11 replies to this topic

[Corinna]

I recently translated my website and all my translated pages have been indexed (I did a site:search) but when ever I put any of my keywords into google it comes back as "not found".

(I switched to the right language and put territory as 'unlisted' in webmaster tools)

 

Does anybody know what to do about this?

 

P.S. Special note to Jill: many thanks for your answer when I last posted here - it was most helpful!

[Jill]

What do you mean? What comes back as "not found"? 

[Corinna]

when I put a keyword combination into the search bar that is so unique that only my own webpage would come up - then google comes back with 'not found'.

 

I use it this method sometimes to check if my sites are indexed. 

It also works by using a chunk or a sentence of that page and put it into the search bar in quotation marks - it should bring up your webpage an position one. 

 

But when I do this I just get the message 'not found', which means my pages are not ranking badly but not at all. Nobody could find them via searching but only if they know the url (because they are indexed)

[Jill]

The phrase is probably too competitive for your site to rank for (possibly).  Are there any links going to your site? Are you invested in social media marketing? 

 

Also, sometimes it just takes time, but I'm guessing that your site is probably just not popular enough yet. 

[Corinna]

It's actually the opposite: I chose a keyword combination that is so rare that I do not have any competition (my name is one of the keywords, for example - there is not competition for it as there seems to be only one other person in the world with the same name as me)

 

so, it can;t be that I do not rank for those keywords becasue they are too competitive. 

 

As to my site not being popular enough: the english version always appeared in the serp a day or two after they were indexed - all in a matter of a few days or even only one day. It's just the German translation that cannot be found at all. 

 

I have plenty of links to the englisch pages. The German pages have the same urls as the english pages with a /de at the end. (www.eample.com/de) I am not sure if they share the links with their sister english pages.

 

I never had to have links to my new english pages for them to appear in serps - so I am not sure why the German pages should need links to rank at all (not well, I understand, but they should be found in the search engines)

 

About it's taking time: its been 4 whole weeks. Is it possible that it takes so long?

[qwerty]

Have you tried searching for the text using the site operator, as in [site:yoursite.com "the string of text"]?

[Jill]

Also are you searching on the German version of google?

[Corinna]

thanks guys for your input.

yes, I search through google.de

 

 

I searched with the suggestion site:yoursite.com "the string of text" and the right German websites come up. but when I put the keywords into the search bar of google.de it still comes back as 'not found. Shoot!

[qwerty]

OK, this may mean that the pages you're looking for are currently in what used to be called the "supplemental index". (We still call it that, but Google doesn't talk about it anymore.) That's an indication that Google is aware of the pages and has indexed them, but doesn't consider them to be of particular value, at least not yet. In other words, you shouldn't expect those pages to be returned for normal searches.

 

Try this: do another site: search on your domain name. Do the pages you're looking for come up in the normal results, or do you have to click the link at the end of the message that reads, "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the [some number] already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included" in order to see them in the results?

Edited by qwerty, 21 February 2013 - 07:47 PM.

[Corinna]

thanks querty

 

When I do the site:search all the relevant german pages come up immediately (and also all the english) and they are NOT omitted.

 

I am happy to let anyone have a look at my website - I just don't want to post the url here. I can give you the url in a private message. 

 

your help is much appreciated

[qwerty]

OK, next possibility...

 

This might be a job for the hreflang tag. Each German page would contain a tag in its head pointing to the equivalent English page, and vice versa. The tag basically tells a search engine that the two pages offer the same content, but they're each intended for a different audience, i.e, English speakers and German speakers. I've actually never used the tag. I wanted to at my previous job, where we had sites all over the planet, but our developers were just too busy to get around to it, and it really wasn't an immediate need.

 

And it might not be necessary for your site, although I imagine it would be helpful. It could be that it's just a matter of time and/or building links (internal links and links from other sites) to send the signal that the pages are important.

[Corinna]

Hi Qerty

thanks for pointing me to this info. 

I read through google's requirement and I seem to be doing everything right.

I use the de in the url like this www.example.com/de

I have put geo targeting in webmaster tools as unlisted

the english and german websites are linked and switchable

 

The think I have discovered yesterday is to switch off automatic language detection in the translation plugin. It may have prevented the search engine to 'see' the german version. Or at least it prevented me from searching for the german pages (as I have an english computer) 

 

I guess it will be a few days until google realises that I have switched off the automatice language detection. 

 

If you have any more ideas to help it will be much appreciated.