It helped to explain why I have recently dipped in the SERP's for duplicate content (even though I do not have duplicate content) http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go Check it out. You may have seen it before. I have just bookmarked it.
So how did it explain why you recently dipped?? The diagnostic view is nice ..... but the links and anchor text part seems to be ...under construction, but they state that some rules are not fully implemented. Overall nice though lacking some basics
NewComputer: Ya I have seen that tool before. Its ok to let you know what order your colums are in but Google doesn't work that way. The tool is wacked. Check out the way it displays "www.seocompany.ca" and then look at the pages. bobmutch
It displays the text the search engine sees in the order the search engine sees it. On the webpage you will see the text within its css formatting. Don't see much wrong there.
Here is my theory, if you take a look at my site that dropped, http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go?q=www.newcomputer.ca you will see that all the spidered results basically say the same thing. Because of my images and the alt tag being identical on all my pages, they did not drop me, but they stopped caching my site and using only the url and not the description. If they thought all the pages were the same they would index, but not cache or display the description. At least this is my feeling. I have begun adding some text above the template, see here http://www.newcomputer.ca/upgrades.htm I may be way off, but it sure it opened my eyes.
Severus Maximus: Well what is wrong with the tool it claims "Enter your URL above to see what your site will look like in search-engine results" and this is just not so. Input any domain and then compare what it shows with what google shows and it is not the same at all. For example my site "www.seocompany.ca" it shows my graphicheader alt and title text, then my menu text. Then go and look at google and you will see the difference. It says "see what your site will look like in the search-engine results" which is just not true. bobmutch
bobmutch: I can see why you say that, but I don't think you should take it that literally, had they said here is what it will look like in the GOOGLE results, I would be more inclined to agree with you. I think it is an imperfect tool, but not totally useless, it just shows what a typical (if such exists) spider sees, google listings show the snippet of text on the page relevant to the search. This is just an attemp to show what a spider sees, handy if you can't or won't have a text only browser on your pc, and there are better and worse ones out there, what makes this one handy in my opinion is that you can navigate through your site by single clicking, it does give warnings in case of obvious oversights, and shows link elements (alt,anchor) separately. Not perfect, but not useless. If you view Google's text only view http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cach....ca/+seocompany.ca&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&strip=1 and compare it to their diagnostic view http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/diagnostic.go?www.seocompany.ca you will see that these are similar.
NewComputer: I have my doubts about the "penalty" or "nocache" for "identical content" you are mentioning. I sometimes use http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php to check similarity. Your pages show; http://www.newcomputer.ca/about_us.htm is 45.098643649815% percentage similar to http://www.newcomputer.ca I have pages into the 90% being cached and all so I have my doubts on that, but the first 150 words on your pages are or were very similar. I would move the JS and formatting to external JS and CSS files, and I would also make the alt text in the spacer gif's more relevant to my pages. You could also make a header div that comes after your content in the html and absolutely position it with css so it will show at the top of the page in a browser, but i'm going off topic here, so I'll stop.
This is going to sound extremely noobish, but how can I move the js and formatting to an external file? What do I call the js and where do I call it to? Can I move the AdSense code to an external file. I have always wanted to do it. I will research right now. If I have multiple js on a page do I have to make two seperate js files?
Here's a quick little explanation: http://www.spiderhelp.com/tools/javascript-file.html Call the js anything you want.
Thanks Donna, I had actually just finished trying them both out (Adsense and my rollover) and got them both working. I am very interested to hear more about what Server Max said here "You could also make a header div that comes after your content in the html and absolutely position it with css so it will show at the top of the page in a browser" I am a relative newb to css and would like to know how I do that. Thanks again for the help.
I also reader the comment about "header div", and thought it would be useful to know about that. Hopefully, Server Max will expand a little on his comments.
Personally i would not put my adsense code in an external JS without consulting with google. "Code Modification Any AdSense ad code or search box code must be pasted directly into Web pages without modification." from https://www.google.com/adsense/policies. Writing it with a script that makes the server deliver a html page with the parsed adsense code is a better option. But then you would have to convert all your pages to php or another serverside technology, only you know if you want that. I would definately contact adsense support on that one ..... just to be on the safe side. The post about the absolutely positioned header div is http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=23216#post23216 .
Here is the thing. I have not altered the 'code' at all. It displays exactly the same as it would on my page. The code is written line per line identically as it is when I copy it from the adsense code box. I also believe that G will contact me and advise me if they feel I have altered their code. I look forward to the absolutely positioned header div.post. Please, feel free to use my source code as your example
I think the problem would be that javasript is executed in a users browser on their computer and Google specifically requests their script to be put into the webpage. Maybe they need it on the webpage to match the ads to your content. Just sent them a polite email and they will reply, then you know for sure.
That seems like they would be nitpicking if that were the case. I mean, does it make a difference if it is loaded into the browser? If it is a problem for the ads, then I could absolutely see that being a problem. You said you sent them an email, or were you saying that I should?
I meant that you should email them. It might not be nitpicking. The spider that matches the ads to your content is not a browser and may not be able to follow the ad code through an external javascript.
Severus Maximus: Er ok I like that diagnostic view. I got a bit carried away and forgot about the Diagnostics View. Ya I even went over to my SEO Tools page and deleted it. I just put it back in. bobmutch