your new site. You should also check internal links within your old site, and update them to point to your new domain. Once your content is in place on your new server, use a link checker like Xenu to make sure you don't have broken legacy links on your site. This is especially important if your original content included absolute links (like www.example.com/cooking/recipes/chocolatecake.html) instead of relative links (like ../recipes/chocolatecake.html).
* To prevent confusion, it's best to retain control of your old site domain for at least 180 days.
* Add your new site to your Webmaster Tools account, and verify your ownership of it.
* We recommend that you create and submit a Sitemap listing the URLs on your new site. Submitting a Sitemap is a way to tell Google about pages on your new site that we might not otherwise discover.
Once you've completed all these steps, you can use your Webmaster Tools data to check that everything is working correctly. While it can be some time before all these changes take effect, here are a few ways to check that the process is working correctly:
* Check the web crawl errors for both your old and new sites, to make sure that the 301 redirects from the old site are working properly, and that the new site isn't showing unwanted 404 errors.
* If you've submitted a Sitemap for your new site, the Sitemap Details page lets you see how many URLs in your Sitemap we've crawled and indexed.
If you're planning on moving your site to a new domain, here are some tips that will help you retain your site's ranking in Google's search results. Your aim is to avoid 404 (File Not Found) errors when users click on links to your site.
* If you're changing your domain because of a rebrand or redesign of your site, you might want to think about doing this in two phases: first, move your site; and secondly, launch your redesign. This manages the amount of change your users see at any stage in the process, and can make the process seem smoother. Limiting the number of changes at any one time can also make it easier to troubleshoot unexpected behavior.
* Use a 301 Redirect to permanently redirect all pages on your old site to your new site. This tells search engines and users that your site has permanently moved. We recommend that you move and redirect a section or directory first, and then test to make sure that your redirects are working correctly before moving all your content.
Don't do a single redirect directing all traffic from your old site to your new home page. This will avoid 404 errors, but it's not a good user experience. It's more work, but a page-to-page redirect will help preserve your site's ranking in Google while providing a consistent and transparent experience for your users. If there won't be a 1:1 match between pages on your old site and your new site (recommended), try to make sure that every page on your old site is at least redirected to a new page with similar content.
* Check both external and internal links to pages on your site. Ideally, you should contact the webmaster of each site that links to yours and ask them to update the links to point to the page on your new domain. However, if this isn't practical, make sure that all pages with incoming links are redirected to your new site. You should also check internal links within your old site, and update them to point to your new domain. Once your content is in place on your new server, use a link checker like Xenu to make sure you don't have broken legacy links on your site. This is especially important if your original content included absolute links (like www.example.com/cooking/recipes/chocolatecake.html) instead of relative links (like ../recipes/chocolatecake.html).
* To prevent confusion, it's best to retain control of your old site domain for at least 180 days.
* Add your new site to your Webmaster Tools account, and verify your ownership of it.
* We recommend that you create and submit a Sitemap listing the URLs on your new site. Submitting a Sitemap is a way to tell Google about pages on your new site that we might not otherwise discover.
Once you've completed all these steps, you can use your Webmaster Tools data to check that everything is working correctly. While it can be some time before all these changes take effect, here are a few ways to check that the process is working correctly:
* Check the web crawl errors for both your old and new sites, to make sure that the 301 redirects from the old site are working properly, and that the new site isn't showing unwanted 404 errors.
* If you've submitted a Sitemap for your new site, the Sitemap Details page lets you see how many URLs in your Sitemap we've crawled and indexed.
301 redirects | Site management
If you need to change the URL of a page as it is shown in search engine results, we recommended that you use a server-side 301 redirect. This is the best way to ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct page. The 301 status code means that a page has permanently moved to a new location.
301 redirects are particularly useful in the following circumstances:
* You've moved your site to a new domain, and you want to make the transition as seamless as possible.
* People access your site through several different URLs. If, for example, your home page can be reached in multiple ways - for instance, http://example.com/home, http://home.example.com, or http://www.example.com - it's a good idea to pick one of those URLs as your preferred (canonical) destination, and use 301 redirects to send traffic from the other URLs to your preferred URL. You can also use Webmaster Tools to set your preferred domain.
* You're merging two websites and want to make sure that links to outdated URLs are redirected to the correct pages.
To implement a 301 redirect for websites that are hosted on servers running Apache, you'll need access to your server's .htaccess file. (If you're not sure about your access or your server software, check with your webhoster.) For more information, consult the Apache .htaccess Tutorial and the Apache URL Rewriting Guide. If your site is hosted on a server running other software, check with your hoster for more details
301 redirects are particularly useful in the following circumstances:
* You've moved your site to a new domain, and you want to make the transition as seamless as possible.
* People access your site through several different URLs. If, for example, your home page can be reached in multiple ways - for instance, http://example.com/home, http://home.example.com, or http://www.example.com - it's a good idea to pick one of those URLs as your preferred (canonical) destination, and use 301 redirects to send traffic from the other URLs to your preferred URL. You can also use Webmaster Tools to set your preferred domain.
* You're merging two websites and want to make sure that links to outdated URLs are redirected to the correct pages.
To implement a 301 redirect for websites that are hosted on servers running Apache, you'll need access to your server's .htaccess file. (If you're not sure about your access or your server software, check with your webhoster.) For more information, consult the Apache .htaccess Tutorial and the Apache URL Rewriting Guide. If your site is hosted on a server running other software, check with your hoster for more details
Custom 404 pages | Site management
Custom 404 pages
A 404 page is what a user sees when they try to reach a non-existent page on your site (because they've clicked on a broken link, the page has been deleted, or they've mistyped a URL). A 404 page is called that because in response to a request for a missing page, webservers send back a HTTP status code of 404 to indicate that a page is not found. While the standard 404 page can vary depending on your ISP, it usually doesn't provide the user with any useful information, and most users may just surf away from your site.
