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ITStore247
10-09-2007, 19:45
Hi,

Do I still need to submit applications to be listed with the search engines, or is this already covered by Bluepark SEO optimisations?
Rich
10-09-2007, 21:52
The best way to get your site indexed on any search engine is to get an incoming link from a site which is already indexed. Preferably, a site with good PageRank (download the Google Toolbar to learn more about this) and related to your site's subject matter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

However - don't despair. You can still get your site listed by submitting your sitemap to one or more search engines.

Every Bluepark site has two sitemaps, an HTML version (human readable) and an XML version. Let's use Bluepark.co.uk as an example:


HTML: http://www.bluepark.co.uk/sitemap.html
XML: http://www.bluepark.co.uk/sitemap.xml
The second version, the XML version, is ideal for search engines. Google encourages users to submit their sitemaps by signing up here:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/

Submitting your sitemap will enable Google to better understand the structure of your site, and is likely to increase the number of pages indexed. Google will ask that you verify your site by placing a small HTML file in your root directory. To do this, go to Site -> Configuration: Site and enter the given filename into the Google Sitemaps verification file field.

You can also do the same with Yahoo! here:

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

Learn more about sitemaps here:

http://www.sitemaps.org
rob d
25-10-2007, 12:43
to add to yahoo as well as google, do i delete the google verification code? will this then stop google from polling my site or is verified once enough?
Rich
26-10-2007, 10:28
Yahoo gives you the option of putting some code in the <HEAD></HEAD> section of your site. You can put this in your template to make it easy. We've done that on Bluepark.co.uk.
rob d
26-10-2007, 21:07
a google search shows my site as :
TopTee.co.uk TopTee.co.uk (http://www.toptee.co.uk/)

in the listing then a string of words then the url underneath.

Is this ok?? it doesnt look that way for other people.
How could/should I change this to make it better for me?
Rich
27-10-2007, 11:54
What you're looking at there is the site title and the title suffix - one after the other.

Go to Site -> Configuration: Site and change the Default Title to something more descriptive, i.e.:

Fun Themed Custom T-Shirts

Then change the Title Suffix to:

- TopTee.co.uk

(Yes, include the dash as a separator, I think it looks better. Or you can use :: or | or similar.)

Then you should have, in your browser's title bar (and in the Google listings, when they update you):

Fun Themed Custom T-Shirts - TopTee.co.uk
Sumit
12-10-2010, 23:53
Submitting your sitemap will enable Google to better understand the structure of your site, and is likely to increase the number of pages indexed. Google will ask that you verify your site by placing a small HTML file in your root directory. To do this, go to Site -> Configuration: Site and enter the given filename into the Google Sitemaps verification file field.



Hi

I've just set my site to go live, and am trying to verify my site on Google, doing as Rich's instructions above. Unfortunately, I keep getting the error message that the file is not being found even though the html file downloaded has been placed in the root directory and in the Google Sitemaps Verification file field..

I'm at a complete loss as to what to do, as I can't see where I'm going wrong. Any advice would be most welcome!!

Thanks
Sumit
Dave
13-10-2010, 08:49
There is a number of different methods of verifying your site such as an html file, meta name, dns records etc.

If you selected verification by file are you sure you put the full verification filename ie googlexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.html into the Google Sitemaps Verification File field in Site->Configuration->Site? This is the only method of getting the file into the root directory as you do not have access to root. You can verify if the file is there by typing into the broswer
www.yourdomain.co.uk/googlexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.html (http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/googlexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.html)

If it displays a blank page all is fine otherwise if it displays an error then something has gone wrong!

If you selected verification by meta tag/name google will have given you some code and this code needs to be placed in your Head Section (developers) box which is in the optional code tab of your home page in content->page manager

The verification code will be in the format of

<meta name="google-site-verification" content="lots of characters and numbers" />

So just check your verification in google and make sure you are not doing one method in google and the another on your website.
Sumit
13-10-2010, 08:55
hi

Please ignore the last post - I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, but the sitemap is now submitted to google!

Thanks
Sumit
Red Devil
13-10-2010, 17:30
If you have a Google account (Webmaster Tools), the sitemap can be submitted to Google that way and is "self refreshing/updating" as the link remains in your Google account pointing to the sitemap.xml page.
Sumit
13-10-2010, 17:52
Hi guys

Thanks for your replies. I've verified using the html file method. But when I was looking around on the Webmaster Tools pages, I read that Google sees example.co.uk and www.example.co.uk as two different URLs. I successfully added jeancity.co.uk, but it will not allow me to verify www.jeancity.co.uk - I keep getting the error "Verification failed. Your verification file was not found" even though clicking on the www.jeancity.co.uk/googlexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.html link gives back the correct page.

Do I need to worry about verifying the www.jeancity.co.uk URL if jeancity.co.uk is already verified?

Thanks
Sumit
Red Devil
13-10-2010, 18:08
Typing in the non-www version resolves itself to the www version, so this must be being done by the htaccess file in Bluepark automatically.

You can't have 2 verification codes for the same site, so if the non-www is verified I would leave it at that unless you encounter a problem with Googlebase later on. In which case, remove the non-www from your Webmaster Tools and replace it with the www version and reverifiy (with a new code).

At the moment, I would just leave it as is.

Nice website by the way.
Sumit
13-10-2010, 18:39
Cheers for that, much appreciated...

as for googlebase... well I've been going through all the threads as I've been having some issues submitting .txt files!!

Still a few products to update, and a few more banners/text to add, but I'm loving the new design.. Giles did a brilliant job :):)!!!!
carl
08-06-2011, 10:36
I followed Rich's instructions and it worked perfectly. Thanks ::D
louisharrison
10-05-2012, 23:40
Hi

I have put the verification file googlexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.html into the google sitemaps verification file field in Site>Configuration>Site and I can verify that the file is in the root directory through www.mydomain.co.uk/googlexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.html

The next step to actually verify the website fails. It keeps saying that the connection to the server timed out. I tried to verify many times but getting the same result.

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance
Andrew
11-05-2012, 09:29
You do not have access to the "root" directory, you should use the alternative method of using Meta code and placing it in Site > Templates > Your Live Template > Site > Head Section (Developers).