Very Confused - Need help and advice

[PowerPointSermons]

Hi,
Our site is Pastor PowerPoints offers Christian PowerPoint Sermons & Motion Video Backgrounds for Church Presentations and Sermon Manuscripts (http://www.pastorpowerpoints.com) and we are confused about why google is crawling our entire site but not indexing anything.

5 days ago we submitted our URL to google along with a sitemap.

Yesterday at 2am, Google listed one page in their index from our site and it showed it was cached last night as well...

We have a wordpress blog that links to us
PastorPowerPoints's Blog (http://pastorpowerpoints.wordpress.com), we have a squidoo lens that links back to us, a mylocalservices listing (http://www.mylocalservices.us/details.php?bus=19717467), and a few other directories that link back. They were just created the other day...

I'm very confused as to why google picked one page and not the rest?

Any suggestions on how we can encourage google to index the remaining of the site?

[PowerPointSermons]

The forum keeps rewriting my link to that long thing above? any ideas why

the domain is www DOT pastorpowerpoints DOT com

[rah]

Our forum checks links and displays the title tag of the page from the link.

[webmerlin]

Google has its own way and will not be hurried. I have a site with over 500 pages and submitted a sitemap on Google-webmaster. A couple of pages were indexed within 3 to 4 days. Slowly over a period of about 2 months the number of indexed pages grew so that now 200 pages are indexed.

You have to be patient and since it has indexed your site it will come back and crawl the site. Just keep on improving the site and increasing the backlinks.

On backlinks I have noticed that it can take 1 to 2 weeks before these show up in google-webmaster.

[prakask]

the site is listed, try to update it regularly and increase the backlinks. DO remember the result of patience is good.

[ArthurNYC]

I have over 3,000 pages of content and we post a new article every 90 minutes or so 24/7/365. Google goes through phases where within an hour the article has been indexed and that goes on for days and then there are times we can go 7-10 days with nothing getting added to the index.

Just go about your business developing content for your readers ... Google will find it eventually.

Arthur

[notsoold]

Google will follow your internal links to index your site. So make sure all webpages are linked properly and they will all be indexed.

[Dubbya]

Here's what happens when you submit a new sitemap with a site redesign.

Google stops by, spiders a few pages and you see fantastic results in the SERPs for a few days, up to a few weeks.

Soon after, Google starts spidering more of your site, performs and actual evaluation where it weighs your site against others in your niche, this is often referred to the Google sandbox. There are varying opinions as to whether or not the sandbox exists, but this has been my experience on several sites.

This is where your site becomes invisible in the SERPs and this can last anywhere from a few days to over a month. Google can't be hurried. During this time, it's best to keep building IBL's, adding content, basically just to keep on keeping on until things sort themselves out and you find out where you sit in the SERPs.

Use this time to market the site and to fix any problems you see, things like ridiculously long page titles for example. Make your changes, resubmit updated sitemaps and check your IBLs.

Wait it out as patiently as you can. Things will turn around.

[Janna122003]

Any suggestions on how we can encourage google to index the remaining of the site?

You should submit xml sitemap on your google webmaster tool.

[PowerPointSermons]

You should submit xml sitemap on your google webmaster tool.

We have, google has an updated site map we submit weekly.

Anyone have suggestions on modifying the content to male google more hungry?

[Dubbya]

I think you're on the right track. Continue to acquire links from reputable directories and links pages specifically catering to your niche. Deep linking is always a great strategy as well. Where possible, always link to content inside the site and not just your home page.

I do see an issue with your cart and site structure. For example:

http://www.pastorpowerpoints.com/powerpoint_sermons/Leviticus%20Series/c_288/12/n/bible_na/chapter_na/verse_na/all_ppt_motion/1/index.html

Using the "/" as a delimiter, it would appear to Google that your content is 10 levels deep. Matt Cutts recommends that site navigation be limited to a meximum of three to four levels deep maximum. That's where Google stops indexing and why when used properly, querystrings can be such a powerful tool.

I know it's not easy but I've found that tweaking cart code to place product information and details into the querystring to be extremely helpful. Things like item names, common part numbers, colors, sizes can work to your advantage and help your cart (website) get indexed as they boost your page relevancy.

Another Problem Area?


<title>
PowerPoint Sermons and Motion Video Backgrounds created for Christian
Pastors and Churches needing professionally designed, captivating,
high-quality PowerPoint Templates making it easier for to spread a
message of faith - PastorPowerPoints.com</title>
<meta name="Description" content=" Offering thousands of professionally designed, captivating, high-quality Christian PowerPoint Templates and Motion Video Backgrounds that captures your audiences imiginations while making it easier for to spread a message of faith within your church.">


<meta name="Keywords" content="powerpoint sermons, christian powerpoints, motion video backgrounds, pastor powerpoints, church powerpoints, sermon, sermons, powerpoint, powerpoints, motion, motions, background, backgrounds, pastorpowerpoints.com, christian, template, templates, slides, stills, bible, lectionary, revised common lectionary, seasonal, youth sermons, seasonal sermons, youth, welcome, announcement, events" />

Page Titles: should be limited to between 60 and 66 characters including spaces. They're too long, therefore too broad and not focused enough.

Descriptions: While certainly not as valuable as they once were, they should be limited to 166 characters max. Again, too long and broad. Not focused enough.

Keywords: Use four or five most competitive keywords or short keyphrases, those most indicative of the actual page content and site theme, those most likely to be searched with and those you're most actively targeting placed in order of importance.

Simply repeating the same page titles, keywords and phrases across the site are of no benefit and in many instances, can actually work against you as they're not relevant to the specific content of the page.

I've found that becoming a resource with help pages is extremely beneficial both in terms of increased traffic and SE rankings, so that's another area to work on.

If you can, provide detailed "how to" guides and examples with links to additional resources.

Google is a sucker for new and current content. Where possible, continue to make small changes to site content and design on a daily basis. Just keep tweaking and resubmitting your sitemaps. You'll get there.

.02