If you have access to your server, we recommend that you create a custom 404 page. A good custom 404 page will help people find the information they're looking for, as well as providing other helpful content and encouraging them to explore your site further.
(Note: This article covers guidelines for creating the content of your custom 404 page. For information on configuring your server to display your new 404 page, check your server or web hoster documentation. You should still make sure that your webserver returns a 404 status code to users and spiders, so that search engines don't accidentally index your custom 404 page.)
Because a 404 page can also be a standard HTML page, you can customize it any way you want. Here are some suggestions for creating an effective 404 page that can help keep visitors on your site and help them find the information they're looking for:
* Tell visitors clearly that the page they're looking for can't be found. Use language that is friendly and inviting.
* Make sure your 404 page uses the same look and feel (including navigation) as the rest of your site.
* Consider adding links to your most popular articles or posts, as well as a link to your site's home page.
* Think about providing a way for users to report a broken link.
* No matter how beautiful and useful your custom 404 page, you probably don't want it to appear in Google search results. In order to prevent 404 pages from being indexed by Google and other search engines, make sure that your webserver returns an actual 404 HTTP status code when a missing page is requested.
* Use the Enhance 404 tool in Webmaster Tools to embed a search box on your custom 404 page and provide users with useful information to help them find the information they need.
A 404 page is what a user sees when they try to reach a non-existent page on your site (because they've clicked on a broken link, the page has been deleted, or they've mistyped a URL). A 404 page is called that because in response to a request for a missing page, webservers send back a HTTP status code of 404 to indicate that a page is not found. While the standard 404 page can vary depending on your ISP, it usually doesn't provide the user with any useful information, and most users may just surf away from your site.
If you have access to your server, we recommend that you create a custom 404 page. A good custom 404 page will help people find the information they're looking for, as well as providing other helpful content and encouraging them to explore your site further.
(Note: This article covers guidelines for creating the content of your custom 404 page. For information on configuring your server to display your new 404 page, check your server or web hoster documentation. You should still make sure that your webserver returns a 404 status code to users and spiders, so that search engines don't accidentally index your custom 404 page.)
Because a 404 page can also be a standard HTML page, you can customize it any way you want. Here are some suggestions for creating an effective 404 page that can help keep visitors on your site and help them find the information they're looking for:
* Tell visitors clearly that the page they're looking for can't be found. Use language that is friendly and inviting.
* Make sure your 404 page uses the same look and feel (including navigation) as the rest of your site.
* Consider adding links to your most popular articles or posts, as well as a link to your site's home page.
* Think about providing a way for users to report a broken link.
* No matter how beautiful and useful your custom 404 page, you probably don't want it to appear in Google search results. In order to prevent 404 pages from being indexed by Google and other search engines, make sure that your webserver returns an actual 404 HTTP status code when a missing page is requested.
* Use the Enhance 404 tool in Webmaster Tools to embed a search box on your custom 404 page and provide users with useful information to help them find the information they need.
URL structure | Site management
URL structure
A site's URL structure should be as simple as possible. Consider organizing your content so that URLs are constructed logically and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans (when possible, readable words rather than long ID numbers). For example, if you're searching for information about aviation, a URL like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation will help you decide whether to click that link. A URL like http://www.example.com/index.php?id_sezione=360&sid=3a5ebc944f41daa6f849f730f1, is much less appealing to users.
Consider using punctuation in your URLs. The URL http://www.example.com/green-dress.html is much more useful to us than http://www.example.com/greendress.html. We recommend that you use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) in your URLs.
Overly complex URLs, especially those containing multiple parameters, can cause a problems for crawlers by creating unnecessarily high numbers of URLs that point to identical or similar content on your site. As a result, Googlebot may consume much more bandwidth than necessary, or may be unable to completely index all the content on your site.
Common causes of this problem
Unnecessarily high numbers of URLs can be caused by a number of issues. These include:
* Additive filtering of a set of items Many sites provide different views of the same set of items or search results, often allowing the user to filter this set using defined criteria (for example: show me hotels on the beach). When filters can be combined in a additive manner (for example: hotels on the beach and with a fitness center), the number of URLs (views of data) in the sites explodes. Creating a large number of slightly different lists of hotels is redundant, because Googlebot needs to see only a small number of lists from which it can reach the page for each hotel. For example:
o Hotel properties at "value rates":
http://www.example.com/hotel-search-results.jsp?Ne=292&N=461
o Hotel properties at "value rates" on the beach:
http://www.example.com/hotel-search-results.jsp?Ne=292&N=461+4294967240
o Hotel properties at "value rates" on the beach and with a fitness center:
http://www.example.com/hotel-search-results.jsp?Ne=292&N=461+4294967240+4294967270
* Dynamic generation of documents. This can result in small changes because of counters, timestamps, or advertisements.
* Problematic parameters in the URL. Session IDs, for example, can create massive amounts of duplication and a greater number of URLs.
