11 replies to this topic

[extremecoupons]

Why would google only show my url in a search. For example.... say you did a search on "widgets". At one time, last week, I was #1 in google for the term "widgets", now when I do the search I'm nowhere to be found and when I do a search for the URL that used to be #1 all I get in the search return is mysite.com/wigets.html .with no page description or anything at all just the url. Why would this happen?

[Gatorhardware]

I am only asking because this has happened to me before. How do you have your hosting setup. Do you mask your domain name at all?

[extremecoupons]

No masking.

[Gatorhardware]

Can you PM me the url?

[SearchRank]

Did you make any recent changes to the page or your site? Reason I ask is usually that is the case when it is a new or changed page that Google has included in the index but hasn't included info related to it yet.

[extremecoupons]

I did change the site. I changed my site map. So do you think that Google will included the info later?? It was included in the index before.

[Randy]

EC, what you describe can sometimes mean the site was "down" when Googlebot last paid a visit. Basically it happens because Google knows the page exists, but couldn't get to it to spider the content. That's the thing I see the most often when there is no description when there should be. If that's what happened in your case the problem will fix itself the next time Googlebot visits your site, assuming it is available to be spidered at that time.

However, I will throw out a cautionary note... From what I'm seeing Google is in the middle of yet another update at the moment. So do not make any rash changes simply for the sake of change. I've seen the sort of thing you've described happen during updates and it normally gets sorted over the course of a day or two.

I'm not sure what the update is going to look like yet, just know that one is "in progress" from the way a couple dozen sites I watch --mine, friends and competitors-- are bouncing around wildly in the last 24 hours or so.

Sit back and relax for a few days to see where things stand at that point.

[Jill]

It may also be excluded in your robot.txt file by mistake. Be sure to check that first.

Jill

[extremecoupons]

my robots.txt file is blank. So it shouldn't be excluded right. Like I say I did Have #1 position and now all I have is just the url and no description. And google just came to my site.

[extremecoupons]

Ok, it has been over a week since I noticed this and google hasn't fixed it. I was adviced that it should only take 2-3 days. Any thoughts?? thanks;)

[Randy]

Have you see Googlebot visit the site again since this first appeared? The time it takes to get corrected depends entirely upon the spider schedule if it was a server problem.

Also, is this site the one in your signature, or another site?

[extremecoupons]

a different site.