Need more pages indexed

[ldylion214]

I am in the process of optimizing my site thanks to the help of many smart webmasters here. I have been told out of 205 pages, google only has 45 indexed. My question is how do I go about getting the product pages indexed when there is too many parameters in the URL? If this isn't in the correct subject category, let me know. I'll move it.
Thanks! Nicci

[SEO Slacker]

Check your internal linking to make sure that every page can be reached by G's bots. As long as you have a sitemap, this should be OK.

If every page can be found, eventually your whole site will get indexed. Just concentrate on getting more backlinks to your site and the indexing will take care of itself.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by SEO Slacker

Check your internal linking to make sure that every page can be reached by G's bots. As long as you have a sitemap, this should be OK.

If every page can be found, eventually your whole site will get indexed. Just concentrate on getting more backlinks to your site and the indexing will take care of itself.

That *would* depend on how many parameters are in a dynamic URL .. more than 2-3 and Google can't read and index.

[ldylion214]

Hi SEO,
Yes, MJ and I were talking about the parameters of the urls. That is the challenge because the link directly to the products are very long.
I am going to make more pages like my animal.htm page. It is indexed.
Also does it matter if I've made my own site map or does it need to be one like a google map?
Best, Nicci

[cw1865]

This one is a little weird because it looks like your basic structure is main page, category, specific product. This is normal and your main page and category pages are in the index because I am getting a result when I hit the 'cache' button.

In any event what I was going to recommend was to make your site 'more shallow' ie. put links from your main page directly to products pages. You have actually done this however, and at least one of the products directly linked to from your main page is not in the cache.

Your site map on the actual website only appears to be an abbreviated one. At the very least make that complete and I would try to see if you can get 'deep linking' to the various parts of your website. Get inbound links to those deeper product pages.

These pages are critical to crawl because even though its not the main page many times you will find that these pages are actual entry pages and it seems (at least from my business) that the search queries coming into these pages are more specific and more likely to generate a sale, so definitely keep at it.

To other members, is there any evidence that 'long' dynamic urls don't get indexed well?

[incrediblehelp]

Nicci are the URLs set up this way because of the cart software?

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by cw1865

This one is a little weird because it looks like your basic structure is main page, category, specific product. This is normal and your main page and category pages are in the index because I am getting a result when I hit the 'cache' button.

In any event what I was going to recommend was to make your site 'more shallow' ie. put links from your main page directly to products pages. You have actually done this however, and at least one of the products directly linked to from your main page is not in the cache.

Your site map on the actual website only appears to be an abbreviated one. At the very least make that complete and I would try to see if you can get 'deep linking' to the various parts of your website. Get inbound links to those deeper product pages.

These pages are critical to crawl because even though its not the main page many times you will find that these pages are actual entry pages and it seems (at least from my business) that the search queries coming into these pages are more specific and more likely to generate a sale, so definitely keep at it.

To other members, is there any evidence that 'long' dynamic urls don't get indexed well?

This was just a goof page I made a long time ago, Tribe Azure Jewelry. On the left you see the items listed. They aren't linked but that was the intention. I did actually have my index.asp page this way for a while. Is this what you mean?
I do have a few long urls indexed, not many but a few.

Thanks! Nicci

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Nicci are the URLs set up this way because of the cart software?

Yes, the person who set up the cart changed it for me. Since I don't know about the database or asp code, I'm very hesitant to try to tweak anything.

Thanks for your support!
Nicci

[doj464]

I would see if you could have the server recreate them as organic looking links... a mod_rewrite, like wordpress does...

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by ldylion214

I am in the process of optimizing my site thanks to the help of many smart webmasters here. I have been told out of 205 pages, google only has 45 indexed. My question is how do I go about getting the product pages indexed when there is too many parameters in the URL? If this isn't in the correct subject category, let me know. I'll move it.
Thanks! Nicci

Nicci you got something wrong again. 45 pages are in the main index, and the rest in the supplemental results. So you should ask here, how can you get those pages out of the supplemental results.

[inertia]

Does anyone know how to figure out which pages are in supplemental?

If you can figure out which pages are in supplemental more links (internal and external) to these pages would help.