* Sorting parameters. Some large shopping sites provide multiple ways to sort the same items, resulting in a much greater number of URLs. For example:
http://www.example.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=tpb&search_sort=relevance
&search_category=25
* Irrelevant parameters in the URL, such as referral parameters. For example:
http://www.example.com/search/noheaders?click=6EE2BF1AF6A3D705D5561B7C3564D9C2&clickPage=
OPD+Product+Page&cat=79
http://www.example.com/discuss/showthread.php?referrerid=249406&threadid=535913
http://www.example.com/products/products.asp?N=200063&Ne=500955&ref=foo%2Cbar&Cn=Accessories.
* Calendar issues. A dynamically generated calendar might generate links to future and previous dates with no restrictions on start of end dates. For example:
http://www.example.com/calendar.php?d=13&m=8&y=2011
http://www.example.com/calendar/cgi?2008&month=jan
* Broken relative links. Broken relative links can often cause infinite spaces. Frequently, this problem arises because of repeated path elements. For example:
http://www.example.com/index.shtml/discuss/category/school/061121/html/interview/
category/health/070223/html/category/business/070302/html/category/community/070413/html/FAQ.htm
Steps to resolve this problem
To avoid potential problems with URL structure, we recommend the following:
* Consider using a robots.txt file to block Googlebot's access to problematic URLs. Typically, you should consider blocking dynamic URLs, such as URLs that generate search results, or URLs that can create infinite spaces, such as calendars. Using regular expressions in your robots.txt file can allow you to easily block large numbers of URLs.
* Wherever possible, avoid the use of session IDs in URLs. Consider using cookies instead. Check our Webmaster Guidelines for additional information.
* Whenever possible, shorten URLs by trimming unnecessary parameters.
* If your site has an infinite calendar, add a nofollow attribute to links to dynamically created future calendar pages.
* Check your site for broken relative links.
A site's URL structure should be as simple as possible. Consider organizing your content so that URLs are constructed logically and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans (when possible, readable words rather than long ID numbers). For example, if you're searching for information about aviation, a URL like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation will help you decide whether to click that link. A URL like http://www.example.com/index.php?id_sezione=360&sid=3a5ebc944f41daa6f849f730f1, is much less appealing to users.
Consider using punctuation in your URLs. The URL http://www.example.com/green-dress.html is much more useful to us than http://www.example.com/greendress.html. We recommend that you use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) in your URLs.
Overly complex URLs, especially those containing multiple parameters, can cause a problems for crawlers by creating unnecessarily high numbers of URLs that point to identical or similar content on your site. As a result, Googlebot may consume much more bandwidth than necessary, or may be unable to completely index all the content on your site.
Common causes of this problem
Unnecessarily high numbers of URLs can be caused by a number of issues. These include:
* Additive filtering of a set of items Many sites provide different views of the same set of items or search results, often allowing the user to filter this set using defined criteria (for example: show me hotels on the beach). When filters can be combined in a additive manner (for example: hotels on the beach and with a fitness center), the number of URLs (views of data) in the sites explodes. Creating a large number of slightly different lists of hotels is redundant, because Googlebot needs to see only a small number of lists from which it can reach the page for each hotel. For example:
o Hotel properties at "value rates":
http://www.example.com/hotel-search-results.jsp?Ne=292&N=461
o Hotel properties at "value rates" on the beach:
http://www.example.com/hotel-search-results.jsp?Ne=292&N=461+4294967240
o Hotel properties at "value rates" on the beach and with a fitness center:
http://www.example.com/hotel-search-results.jsp?Ne=292&N=461+4294967240+4294967270
* Dynamic generation of documents. This can result in small changes because of counters, timestamps, or advertisements.
* Problematic parameters in the URL. Session IDs, for example, can create massive amounts of duplication and a greater number of URLs.
* Sorting parameters. Some large shopping sites provide multiple ways to sort the same items, resulting in a much greater number of URLs. For example:
http://www.example.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=tpb&search_sort=relevance
&search_category=25
* Irrelevant parameters in the URL, such as referral parameters. For example:
http://www.example.com/search/noheaders?click=6EE2BF1AF6A3D705D5561B7C3564D9C2&clickPage=
OPD+Product+Page&cat=79
http://www.example.com/discuss/showthread.php?referrerid=249406&threadid=535913
http://www.example.com/products/products.asp?N=200063&Ne=500955&ref=foo%2Cbar&Cn=Accessories.
* Calendar issues. A dynamically generated calendar might generate links to future and previous dates with no restrictions on start of end dates. For example:
http://www.example.com/calendar.php?d=13&m=8&y=2011
http://www.example.com/calendar/cgi?2008&month=jan
* Broken relative links. Broken relative links can often cause infinite spaces. Frequently, this problem arises because of repeated path elements. For example:
http://www.example.com/index.shtml/discuss/category/school/061121/html/interview/
category/health/070223/html/category/business/070302/html/category/community/070413/html/FAQ.htm
Steps to resolve this problem
To avoid potential problems with URL structure, we recommend the following:
* Consider using a robots.txt file to block Googlebot's access to problematic URLs. Typically, you should consider blocking dynamic URLs, such as URLs that generate search results, or URLs that can create infinite spaces, such as calendars. Using regular expressions in your robots.txt file can allow you to easily block large numbers of URLs.
* Wherever possible, avoid the use of session IDs in URLs. Consider using cookies instead. Check our Webmaster Guidelines for additional information.
* Whenever possible, shorten URLs by trimming unnecessary parameters.
* If your site has an infinite calendar, add a nofollow attribute to links to dynamically created future calendar pages.
* Check your site for broken relative links.
