22 replies to this topic

[qwerty]

It's not a silly question at all. I'm not at all clear about why Google has an add URL form, since it appears that it's ignored. Here's what Google says about it:

When a URL is submitted to Google, we look for it in our next crawl. If you've already submitted your URL, your site could easily appear in our new index, which will go up when the current crawl is completed. However, if no other site links to yours, it may be difficult for our crawler to find you. Conversely, if many sites link to your page, there is a good chance we will find you without your submitting your URL.

So when they say they look for a submitted URL, it seems that they mean they hope to find it by following a link. So, perfectly good question, silly answer.

[Cruise Planner]

But yet, I can show you sites listed on Google that have no backlinks...geez !

[qwerty]

What can I tell you? The world is a strange place...

I've been studying this stuff for three or four years now, and the backlink "rule" was one of the first things I learned. So far, I've found it to be true. However, I'm seeing more and more people question its validity recently. Some people are saying that they got into Google by using the add URL form, and I've seen a few people suggest that if they browse to a new page they've just published with the Google toolbar on, Google will index the site. I don't know. I haven't seen proof of either of those yet.

Could you clarify your statement for me? These sites that have no backlinks... have they ever had backlinks? And when you say "no backlinks," do you mean none at all, or none that Google displays when you do a link: query on the URL? In other words, does AllTheWeb agree with Google that these sites have no backlinks?

[Cruise Planner]

I looked again..Google says no backlinks, Alltheweb shows backlinks. So, I guess the question is, given what Google says about backlinks, why would they list a site that they say had no backlinks?

You're right, the world (and especially the search engine world) is a strange place. Fascinating, but strange. My problem is, I think too much like a scientist, ie either it's black or it's white. I am quickly learning that in the search engine world, there is a whole lot of gray!

[qwerty]

I looked again..Google says no backlinks, Alltheweb shows backlinks. So, I guess the question is, given what Google says about backlinks, why would they list a site that they say had no backlinks?

That's because Google only displays backlinks from pages with a PR of 4 or higher. So they're aware of the others; they just won't show them to you.

[dzinerbear]

I was indexed and ranked in gigablast.com really quickly, like we're talking days. Mind you they only have 200,300,000 pages indexed. But you just never no who the next big deal is going to be, so if it's free ... go for it.

Dzinerbear

[qwerty]

I've been watching gigablast, and I'm hoping they'll fix a little problem I've noticed: they keep disabling their add URL form.

[GeordieSEO]

At the company I work for in the UK we recommend a Yahoo (UK) listing as it Google will spider the site within a few weeks of the directory listing appearing. The cost of Yahoo isn't too bad over here £199 one-off.

I'd imagine that this will change with Yahoo's aquisitions though.