I have been trying to get a clients site listed on Google.co.uk for 'composite doors' but its not been working on Google. I have got a page 1 listing on MSN and page 2 on Yahoo but Google will not cache the site. Initially I thought it was a problem with the US hosting and .com domain name and I advised to change it to UK hosting and .co.uk domain to see if this was the problem, but the client did not want to do this just yet. I then thought it was a problem with the site as its a Joomla site that I am not familar with, so i thought i'd bang it in a frameset with some no frames content in it.... this worked for MSN and Yahoo - but Google will not cache the frameset... it just shows the old title tags and not the new ones This is the site https://www.compositedoorshop.com - anyone got any ideas why Google is not seeing my frameset yet Yahoo and MSN are liking it for 'composite doors'?
Google loves Joomla sites a lot. I have my company site with all of its pages indexed in Google and it earned PR3 in just 3 months. You must be doing something wrong..
First, I would check out you html code. When you view Google's cache, most of your content is 30 inches scroll downward. Second, why are you using HTTPS. Last, why would you use a frameset. This is just bad design. Go back to starndard HTML.
Well the site is being relaunched in a new Joomla design, so we are going to take it out of the frameset and see if the new site works... if something is wrong, how come yahoo and msn dont mind?
frameset was used (with <noframes> content) to see if there was a problem with the Joomla site - and there was, it made the site show up in Yahoo and MSN
I mean this in the most respectful way... you really need to learn more SEO before selling it to clients. I'd hate to see you make a bad name for yourself by taking on projects you may not be be suited for. But I'll offer some advice anyway. This is not a problem at all. The TLD makes very little difference in SEO from what I have experienced, with the exception of .us and .info domain names that are very new. Using Joomla for the site will actually help with SE,O far more than it will hurt it. Frames will kill your SERPs far faster in my opinion. Don't use frames. Ever. What you need to do is go through the pages, put in a unique description meta tag for each page (I noticed your listings are mostly using the the same text for the description on google) and unique title tags as well. Build a google sitemap for the page, and submit it to the big three. 1) Put in unique, relevant <title> tags. 2) Put in unique meta description tags. 3) Build a google sitemap. 4) set up a google web alert with "site:http://www.compositedoorshop.com/" so you can know when your listing changes. With time, I think just these steps alone should clean up your indexed pages. Once everything settles out, when you check your pages in google, you should see clear, relevant listings. (Remember, the listings are what people click on to go to the site) Getting your indexed pages cleaned up is a good first step, and after that higher SERPS will follow.
How long have you been trying becuase it can take a while. Also, where is your client's domain name registered? Finally, if there are any links coming into the site, are tehse coming in from UK based sites as this in my experience will help Google and search engines understand the geography and your target market. Have you tried specifying this in webmaster tools? Thanks Zaheer
Jeremy - I know about using title tags, descriptions.. that is what I do for my other 40 clients, this is just a problem one hence the frameset - I dont use framesets normally.
It's not just using them, what I was recommending was using unique tags. Checking your indexed pages here shows a lot of pages that say "The Composite Door Shop is a UK leader in the online supply of composite front doors." for the description. Maybe it's been fixed already.
The question was not on the merits of framesets - forget about that... the question was... "anyone got any ideas why Google is not seeing my frameset yet Yahoo and MSN are liking it for 'composite doors'?" Google has cached the site at least twice since I put in in a frameset and it still does not show the frameset title tags in the SERP which read "Composite Doors | uPVC Door | UK | Composite Door Shop" on Yahoo and MSN, but Google it reads "Composite Door Shop - Online Ordering for composite doors ... " which is the old version of the site before it was put into a frameset. Do not bother lecturing me on framesets, I am not interested. I just want to know why Google does not cache the frameset where Yahoo and MSN do.
You may not want to hear it, but what you're asking directly relates to the merits of framesets. From google: Link to page
I think what nick is saying is that they re-built the site in joomla, and the SE's were not indexing the new pages (the descriptions, etc, were not updating with the new info in the SERP's). As a test, he added a frameset around it just to see if it changed anything. After framing it in, yahoo and msn updated their index - google still hasn't (with or without frames). Regarding frames: I've had a client who insisted on frames before, and the truth is it did not cause any problems with google indexing the site.. granted, anyone clicking on any serp that wasn't the home page was a problem - but google found everything just fine and it did VERY well for it's targeted KW's. This really is not unexpected - parsing out the 'src' attribute of a 'frame' tag is no more difficult then parsing the 'href' attribute of an 'a' tag Nick - how long has it been since you went live with the joomla site? How often has googlebot been by? I've personaly experienced google sometimes taking well over a week to update it's cache of a page (just within the past 6 weeks as a matter of fact). I think you just need to "dot your i's and cross your t's" as jeremy pointed out, and then simply wait it out.
In your main frame there are two links out index.php > Composite Doors composite_doors.html > uPVC Doors The composite_doors.html page returns this : (https://www.compositedoorshop.com/composite_doors.html) 404: Not Found Sorry, but the content you requested could not be found Maybe Google count it as a broken link, you can check that in your google webmaster tools account(?). With pagerank being part of result ranking, if one of the two links off your main page is broken your site is gone. Yahoo and MSN don't use pagerank, that might cause the difference. about regional targetting : in 'webmaster tools' you can specificy which population/region you want to offer your stuff, adding a 'country' won't hurt if you want to offer to uk only, and adding your site to the google 'local business center' also can bring some extra regional exposure.
Well I was about to offer some help I then I read this entire thread. Nick, don't be an ass to people trying to help you. You talk as if you are some seo whiz, but you are on here for people's help....so give them some respect when they try to help you. So the only advice I will give is to only use https for your checkout and registration pages. It is very poor practice to use https for your entire website. I wouldn't be surprised if that had something to do with your Google problem. As to why Google didn't like the frameset while yahoo & msn did, Google is known to be the pickiest of those three search engines. They obviously found something on your website that they didn't like. Have you submitted a sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools?