The Online Marketing Guy

Finding Yourself How to find your site in the index The best way to do this is by using your keyword research list. Type in the keyword you want to rank for, and start shuffling through the results. It’s tedious, but you’ll know where you stand. For the first few months for a new website, your results may seem kind of disappointing, but you’re still new. The debates rage on whether the Google sandbox actually exists, but I can say from hands-on experience, something exists. Almost exactly at the one-year mark from going live with my website, the traffic from Google increased noticeable. And yes, it will likely take a new website about that long to really start ranking well. Can you speed this up? – not really. But you can keep working on expanding your content and building a better, more useful website for your users. This will expand the likelihood of building a good collection of inbound links to the website, which will help you greatly when you suddenly start seeing more traffic and pop up higher in the ranking. Back to how you find your site. Each engine allows you to set preferences for how many items to view on a page of results (though I think MSN actually just scrolls now, so the list is long). In Google, for example, you can check your preferences and set the number of results per page for a higher amount than ten. I use 20 as it’s a great way to quickly scan results to see if I’m inside the top 2 pages of results. Starting out, for a new site, look for the top 100 results and watch yourself climb over time. If you’re looking to find specific references to a domain through Google, try this info from their help section ( www.google.com/help/operators.html ): Query Modifiers site: If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the “site:” and the domain. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domains. allintitle: If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both “google” and “search” in the title. intitle: If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word “google” in their title, and mention the word “search” anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the “intitle:” and the following word. Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search]. allinurl: If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both “google” and “search” in the url. Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words “foo” and “bar” in the url, but won'’t require that they be separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences. inurl: If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word “google” in their url, and mention the word “search” anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the “inurl:” and the following word. Putting “inurl:” in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting “allinurl:” at the front of your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search]. Now, those search parameters will work in Google, and some of them will work in Yahoo and some in MSN. Yahoo and MSN have their own search query parameters that are slightly different from those listed here. MSN’s versions of this list can be found here: http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/docs/help.aspx?t=SEARCH_REF_AdvSrchOperators.htm#2A KeywordUsage contains: Restricts results to sites that have links to the file type(s) you specify. For example, to search for websites that contain links to Microsoft Windows Media Audio (wma) files, type music contains:wma, and then click Search. filetype: Returns only web pages created in the file format you specify. Sympatico \\ MSN Search recognizes html, txt, and pdf extensions. Sympatico \\ MSN Search also recognizes the extensions for primary Office document types, such as doc and rtf for Microsoft Office Word, xls for Microsoft Office Excel, and ppt for Microsoft Office PowerPoint. For example, to find reports created in Adobe PDF format, type your subject, followed by filetype:pdf. For example, type information filetype:pdf, and then click Search. inanchor: ; inbody: ; intitle: ; inurl: Returns pages that contain the specified term in the anchor, body, title, or web address of the site, respectively. Specify only one term per keyword. You can string multiple keyword entries as needed. For example, to find pages that contain msn in the anchor, and the terms spaces and magog in the body, type inanchor:msn inbody:spaces inbody:magog, and then click Search. ip: Finds sites that are hosted by a specific IP address. The IP address must be a dotted quad address. Type the IP: keyword, followed by the IP address of the website. For example, type IP:207.46.249.252, and then click Search. language: Returns web pages for a specific language. Specify the language code directly after the language: keyword. For example, to see only web pages in English, type “au pair” language:en, and then click Search. You can also access this function using the Search Builder Language function. For additional information, see Locate content by country/region or language. link: Finds sites that have links to the specified website or domain. This is useful for determining who links to whom. Do not add a space between link: and the web address. For example, to find pages that contain the word games and that link to microsoft.com, type games link:microsoft.com, and then click Search. You can also access this function by using the Search Builder Links to function. linkdomain: Finds sites that link to any page within the specified domain. Use this keyword to determine how many links are being made to a specific page, as well as how those links are made. For example, to see pages that link to Sympatico \\ MSN, type linkdomain:msn.com. To find sites that link to a hosted IP address, type the IP address as a dotted quad address, such as 207.46.249.252. (Do not add a space between linkdomain: and the domain or IP address.) For example, to find pages that contain the word security and link to microsoft.com, type security linkdomain:microsoft.com, and then click Search. loc: or location: Returns web pages from a specific country or region. Specify the country or region code directly after the loc: keyword. To focus on two or more languages, use a logical OR and group the languages. For example, to see web pages about media reporting from the U.S. or Great Britain, type media reporting (loc:US OR loc:GB), and then click Search. You can also access this function by using the Search Builder Country/Region function. For additional information, see