34 replies to this topic

[dzinerbear]

Hi all,

I've got a potential client who has done his own website using Word. You know ... simple and easy ... just type in your text ... hit the button and poof! you have a website.

Well, it's been a couple of months since he submitted his site to Google and it's still not listed. Sites that I've done before and after are in Google, so I know there have been updates.

I'm just wondering if someone can confirm my hunch: Is it possible Goggle couldn't – or didn't feel like — read the gobbligook that Word creates (and calls HTML) and this is the reason my client's site hasn't been indexed or listed.

I did an "allinurl" and it's definitely not there.

It's just a one-page website and it's largely text, so by all rights, it should get a good ranking, but he can't even get it indexed.

Thoughts?
Dzinerbear

[qwerty]

Sites with those tons of extra code created by Word are generally a mess, but I think Google can pretty easily ignore it and find the content, so I doubt that's really the problem.

Does the site have any backlinks?

[compar]

Word code is certainly awful, but the real question is does he have any backlinks? It's like the old saw "no ticky, no laundry". Google says "no backlinks, no findy".

Edited by compar, 01 September 2003 - 09:44 AM.

[Scottie]

Hi dzinerbear-

How about a URL and we'll have a look at it?

[compar]

Hi dzinerbear-

How about a URL and we'll have a look at it?

Scottie, what kind of approach is that. You mean we need evidence before making a judgement?

[Scottie]

Ah Bob- what would we do without you?

[Jill]

A one-page website will not usually get a good ranking because...well...it's just one page.

Break it up into at least 5 pages, and get links to it. Who's gonna link to a one-page site? No directory will.

It's doubtful that the Word code is the problem. Most likely it's no links, and the fact that it's one-page. One page sites are going to be thought to be simply a doorway domain page.

Jill

[Haystack]

Without seeing the site, based on the description it certainly SOUNDS ugly. This could hurt linking potential.

Dreamweaver has a Word Cleanup feature so if you happen to have that you could clean things up a bit. For example, is it really necessary to put font property tags around EVERY paragraph?

[dzinerbear]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the info and the heads up on the one-page website problem. That's a new one for me. Certainly unfair of Google to think that every one-page website on the planet is a doorway page; maybe some people say everything they need to say in one page.

Rant finished, and I'll take that under advisement.

I don't really agree with most of what was said about backlinking. That certainly hasn't been my experience. In fact, I put up a website in April and it had no links to it ... none ... nada ... not a one ... and I resigned myself to a long, hard climb to the top. But when Esmeralda finally came around I had top ten rankings in many of the keywords I was working on.

I have a hunch that way too much emphasis is placed on links and backlinks. Maybe it was really important at one time, but I'm certainly living just fine in isolation. I'm wondering if the importance of links has been downgraded in view of the link mania that has taken over the SEO community.

Thanks for your offer to look at the site, but I'll pass. I'm not comfortable putting a client's URL in a public forum like this. I don't need my clients bothered by spammers, which I'm sure check these boards out all of the time. But thanks for the offer.

Thanks
Dzinerbear

[Jill]

No way, I don't see how your site could be in google and ranking well with no links pointing to it. No "backlinks" showing in the results perhaps, but there had to be links pointing to it. There just had to be. Even just one link from your own site would be enough.

J

[qwerty]

Well, there is that rumor about the toolbar... it is said (by some -- not me) that if you browse to a site with the toolbar on, G will find it.

But that is a good point about there probably being a link that Google doesn't display (something below PR4). You should try doing a link search in ATW and see if anything comes up.

[Bernard]

I saw a post in another forum where someone claims to have published a site one day after registering the domain. It was spidered by Googlebot within 24 hours of being published. There are no backlinks. S/he has the Google Toolbar.

It's too soon to tell if the site will stick in the index.

[Jill]

It's one thing for a site to be IN google without a link. It's another for it to be ranking highly for keyword phrases. The latter is the part that I seriously doubt, although I'd love to be proven wrong.

Jill

[compar]

I don't really agree with most of what was said about backlinking. That certainly hasn't been my experience. In fact, I put up a website in April and it had no links to it ... none ... nada ... not a one ... and I resigned myself to a long, hard climb to the top. But when Esmeralda finally came around I had top ten rankings in many of the keywords I was working on.

I have a hunch that way too much emphasis is placed on links and backlinks. Maybe it was really important at one time, but I'm certainly living just fine in isolation. I'm wondering if the importance of links has been downgraded in view of the link mania that has taken over the SEO community.

Thanks for your offer to look at the site, but I'll pass. I'm not comfortable putting a client's URL in a public forum like this. I don't need my clients bothered by spammers, which I'm sure check these boards out all of the time. But thanks for the offer.

Thanks
Dzinerbear

If you are so sure of all that, why did you send this question to the forum? Did you just wish to refute the backlink theory? If so why didn't you start a subject like " Backlinks Over Rated'.

Several people have now offerd you their best advice and then you turn around and change the subject on them. Personally the next time I see a thread started by you I'll just pass.

Say what you mean and we will respond, but don't lead us down a blind alley just to refute all the heartfelt advise we have freely offered.

[qwerty]

Bob, his original question was about whether HTML generated by MS Word could have been the reason the site wasn't getting indexed. I was the one who raised the question of backlinks.