[playingthegame]

one way to help is to link each product using keyword based anchor text to the next item and so on in each categroy and also have each item link back to the category that the product is in.

So for example

under necklaces you would have in the descrition of the spider web necklace a link to "Angel Necklace" and anther link to the main category page. Then in Angel necklace you would link to "Zig Zag Necklace" and a link to the main category page etc..

[blitzen]

I was on your page, Native American Jewelry by Tribe Azure and tried to buy. I got an error

Database Results Error
Description: Extra ) in query expression '(ID = )'.
Number: -2147217900 (0x80040E14)
Source: Microsoft JET Database Engine

One or more form fields were empty. You should provide default values for all form fields that are used in the query.

If you're modifying your site, do it on a test site not your live one. Getting another test domain name or putting the test site in another place on your current one would work. Restrict the entire test site from bots in your robots.txt file.

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by inertia

Does anyone know how to figure out which pages are in supplemental?

If you can figure out which pages are in supplemental more links (internal and external) to these pages would help.

I'd love to know this too. Is it based on a PR0?

Originally Posted by blitzen

I was on your page, Native American Jewelry by Tribe Azure and tried to buy. I got an error

Database Results Error
Description: Extra ) in query expression '(ID = )'.
Number: -2147217900 (0x80040E14)
Source: Microsoft JET Database Engine

One or more form fields were empty. You should provide default values for all form fields that are used in the query.

If you're modifying your site, do it on a test site not your live one. Getting another test domain name or putting the test site in another place on your current one would work. Restrict the entire test site from bots in your robots.txt file.

It is working for me. I'd appreciate anyone checking it from their computer. Thanks for letting me know, blitzen.
Nicci

Originally Posted by playingthegame

one way to help is to link each product using keyword based anchor text to the next item and so on in each categroy and also have each item link back to the category that the product is in.

So for example

under necklaces you would have in the descrition of the spider web necklace a link to "Angel Necklace" and anther link to the main category page. Then in Angel necklace you would link to "Zig Zag Necklace" and a link to the main category page etc..

That's very interesting. I think with the way the database is set it won't be possible for me to link under the description of the piece. There may be another way but I'll need the gurus to voice their opinions on that.
Thanks for the input!

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by ldylion214

I'd love to know this too. Is it based on a PR0?

Myself, and I assume other SEO professionals would not share that information, as we are mainly using un-official search operators, which when Google catches them, they disable them.

If someone thinks he would like to reveal one, it would be interesting for me too, if I do not have that one already.

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Myself, and I assume other SEO professionals would not share that information, as we are mainly using un-official search operators, which when Google catches them, they disable them.

If someone thinks he would like to reveal one, it would be interesting for me too, if I do not have that one already.

I'm guessing a few things are discovered by these means.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

That *would* depend on how many parameters are in a dynamic URL .. more than 2-3 and Google can't read and index.

Here is a nice howto tutorial I was just reading and thought of sharing: SitePoint Blogs » Friendly URLs

[kula]

Originally Posted by ldylion214

Hi SEO,
Yes, MJ and I were talking about the parameters of the urls. That is the challenge because the link directly to the products are very long.
I am going to make more pages like my animal.htm page. It is indexed.
Also does it matter if I've made my own site map or does it need to be one like a google map?
Best, Nicci

As usual, my reply is pretty late! An inevitable result of my location in the middle of the Pacific.

I butted my head against this problem again and again with all the "prepackaged" store solutions and shopping cart solutions. I finally gave up accepting promotion (SEO) work from website operators that weren't willing to move to custom built solutions. Today I provide ecommerce stores that rewrite the URLs of the "category" and "product" pages using the category and product names. This obviously requires code to 1. build the requested pages from the navigation links by parsing the link URL for a category or product name; and 2. build the page URL from the category or product "key."

An additional problem is coding the dynamic rebuilding of the "site map" from changes to the product and category data.

Before going this route, I had limited success using static product pages that were outside the cart system as entry pages. The obvious problem is the number of static pages that have to be built for a large number of products!

I even tried outsourcing the coding. (Despite my 30+ years in IT, I'm still penurious about time I actually have to spend coding.) I had a great deal of difficulty explaining what was needed to subcontinental gentlemen who possessed impeccable English, tremendous IT credentials, but surprisingly little knowledge of the requirements of SEO!

Eventually, I had to code the whole beast myself. (With a great deal of guidance from the dashCommerce SDK.) A side benefit, and one that solves another problem I had been working around for five years, is custom visitor tracking and event logging. I now can follow visitor behaviors that were always lost with page tagging and log file analytics solutions.

Really, if you want to compete in the major leagues, there's no substitute for building a cart system from scratch! (or paying someone to code it for you!)

Bottom line - you get what you pay for. It takes many hundreds of hours to code an ecommerce site from scratch. You can't expect to buy the same results for a few hundred bucks!

[kula]

One more thing!

Yes, Google has said they would begin indexing prameterized URLs. They started saying they would sometime in 2004 if my memory serves. Today they will admit to indexing URLs containing the "?id=" parameter. If your URL contains any ampersands, or the parameters have any name other than "id" you are still out of luck!

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by kula

As usual, my reply is pretty late! An inevitable result of my location in the middle of the Pacific.

I butted my head against this problem again and again with all the "prepackaged" store solutions and shopping cart solutions. I finally gave up accepting promotion (SEO) work from website operators that weren't willing to move to custom built solutions. Today I provide ecommerce stores that rewrite the URLs of the "category" and "product" pages using the category and product names. This obviously requires code to 1. build the requested pages from the navigation links by parsing the link URL for a category or product name; and 2. build the page URL from the category or product "key."

An additional problem is coding the dynamic rebuilding of the "site map" from changes to the product and category data.

Before going this route, I had limited success using static product pages that were outside the cart system as entry pages. The obvious problem is the number of static pages that have to be built for a large number of products!

I even tried outsourcing the coding. (Despite my 30+ years in IT, I'm still penurious about time I actually have to spend coding.) I had a great deal of difficulty explaining what was needed to subcontinental gentlemen who possessed impeccable English, tremendous IT credentials, but surprisingly little knowledge of the requirements of SEO!

Eventually, I had to code the whole beast myself. (With a great deal of guidance from the dashCommerce SDK.) A side benefit, and one that solves another problem I had been working around for five years, is custom visitor tracking and event logging. I now can follow visitor behaviors that were always lost with page tagging and log file analytics solutions.

Really, if you want to compete in the major leagues, there's no substitute for building a cart system from scratch! (or paying someone to code it for you!)

Bottom line - you get what you pay for. It takes many hundreds of hours to code an ecommerce site from scratch. You can't expect to buy the same results for a few hundred bucks!

I definitely see that I need to have the cart redone. I have no idea how much it will cost or who to do it but it needs to be done. For now I have to work with what I have but that is my goal. I want it redone. Thanks for the input! Nicci

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by ldylion214

I definitely see that I need to have the cart redone. I have no idea how much it will cost or who to do it but it needs to be done. For now I have to work with what I have but that is my goal. I want it redone. Thanks for the input! Nicci

If you need help with that, drop me a PM. But don't forget that I am not cheap, but I am top when it comes to highest quality and future-oriented practices.

I already have an excellent cart development plan. If you would like to view it, just drop me a PM and I will send you the link so you can have a look.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by kula

One more thing!

Yes, Google has said they would begin indexing prameterized URLs. They started saying they would sometime in 2004 if my memory serves. Today they will admit to indexing URLs containing the "?id=" parameter. If your URL contains any ampersands, or the parameters have any name other than "id" you are still out of luck!

Yes, this is true ... there's a video by Matt Cutts on dynamic URLs (in case you want to watch it) and he says that Google can handle and index 2-3 parameters. And I have seen *some* dynamic URLs in G's index that seem to be longer ...

*and* Google is not the only SE, just the one with the largest share of searches, and the other SEs are also somewhat challenged by multiple parameters ...

Nicci, I did think you had figured out a way to shorten them considerably ... did you not?

Cheers, MJ

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

If you need help with that, drop me a PM. But don't forget that I am not cheap, but I am top when it comes to highest quality and future-oriented practices.

I already have an excellent cart development plan. If you would like to view it, just drop me a PM and I will send you the link so you can have a look.