Frames |Site management
Frames
Google supports frames and iframes to the extent that it can. Frames can cause problems for search engines because they don't correspond to the conceptual model of the web. In this model, one page displays only one URL. Pages that use frames or iframes display several URLs (one for each frame) within a single page. Google tries to associate framed content with the page containing the frames, but we don't guarantee that we will.
If you're concerned with how your site appears in the Google search results, please read Search Engines and Frames This document describes the use of the "NoFrames" tag to provide alternate content. If you use wording such as "This site requires the use of frames," or "Upgrade your browser," instead of providing alternate content on your site, then you'll exclude both search engines and individuals who've disabled frames on their browsers. For example, audio web browsers, such as those used in automobiles and by the visually impaired, typically do not support frames. Read more about the "NoFrames" tag.
Google supports frames and iframes to the extent that it can. Frames can cause problems for search engines because they don't correspond to the conceptual model of the web. In this model, one page displays only one URL. Pages that use frames or iframes display several URLs (one for each frame) within a single page. Google tries to associate framed content with the page containing the frames, but we don't guarantee that we will.
If you're concerned with how your site appears in the Google search results, please read Search Engines and Frames This document describes the use of the "NoFrames" tag to provide alternate content. If you use wording such as "This site requires the use of frames," or "Upgrade your browser," instead of providing alternate content on your site, then you'll exclude both search engines and individuals who've disabled frames on their browsers. For example, audio web browsers, such as those used in automobiles and by the visually impaired, typically do not support frames. Read more about the "NoFrames" tag.
Dynamic pages | Site management
Dynamic pages
Google indexes dynamically generated webpages, including .asp pages, .php pages, and pages with question marks in their URLs. However, these pages can cause problems for our crawler and may be ignored. If you're concerned that your dynamically generated pages are being ignored, you may want to consider creating static copies of these pages for our crawler. If you do this, please be sure to include a robots.txt file that disallows the dynamic pages in order to ensure that these pages aren't seen as having duplicate content.
In addition, you might consider creating and submitting a detailed Sitemap. This is an easy way for you to submit all your URLs to the Google index and get detailed reports about the visibility of your pages on Google. You can automatically keep us informed of all of your current pages and of any updates you make to those pages. Please note that submitting a Sitemap doesn't guarantee that all pages of your site will be crawled or included in our search results
Google indexes dynamically generated webpages, including .asp pages, .php pages, and pages with question marks in their URLs. However, these pages can cause problems for our crawler and may be ignored. If you're concerned that your dynamically generated pages are being ignored, you may want to consider creating static copies of these pages for our crawler. If you do this, please be sure to include a robots.txt file that disallows the dynamic pages in order to ensure that these pages aren't seen as having duplicate content.
In addition, you might consider creating and submitting a detailed Sitemap. This is an easy way for you to submit all your URLs to the Google index and get detailed reports about the visibility of your pages on Google. You can automatically keep us informed of all of your current pages and of any updates you make to those pages. Please note that submitting a Sitemap doesn't guarantee that all pages of your site will be crawled or included in our search results
Making sure Google knows about your site
Making sure Google knows about your site
# Sitemaps are the best way to provide Google with information about your site, such as how often pages are updated, the last time each page was modified, and the relative priority of pages on your site. Learn more about creating and submitting Sitemaps.
# Google News results If your site includes news content, you can, submit your site for inclusion in Google News. Once your site is included, you can let us know about your latest articles by submitting a News Sitemap. (Note that News Sitemaps are currently available for English sites only.) Learn more about News Sitemaps.
# News Archive results If you have historical news content (available for free or by subscription), you can submit it for inclusion in News Archive Search. Learn more about News Archive Search.
# Image results If your site includes images, you can use Webmaster Tools to opt in to enhanced image search. This will enable Google to use our Image Labeler to gather additional metadata about your images, and will help us return your images for the most relevant queries. Learn more about enhanced image search.
# Local results If you run a commercial site for a business in a particular geographic location, you can provide information to us using our Local Business Center. This information can help us provide the best, locally relevant results to searchers both in web search and on Google Maps. Learn more about Google's Local Business Center.
# Video results If you have video content, you can host it on Google Video, YouTube, or a number of other video hosting providers. Searchers can view Google Video or YouTube videos directly from the search results page. If the video is hosted by another service, users can view a thumbnail of the video on the search results page.
# Sitemaps are the best way to provide Google with information about your site, such as how often pages are updated, the last time each page was modified, and the relative priority of pages on your site. Learn more about creating and submitting Sitemaps.
# Google News results If your site includes news content, you can, submit your site for inclusion in Google News. Once your site is included, you can let us know about your latest articles by submitting a News Sitemap. (Note that News Sitemaps are currently available for English sites only.) Learn more about News Sitemaps.
# News Archive results If you have historical news content (available for free or by subscription), you can submit it for inclusion in News Archive Search. Learn more about News Archive Search.
# Image results If your site includes images, you can use Webmaster Tools to opt in to enhanced image search. This will enable Google to use our Image Labeler to gather additional metadata about your images, and will help us return your images for the most relevant queries. Learn more about enhanced image search.
# Local results If you run a commercial site for a business in a particular geographic location, you can provide information to us using our Local Business Center. This information can help us provide the best, locally relevant results to searchers both in web search and on Google Maps. Learn more about Google's Local Business Center.
# Video results If you have video content, you can host it on Google Video, YouTube, or a number of other video hosting providers. Searchers can view Google Video or YouTube videos directly from the search results page. If the video is hosted by another service, users can view a thumbnail of the video on the search results page.