Limit your results to sites from specific countries or regions. prefer:Adds emphasis on either a word or another operator. For example,type football prefer:organization, and then click Search. site: Returns web pages that belong to the specified site. To focus on two or more domains, use a logical OR and group the domains. Do not add a space after the colon (:). You can use site search for web domains, top level domains, and directories that are not more than two levels deep. For example, to see web pages about media reporting from the BBC or CNN websites, type “media reporting” (site:bbc.co.uk OR site:cnn.com), and then click Search. You can also search for web pages that contain a specific search word on a site. For example, to find web pages about the PC version of Halo on the Microsoft website, type site:www.microsoft.com/games/pc halo, and then click Search.You can also access this function by using the Search Builder Domain/site function. feed: Finds RSS or Atom feeds on a website. You must include a space after the colon (:). For example, to find RSS or Atom feeds on the New York Times website, type site:www.nytimes.com feed: www.nytimes.com, and then click Search. hasfeed: Finds web pages that contain an RSS or Atom feed on a website. You must include a space after the colon (:). You can add search words to narrow your search. For example, to find web pages on the New York Times website that contain RSS or Atom feeds, type site:www.nytimes.com hasfeed: www.nytimes.com, and then click Search. url: Checks whether the listed domain or web address is in the Sympatico \\ MSN Search index. Do not add a space between url: and the domain or web address. For example, to verify that the microsoft.com domain is in the index, type url:microsoft.com, and then click Search. Finally, Yahoo doesn’t provide exactly the same data for users, but does offer many of the same results through an interface found here: http://search.yahoo.com/search/options?fr=fp-top&p= Searching Multiple Google Data Centers Directly Since Google handles, by far, the largest volume of searches each day, a couple of really great tools exist to see how you’re ranking across the multiple data centers that Google runs. Each data center is capable of showing results for searches from pretty much any user regardless of their location, and Google uses this approach to balance the loads on their systems. The downside is simple – since each data center is a separate entity, they don’t have 100% exactly the same data available for searchers at the same time. In laymen’s terms this means you might search a phrase and find yourself ranked at # 3 this evening, then perform the same search in the morning and notice you seem to have dropped to # 7. This is normal and more than likely you have not dropped in rankings. Most likely the search system simply pulled the results when you asked for them from two separate locations. Always remember that any data Google is showing you is an average of sorts. So, whether you are actually # 3 or # 7 is academic. The fact that you are on the first page of results is the solid result you’re after. Yes, 3rd is better than 7th, but the point is that the overall trend is positive, which is what you want to see. Here are two great tools I use all the time to track results: http://www.tony-hill.net/bigdaddywatch/ http://www.mcdar.net/dance/index.php They display basically the same data in slightly different ways. Both will allow you to see where you fall across multiple centers, though. The first one tracks results form the Google “BigDaddy” data centers currently in use by Google. The second tool tracks individual IP addresses Google has assigned to data centers. It is updated regularly to add the newest IP address into the mix. Using Software & Programs Some folks are big fans of using software to search for themselves in the SERPs. I am not – and for good reason. The search engines all dislike anything that uses up system resources on them. Every time you enter a query, you’re using their system resources. This they are fine with, as they exist to serve you. A software application checking up on a website’s placement on hundreds or thousands of phrases, though, is a bit much. In fact, a couple of years ago some sites were dropped from the index because their URL was seen to be using software to check on rankings for thousands of phrases. Many applications exist such as WebPosition Gold and Accurate Monitor for Search Engines. I have used both and no longer use either. If I want to find a site in the SERPs I enter the phrase I want to search on, then go scrolling. Expanding the list of results returned to 100 per page (selectable in your “Preferences” area in Google) will allow you to quickly find yourself. If you’re not into scrolling, simply hit Control + F on your keyboard – this will activate the “Find” function on your computer. In the box at the bottom of the screen, simply enter a word form your domain name – if it’s found on the page shown, this function will quickly bring you to it. If this function does not find it, repeat the search on page 2 of the results and so on. This is a quick, simple and engine-friendly way to find yourself in the SERPs. Bottom line: I do not recommend using any software to search for a domain. If you are already using software, or really want to, do yourself a favor and request an “API” from Google and Yahoo. This handy bit of script identifies you and allows them to see what you’re up to. They will allow you a pre-determined number of queries per day without any worry. Usually about 1,000 per day – fine for a small Webmaster with a couple of sites, but restrictive for those tracking thousands of phrases. The trade-off is that they stop you when you reach the limit for the day. Further to this, should you turn off this function in your software, they will know your domain is now actively ignoring the agreed upon limits – not good. Both software applications mentioned above actually have a space where you drop your assigned API into and it runs as normal. To request an API through Yahoo, start here: http://developer.yahoo.com/ One word of warning – Yahoo’s process is not easy for newcomers to understand so be ready for some learning if you’re new. To request an API from Google, start here: http://www.google.com/apis/ To request an API form MSN, start here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/live/search/ Like Yahoo, this one requires some basic knowledge of programming to be able to understand what’s what.