Preserved Topic: search engine zaniness (Page 1 of 1)

With one post under my belt, I'm throwing myself on your collective mercy. Here are two sites:

Site A: www.vernalmgmt.com

Site B: www.milwaukeeplating.com

And here's the source code for each site, with JavaScript redirection commented out so you can view the page source:

Site A
Site B

The index page of each site exists solely as a home for <meta> content and keyword tags, and to launch a Flash intro or redirect non-Flash users. As you'll see if you view my archived source, the code is virtually identical on each one, barring a webcounter on Site B.

My problem is that Site A is not appearing on search engines, even though I submitted it to google, altavista, lycos, dmoz, alltheweb, and others -- Site B does appear on engines. I'm talking about direct searches, using the company's full name as the search term. It's been several months since each site was submitted, so there's been plenty of time for the engines to make their decisions.

Can any of you find a reason why Site A was completely ignored? My reputation isn't on the line here, since I warned them ahead of time that search engines were a crapshoot, but Company A's web strategy is.

No sig yet -- gimme some time.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 10-18-2001).]

I am at work so I didnt have a chance to look through each of your specific sites but some engines ignore sites with javascript re-directs, they simply wont add them to the index or they will be indexed very poorly. This usually happens with sites that are spidered and not indexes that are manually added by reviewers like dmoz. Altavista will even consider the names of your images in its indexing logorithm. I would personally add some 1x1px transparent gif's that link to pages with pertinant info about each client that is rich with keywords that your clients want to come up under. You may want to also search the forum for other times this has been discussed, there are some great links to sites that ONLY deal with search engine ranking.

http://www.OzoneAsylum.com/Forum1/HTML/002794.html

Visit that thread, it is a recent discussion we had here about search engines. There's some links and stuff there that might help you some.

Welcome to the Asylum and enjoy your stay. The nurse will be along with your medication soon ..

quote:

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My reputation isn't on the line here, since I warned them ahead of time that search engines were a crapshoot, but Company A's web strategy is.

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I think, if I read that correctly, their web strategy depends on search engine ranking? If this is the case you'd do well to drop the flash intro and redirects entirely and come up with a very content-rich, keyword-riddled homepage. See the thread BeeKay mentions there, or just check the site referenced: www.bruceclay.com. Good advice there. Your homepage is just meta keywords, they are almost nothing to placement anymore, and if a good lot of the words in the meta keywords tag are not in the body of your page, you may even be dismissed altogether. I got a number 1 ranking for a target key phrase recently in Google/Yahoo and I've yet to go through and do all my meta tags yet, *nothing* there at all.

No matter how attached you/they are to that little Flash intro, if the strategy is for placement, you must drop it.


Jason

Hee hee... thank you very much for the suggestion, Mabry. I'm not a giant fan of Flash intros, and even if you are, I'm sure we can all agree that the intro in question is missing a certain je ne sais quois. Unfortunately, the client paid my employer upwards of a few thousand for it -- at least, I assume it was some extravagant sum. In some circles, you just mention the word "Flash" and money sprays out of people's wallets like coolant under pressure. At any rate, I already mentioned removing the Flash entirely, and she was, shall we say, "resistant." And rightly so -- do you want someone to sell you shoes, only to warn you going out the door that they're radioactive, and you've got to pay him for disposal?

No, it seems I'll have to muscle through this some other way. I'll check the thread and link you suggested, and I'll search the rest of the archives while I'm at it.

No sig yet -- gimme some time.

Heh, Welcme to the Asylum, PT!

quote:

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In some circles, you just mention the word "Flash" and money sprays out of people's wallets like coolant under pressure.

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Can you send some clients like that my way?

Gonna go look at yer site now...

Other than the intro, which I agree should be dropped because it is jerky and annoying, the feel of follow on pages is really ok. One problem I see is that the ani-gif used on the main page is really not sequenced very well. Can really see individual frames. It needs to be redone.

The site has a fairly nice layout (site A cause I got a 404 trying to view site B) but lacks anything really distinguishable from other sites. Maybe some contrasty colors to the wine BR color would help. No zip. Looks like they put all their money into a faulty flash intro...

Anyway just realized I'm reviewing and that's not what you asked for. Since I can't address the topic, I'll shut up now

***slaps himself, before Wackos does***

Never can say my name right?
***Slaps Allewyn***