For bloggers
For bloggers
If you have a website but don't have a blog, consider creating one: A blog is a great way to connect with people who share your interests, or to publicize your site or product. Blogs are easy to create and update, and rich, useful, and original blog content will encourage readers to come back to your site. Here are some tips for making the most of your blog.
Create great content
* Write well and often. A frequently updated site encourages people to return - as long as your content remains relevant and engaging. A useful post once a week is better than low-quality content published daily. A great idea is to search Google for subjects of interest in your field. If you can't find a good answer, create a blog post about the subject - chances are that other people are searching for the same thing.
* Follow the webmaster guidelines. Just like with any other site, make sure you follow our webmaster guidelines for creating rich, relevant, and useful content. Similarly, check out our recommendations for using images, Flash, and other rich media in your blog.
* Categorize your posts. Labels and tags are a great way to organize your content, and encourage users to browse your blog.
* Make sure users (and crawlers) can easily find your blog. We recommending prominently linking to your blog from your home page, and from other key pages on your site. Consider hosting your blog on your regular site (http://blog.example.com or www.example.com/blog).
* If necessary, limit comment spam. Enabling comments on your blog can help create a sense of community and discussion. Unfortunately, some spammers use the comment functionality to flood sites with spam. If this happens to you, check out our guidelines for reducing comment spam.
* Check our tips for affiliate sites. Google recommends that all webmasters create websites with original content that adds value for users. This is particularly important for sites that participate in affiliate programs. If you do participate in an affiliate program, there are a number of steps you can take to help your site stand out and differentiate it from the crowd. More information about affiliate programs.
Make sure readers and crawlers can find your content
* Create descriptive titles for each of your posts. This makes for a better user experience. In addition, the post title is often used to create the unique URL for each post, and this can give search engines valuable information about the content of your page.
* Connect with your online community. There's almost certainly a rich network of bloggers already talking about the subject matter of your site. Visit these blogs, comment on posts, and participate in the discussion. Contribute to web forums devoted to your subject matter. The key is to bring something to the table: Thoughtful comments with useful information will make readers more likely to visit your site.
* Publish a feed of your content. We strongly recommend publishing feeds of your content, allowing users to be notified whenever you update your blog. You can generally do this via a setting in your blogging software. Most services give you the option of publishing a full feed (users can read the full content of your article in their RSS reader) or a partial feed (users see a teaser paragraph in their reader but have to go to your site to read the full article). Rich, full-content feeds make users happy because they can view your content with minimal effort. They may result in a short-term decline in visits to your actual blog, but the long-term gains of increased readership and mindshare are typically worth it. Ultimately, keep in mind that a regular subscriber is more valuable than an occasional visitor.
Your blog and Webmaster Tools
* Add your blog to your Webmaster Tools account. Adding a blog to your account is easy: Just follow the instructions for adding a regular site. If you use Blogger, you can add your sites to your account by clicking Webmaster Tools under Tools and Resources on the Blogger dashboard.
* Verify your blog. To see detailed stats and diagnostics about your site, verify your ownership. You can verify your site by uploading an HTML file with the filename we specify, or by adding a meta tag to your blog's template.
* Submit a Sitemap. Sitemaps are a great way to tell Google about content on your site we might not otherwise discover. Google prefers Sitemaps created using the Sitemap protocol; however, we'll accept several different formats. If you publish an RSS or Atom feed of your site, you can submit the feed URL as a Sitemap.
If you have a website but don't have a blog, consider creating one: A blog is a great way to connect with people who share your interests, or to publicize your site or product. Blogs are easy to create and update, and rich, useful, and original blog content will encourage readers to come back to your site. Here are some tips for making the most of your blog.
Create great content
* Write well and often. A frequently updated site encourages people to return - as long as your content remains relevant and engaging. A useful post once a week is better than low-quality content published daily. A great idea is to search Google for subjects of interest in your field. If you can't find a good answer, create a blog post about the subject - chances are that other people are searching for the same thing.
* Follow the webmaster guidelines. Just like with any other site, make sure you follow our webmaster guidelines for creating rich, relevant, and useful content. Similarly, check out our recommendations for using images, Flash, and other rich media in your blog.
* Categorize your posts. Labels and tags are a great way to organize your content, and encourage users to browse your blog.
* Make sure users (and crawlers) can easily find your blog. We recommending prominently linking to your blog from your home page, and from other key pages on your site. Consider hosting your blog on your regular site (http://blog.example.com or www.example.com/blog).
* If necessary, limit comment spam. Enabling comments on your blog can help create a sense of community and discussion. Unfortunately, some spammers use the comment functionality to flood sites with spam. If this happens to you, check out our guidelines for reducing comment spam.
* Check our tips for affiliate sites. Google recommends that all webmasters create websites with original content that adds value for users. This is particularly important for sites that participate in affiliate programs. If you do participate in an affiliate program, there are a number of steps you can take to help your site stand out and differentiate it from the crowd. More information about affiliate programs.
Make sure readers and crawlers can find your content
* Create descriptive titles for each of your posts. This makes for a better user experience. In addition, the post title is often used to create the unique URL for each post, and this can give search engines valuable information about the content of your page.
* Connect with your online community. There's almost certainly a rich network of bloggers already talking about the subject matter of your site. Visit these blogs, comment on posts, and participate in the discussion. Contribute to web forums devoted to your subject matter. The key is to bring something to the table: Thoughtful comments with useful information will make readers more likely to visit your site.