This wouldn't be a self-promotional post, would it?

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Yes, this is true ... there's a video by Matt Cutts on dynamic URLs (in case you want to watch it) and he says that Google can handle and index 2-3 parameters. And I have seen *some* dynamic URLs in G's index that seem to be longer ...

*and* Google is not the only SE, just the one with the largest share of searches, and the other SEs are also somewhat challenged by multiple parameters ...

Nicci, I did think you had figured out a way to shorten them considerably ... did you not?

Cheers, MJ

I did but when you actually went to the product there would be an error on the left navigation that would say "no records found". The only products listed on that side would be the special item jewelry. I thought maybe that was what John saw when he looked at the site. I'm going to make a .txt site map for google. I want to add products with the shorter url but now I'm not sure.
Best, Nicci

[ldylion214]

I have another question. MJ and a few others suggested I link my index page inside my site to Native American Authentic Jewelry by Navajo Silversmith Ron Henry instead of index.asp. I've done that and it makes good sense. My question is should I do that with the other links inside the site such as the music page. Should I link to Ron's music or just music.htm? I'm just using this page as an example. It's not a main topic of the site.
Thanks!

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

If you need help with that, drop me a PM. But don't forget that I am not cheap, but I am top when it comes to highest quality and future-oriented practices.

I already have an excellent cart development plan. If you would like to view it, just drop me a PM and I will send you the link so you can have a look.

Sure will as soon as I get on my budget feet.
Best always, Nicci

[sparky]

first off I like to say I really like the site and also the products.

I just did a site:http://tribeazure.com/ Results 1 - 10 of about 232 from tribeazure.com.
I see you have 232 pages indexed.

I have made you a sitemap.xml file if you would like it I have also ran it though validome just to make sure every thing checked out only thing I need to know is do you want the images included in the site map? if not I have to remove them.

I did get a 404 error when making the map on http://tribeazure.com/tribeazure.com/tribehenri.ico
Also I see most of the pages have the same title Google may see this as spamming

you have good people helping you here I'm just trying to help where I can.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

This wouldn't be a self-promotional post, would it?

If you call that self-promotion when I am claiming that I am not cheap, then my apologies for that and do me a favour and delete that post. It is my first post of this kind out of my 5,354 posts since I am a member here (8th of August 2003).

WOW. After all I am a spammer. Great that you have pointed that out.

Next time I will just send a PM and everything will be fine. I just had to respond to a PM of Nicci, so it would not even have been spamming.

[mjtaylor]

I'm sorry, John ... I should probably have PM'd you about that rather than poking you in the ribs openly.

MJ

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

I'm sorry, John ... I should probably have PM'd you about that rather than poking you in the ribs openly.

MJ

No need for apologies. If someone has to apologize, that is me. And that is what I am doing.

[coolguy27]

Google disabled the supplemental results... but it still exists only internally.. How sad Google disabled it.

Originally Posted by inertia

Does anyone know how to figure out which pages are in supplemental?

If you can figure out which pages are in supplemental more links (internal and external) to these pages would help.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by coolguy27

Google disabled the supplemental results... but it still exists only internally.. How sad Google disabled it.

Google never disabled the supplemental results! They just don't label them anymore. That is a huge difference.-

[ldylion214]

[QUOTE=sparky;345787]first off I like to say I really like the site and also the products.

I just did a site:[SIZE=-1][FONT=Arial][SIZE=2]http://tribeazure.com/ Results 1 - 10 of about 232 from tribeazure.com.
I see you have 232 pages indexed.

I have made you a sitemap.xml file if you would like it I have also ran it though validome just to make sure every thing checked out only thing I need to know is do you want the images included in the site map? if not I have to remove them.

I did get a 404 error when making the map on http://tribeazure.com/tribeazure.com/tribehenri.ico
Also I see most of the pages have the same title Google may see this as spamming

you have good people helping you here I'm just trying to help where I can.