* Publish a feed of your content. We strongly recommend publishing feeds of your content, allowing users to be notified whenever you update your blog. You can generally do this via a setting in your blogging software. Most services give you the option of publishing a full feed (users can read the full content of your article in their RSS reader) or a partial feed (users see a teaser paragraph in their reader but have to go to your site to read the full article). Rich, full-content feeds make users happy because they can view your content with minimal effort. They may result in a short-term decline in visits to your actual blog, but the long-term gains of increased readership and mindshare are typically worth it. Ultimately, keep in mind that a regular subscriber is more valuable than an occasional visitor.
Your blog and Webmaster Tools
* Add your blog to your Webmaster Tools account. Adding a blog to your account is easy: Just follow the instructions for adding a regular site. If you use Blogger, you can add your sites to your account by clicking Webmaster Tools under Tools and Resources on the Blogger dashboard.
* Verify your blog. To see detailed stats and diagnostics about your site, verify your ownership. You can verify your site by uploading an HTML file with the filename we specify, or by adding a meta tag to your blog's template.
* Submit a Sitemap. Sitemaps are a great way to tell Google about content on your site we might not otherwise discover. Google prefers Sitemaps created using the Sitemap protocol; however, we'll accept several different formats. If you publish an RSS or Atom feed of your site, you can submit the feed URL as a Sitemap.
Local businesses
If you have a brick and mortar business, or target online customers in a particular area, you can help Google provide relevant information to local users.
Building your site
There are a number of ways to make your retail site more discoverable and indexable by Google.
* Create a meaningful URL structure for your pages, and remove any unnecessary parameters. Short and meaningful URLs (such as http://www.example.com/women/dresses) are easier for users to understand and navigate, and are less likely to break when sent in email.
* Pick a canonical (preferred) URL for each of your product pages, and tell us about your preference by submitting these canonical URLs in a Sitemap. Say you have a clothing site and one of your top items is a green dress. The product page for the dress may be accessible through several different URLs, like this:
http://www.example.com/products/women/dresses
http://www.example.com/products?category=women&color=green
In this case, you can use the first link as the canonical URL, and include it in your Sitemap. We don't guarantee that we'll use the URLs you submit in a Sitemap, but it is a useful way to tell Google about the pages on your site you consider most important.
* If other sites link to yours using both the www and non-www version of your URLs, use the Preferred Domain tool to tell Google how you prefer your site to be indexed.
Creating your content
* Consider creating original product descriptions and information with rich, descriptive content, rather than using manufacturer's descriptions, which may appear on many sites across the web. Original content provides useful information to users, and can help your site's visibility in our search results. Consider adding video product demos or other rich content, such as user reviews, to your site. The more unique and compelling your content, the more likely it is to perform well in our search results.
* Submit your product catalog to Google Product Search.
* Use plenty of product images, with meaningful captions and alt text.
* Avoid publishing stubs. Users don't like seeing "empty" pages, so avoid placeholders where possible. This means not publishing (or at least blocking via robots.txt) pages with no actual content. For example, if you have a Washington real-estate site but no listings for Anytown, WA, avoid publishing a page like http://www.example.com/listings/anytown that contains only the message "Sorry! We currently have no listings for Anytown." Pages like this provide an extremely poor user experience, and you should avoid them.
Providing location information to Google
* Add your business to Google's Local Business Center. The information you list in the Local Business Center can help us provide the best, locally relevant results to searchers both in web search and on Google Maps. In some countries, you can even provide coupons which will be displayed to visitors who find your site in Google Maps. Don't add your business to too many categories: one or two carefully selected, representative categories work best. Learn more about being featured in our local search results. If your business is currently appearing incorrectly, use the Local Business Center to update it.
* Make sure your address information is clearly available in plain text on your home page or at least one important page on your site. This is useful to your visitors and can help Google more effectively list your site to local users. Consider creating a rich About Us page that includes address information, a map, and other relevant information. You can also use Google Maps to embed a map, a set of driving directions, a local search, or personalized maps created by yourself or other users.
* Use top-level domains whenever possible to handle country-specific content. We're more likely to know that .ie indicates Ireland-focused content, for instance, than http://ie.example.com, http://www.example.com/ie, or http://www.example.com?country=ie. If you have a geographically neutral top-level domain (such as .com, .org, or.net), you can use Webmaster Tools to associate your site with a geographic location.
* If you create mashups for Google Maps, you can ensure that users can find your mashup site by including KML files in a Sitemap. KML is the Google Earth file format for modeling and storing geographic data. More information about KML.
Building your site
There are a number of ways to make your retail site more discoverable and indexable by Google.
* Create a meaningful URL structure for your pages, and remove any unnecessary parameters. Short and meaningful URLs (such as http://www.example.com/women/dresses) are easier for users to understand and navigate, and are less likely to break when sent in email.
* Pick a canonical (preferred) URL for each of your product pages, and tell us about your preference by submitting these canonical URLs in a Sitemap. Say you have a clothing site and one of your top items is a green dress. The product page for the dress may be accessible through several different URLs, like this:
http://www.example.com/products/women/dresses
http://www.example.com/products?category=women&color=green
In this case, you can use the first link as the canonical URL, and include it in your Sitemap. We don't guarantee that we'll use the URLs you submit in a Sitemap, but it is a useful way to tell Google about the pages on your site you consider most important.
* If other sites link to yours using both the www and non-www version of your URLs, use the Preferred Domain tool to tell Google how you prefer your site to be indexed.
Creating your content
* Consider creating original product descriptions and information with rich, descriptive content, rather than using manufacturer's descriptions, which may appear on many sites across the web. Original content provides useful information to users, and can help your site's visibility in our search results. Consider adding video product demos or other rich content, such as user reviews, to your site. The more unique and compelling your content, the more likely it is to perform well in our search results.
* Submit your product catalog to Google Product Search.
* Use plenty of product images, with meaningful captions and alt text.
* Avoid publishing stubs. Users don't like seeing "empty" pages, so avoid placeholders where possible. This means not publishing (or at least blocking via robots.txt) pages with no actual content. For example, if you have a Washington real-estate site but no listings for Anytown, WA, avoid publishing a page like http://www.example.com/listings/anytown that contains only the message "Sorry! We currently have no listings for Anytown." Pages like this provide an extremely poor user experience, and you should avoid them.
Providing location information to Google
* Add your business to Google's Local Business Center. The information you list in the Local Business Center can help us provide the best, locally relevant results to searchers both in web search and on Google Maps. In some countries, you can even provide coupons which will be displayed to visitors who find your site in Google Maps. Don't add your business to too many categories: one or two carefully selected, representative categories work best. Learn more about being featured in our local search results. If your business is currently appearing incorrectly, use the Local Business Center to update it.
* Make sure your address information is clearly available in plain text on your home page or at least one important page on your site. This is useful to your visitors and can help Google more effectively list your site to local users. Consider creating a rich About Us page that includes address information, a map, and other relevant information. You can also use Google Maps to embed a map, a set of driving directions, a local search, or personalized maps created by yourself or other users.
* Use top-level domains whenever possible to handle country-specific content. We're more likely to know that .ie indicates Ireland-focused content, for instance, than http://ie.example.com, http://www.example.com/ie, or http://www.example.com?country=ie. If you have a geographically neutral top-level domain (such as .com, .org, or.net), you can use Webmaster Tools to associate your site with a geographic location.
* If you create mashups for Google Maps, you can ensure that users can find your mashup site by including KML files in a Sitemap. KML is the Google Earth file format for modeling and storing geographic data. More information about KML.
Affiliate programs | Search engine optimization
Our Webmaster Guidelines advise you to create websites with original content that adds value for users. This is particularly important for sites that participate in affiliate programs. Typically, affiliate websites feature product descriptions that appear on sites across that affiliate network. As a result, sites featuring mainly content from affiliate networks can suffer in Google's search rankings, because they do not have unique content that differentiates them from other sites on the web.
Google believes that pure affiliate websites do not provide additional value for web users, especially if they are part of a program that distributes its content to several hundred affiliates. Because a search result could return multiple sites, all with the same content, they create a frustrating user experience.
If you participate in an affiliate program, there are a number of steps you can take to help your site stand out and to help improve your rankings.
* Affiliate program content should form only a small part of the content of your site.
* When selecting an affiliate program, choose a product category appropriate for your intended audience. The more targeted the affiliate program is to your site's content, the more value it will add and the more likely you will be to rank better in Google's search results and make money from the program. For example, a well-maintained site about hiking in the Alps could consider an affiliate partnership with a supplier who sells hiking books rather than office supplies.
* Use your website to build community among your users. This will help build a loyal readership, and can also create a source of information on the subject you are writing about. For example, discussion forums, user reviews, and blogs all offer unique content and provide value to users.
* Keep your content updated and relevant. Fresh, on-topic information increases the likelihood that your content will be crawled by Googlebot and clicked on by users.
Pure affiliate sites consisting of content that appears in many other places on the web is unlikely to perform well in Google search results and can cause your site to be negatively perceived by search engines. Unique, relevant content provides value to users and distinguishes your site from other affiliates, making it more likely to rank well in Google search result pages.
Google believes that pure affiliate websites do not provide additional value for web users, especially if they are part of a program that distributes its content to several hundred affiliates. Because a search result could return multiple sites, all with the same content, they create a frustrating user experience.
If you participate in an affiliate program, there are a number of steps you can take to help your site stand out and to help improve your rankings.
* Affiliate program content should form only a small part of the content of your site.
* When selecting an affiliate program, choose a product category appropriate for your intended audience. The more targeted the affiliate program is to your site's content, the more value it will add and the more likely you will be to rank better in Google's search results and make money from the program. For example, a well-maintained site about hiking in the Alps could consider an affiliate partnership with a supplier who sells hiking books rather than office supplies.
* Use your website to build community among your users. This will help build a loyal readership, and can also create a source of information on the subject you are writing about. For example, discussion forums, user reviews, and blogs all offer unique content and provide value to users.
* Keep your content updated and relevant. Fresh, on-topic information increases the likelihood that your content will be crawled by Googlebot and clicked on by users.
Pure affiliate sites consisting of content that appears in many other places on the web is unlikely to perform well in Google search results and can cause your site to be negatively perceived by search engines. Unique, relevant content provides value to users and distinguishes your site from other affiliates, making it more likely to rank well in Google search result pages.
Google-friendly sites
Our webmaster guidelines provide general design, technical, and quality guidelines. Below are more detailed tips for creating a Google-friendly site.
Give visitors the information they're looking for
Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.
Make sure that other sites link to yours
Links help our crawlers find your site and can give your site greater visibility in our search results. When returning results for a search, Google combines PageRank (our view of a page's importance) with sophisticated text-matching techniques to display pages that are both important and relevant to each search. Google counts the number of votes a page receives as part of its PageRank assessment, interpreting a link from page A to page B as a vote by page A for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines. Some of these types of links (such as link schemes and doorway pages) are covered in our webmaster guidelines.
Only natural links are useful for the indexing and ranking of your site.