Wow, that was very nice of you. I had just started doing a text sitemap last night. I was thinking that was going to take me forever. Does Google care if the pages indexed have the same name as the sitemap? I thought that was the idea.
My email address is nicci@tribeazure.com. THanks again!
Best, Nicci

[sparky]

I just sent you a .rar file that includes a sitemap.xml , a sitemap.html, and a url.txt
I sent it with the subject "site map" If you can not open a .rar file please let me know and I will send them one at a time.
I hope they help

Sparky

[sparky]

"have the same name as the sitemap"

Not sure if I understand you or not. The names in the site map will match the names of the pages on your site. What I was saying is all the pages on your site have the same title as you will see in the sitemap.html. I'm not in the know as much as I would like to be but I do know that as far as SEO goes a good page title is very important. It is my guess that Google may think that you are trying to spam since all the titles are the same.

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by sparky

"have the same name as the sitemap"

Not sure if I understand you or not. The names in the site map will match the names of the pages on your site. What I was saying is all the pages on your site have the same title as you will see in the sitemap.html. I'm not in the know as much as I would like to be but I do know that as far as SEO goes a good page title is very important. It is my guess that Google may think that you are trying to spam since all the titles are the same.

Hmm..so are you suggesting maybe the title be changed? I'm confused.

[sparky]

Title of your index page
Native American Jewelry - Navajo Jewelry

Title of Solid Silver Bracelet item number 21054

Native American Jewelry by Tribe Azure

Title of Reticulation Variation item number 21053
Native American Jewelry by Tribe Azure

Every page hes the same title. I recommend changing them and adding some keywords.

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by sparky

Title of your index page
Native American Jewelry - Navajo Jewelry

Title of Solid Silver Bracelet item number 21054

Native American Jewelry by Tribe Azure

Title of Reticulation Variation item number 21053
Native American Jewelry by Tribe Azure

Every page hes the same title. I recommend changing them and adding some keywords.

I can't change the names of each product to a separate name because it is part of the database. Is there any reason I cannot add the .txt sitemap only to avoid the spam issue? I can work on the keywords.

[sparky]

I am not asking you to change the name of the product, I was suggesting that you change the titles of the pages and adding keywords in the title. The way I look at webpages is all webpages consist of 3 important parts: page title, meta description and page url. For the most part, when someone does a search on Google, on Google's search result page these are the three parts it displays. Keywording the body text adds weight, legitimacy and relevancy to the keywords in the three main parts. So by not having keywords in the title, I would believe this would put you at a disadvantage towards your competition and less likely to be found on a search. As far as changing the title on the sitemap, I feel this would be good for you to do to make the sitemap useful to visitors, but I do not believe it will help you in your rankings or search results for I personally have never seen a sitemap page pulled due to a search. This is mainly because it does not contain a supporting body text to add weight and it also does not contain a description or proper url with keywords.
Please remember, I am not a SEO expert. I do not work in the SEO field at all. This is just my opinion and my practices. I would deeply appreciate it if other people would give their feedback also to what I just said. I hope this info helps.

[ldylion214]

Originally Posted by sparky

I am not asking you to change the name of the product, I was suggesting that you change the titles of the pages and adding keywords in the title. The way I look at webpages is all webpages consist of 3 important parts: page title, meta description and page url. For the most part, when someone does a search on Google, on Google's search result page these are the three parts it displays. Keywording the body text adds weight, legitimacy and relevancy to the keywords in the three main parts. So by not having keywords in the title, I would believe this would put you at a disadvantage towards your competition and less likely to be found on a search. As far as changing the title on the sitemap, I feel this would be good for you to do to make the sitemap useful to visitors, but I do not believe it will help you in your rankings or search results for I personally have never seen a sitemap page pulled due to a search. This is mainly because it does not contain a supporting body text to add weight and it also does not contain a description or proper url with keywords.
Please remember, I am not a SEO expert. I do not work in the SEO field at all. This is just my opinion and my practices. I would deeply appreciate it if other people would give their feedback also to what I just said. I hope this info helps.

The problem is each product comes on the the showitem.asp page. There isn't a way to change the title of the product page. I think I'll just use the text file for the sitemap because otherwise it will be a spam issue for google. I do have keywords and meta tags on the showitem.asp page

Best and thanks again! Nicci

[Limtexit]

Do link building and make a site map.

[ldylion214]

I have a site map but I'm not sure it's doing much good.