Make your site easily accessible
Build your site with a logical link structure. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
Use a text browser, such as Lynx, to examine your site. Most spiders see your site much as Lynx would. If features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Macromedia Flash keep you from seeing your entire site in a text browser, then spiders may have trouble crawling it.
Things to avoid
Don't fill your page with lists of keywords, attempt to "cloak" pages, or put up "crawler only" pages. If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don't intend visitors to see, Google considers those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site.
Don't feel obligated to purchase a search engine optimization service. Some companies claim to "guarantee" high ranking for your site in Google's search results. While legitimate consulting firms can improve your site's flow and content, others employ deceptive tactics in an attempt to fool search engines. Be careful; if your domain is affiliated with one of these deceptive services, it could be banned from our index.
Don't use images to display important names, content, or links. Our crawler doesn't recognize text contained in graphics. Use ALT attributes if the main content and keywords on your page can't be formatted in regular HTML.
Don't create multiple copies of a page under different URLs. Many sites offer text-only or printer-friendly versions of pages that contain the same content as the corresponding graphic-rich pages. To ensure that your preferred page is included in our search results, you'll need to block duplicates from our spiders using a robots.txt file. For information about using a robots.txt file, please visit our information on blocking Googlebot.
Give visitors the information they're looking for
Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.
Make sure that other sites link to yours
Links help our crawlers find your site and can give your site greater visibility in our search results. When returning results for a search, Google combines PageRank (our view of a page's importance) with sophisticated text-matching techniques to display pages that are both important and relevant to each search. Google counts the number of votes a page receives as part of its PageRank assessment, interpreting a link from page A to page B as a vote by page A for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines. Some of these types of links (such as link schemes and doorway pages) are covered in our webmaster guidelines.
Only natural links are useful for the indexing and ranking of your site.
Make your site easily accessible
Build your site with a logical link structure. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
Use a text browser, such as Lynx, to examine your site. Most spiders see your site much as Lynx would. If features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Macromedia Flash keep you from seeing your entire site in a text browser, then spiders may have trouble crawling it.
Things to avoid
Don't fill your page with lists of keywords, attempt to "cloak" pages, or put up "crawler only" pages. If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don't intend visitors to see, Google considers those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site.
Don't feel obligated to purchase a search engine optimization service. Some companies claim to "guarantee" high ranking for your site in Google's search results. While legitimate consulting firms can improve your site's flow and content, others employ deceptive tactics in an attempt to fool search engines. Be careful; if your domain is affiliated with one of these deceptive services, it could be banned from our index.
Don't use images to display important names, content, or links. Our crawler doesn't recognize text contained in graphics. Use ALT attributes if the main content and keywords on your page can't be formatted in regular HTML.
Don't create multiple copies of a page under different URLs. Many sites offer text-only or printer-friendly versions of pages that contain the same content as the corresponding graphic-rich pages. To ensure that your preferred page is included in our search results, you'll need to block duplicates from our spiders using a robots.txt file. For information about using a robots.txt file, please visit our information on blocking Googlebot.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:
* Review of your site content or structure
* Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
* Content development
* Management of online business development campaigns
* Keyword research
* SEO training
* Expertise in specific markets and geographies.
Keep in mind that the Google search results page includes organic search results and often paid advertisement (denoted by the heading "Sponsored Links") as well. Advertising with Google won't have any effect on your site's presence in our search results. Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results. Free resources such as Webmaster Tools, the official Webmaster Central blog, and our discussion forum can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for organic search. Many of these free sources, as well as information on paid search, can be found on Google Webmaster Central.
Before beginning your search for an SEO, it's a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend starting here:
* Google Webmaster Guidelines
* Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.
If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.
Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:
* Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
* Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
* Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
* What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
* What's your experience in my industry?
* What's your experience in my country/city?
* What's your experience developing international sites?
* What are your most important SEO techniques?
* How long have you been in business?
* How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your site's presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index. Here are some things to consider:
* Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."
Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
* No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
* Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.
* You should never have to link to an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.
* Choose wisely.
While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.
* Be sure to understand where the money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.
* What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?
One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.
Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
* What are some other things to look out for?
There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:
o owns shadow domains
o puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
o offers to sell keywords in the address bar
o doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
o guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
o operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
o gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
o has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google
o requests your FTP account information or root access to your server
If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.
* Review of your site content or structure
* Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
* Content development
* Management of online business development campaigns
* Keyword research
* SEO training
* Expertise in specific markets and geographies.
Keep in mind that the Google search results page includes organic search results and often paid advertisement (denoted by the heading "Sponsored Links") as well. Advertising with Google won't have any effect on your site's presence in our search results. Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results. Free resources such as Webmaster Tools, the official Webmaster Central blog, and our discussion forum can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for organic search. Many of these free sources, as well as information on paid search, can be found on Google Webmaster Central.
Before beginning your search for an SEO, it's a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend starting here:
* Google Webmaster Guidelines
* Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.
If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.
Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:
* Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
* Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
* Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
* What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
* What's your experience in my industry?
* What's your experience in my country/city?
* What's your experience developing international sites?
* What are your most important SEO techniques?
* How long have you been in business?
* How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your site's presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index. Here are some things to consider:
* Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."
Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
* No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
* Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.
* You should never have to link to an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.
* Choose wisely.
While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.
* Be sure to understand where the money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.
* What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?
One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.
Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
* What are some other things to look out for?
There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:
o owns shadow domains
o puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
o offers to sell keywords in the address bar
o doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
o guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
o operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
o gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
o has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google
o requests your FTP account information or root access to your server
If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.
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