Hello,
I am going to sound really really stupid here. I am a really
uneducated webmaster you see...I use Microsoft Publisher to create my
sites...and do not know a whole lot about HTML or all the other codes
or languages used to create sites. Oh boy this is starting off
bad...so I am just going to fire away my questions.
In October sometime, I changed our site from being "built" using my
service providers tool (network Solutions) to using MS Publisher. I
have made numerous other sites with Publisher (since it is so easy)
without any issues. The site I am referring to is http://www.harleyhaul.com
My problem is this...I use to be able to be searched on google using
any and or all of my keywords. Now since I changed the site I am
"lost" somewhere on the internet. I used google's webmaster tools to
be sure they can still find my site which it said it can (with no
errors)...but when I search google, I am no longer found. I do not
know what is wrong...
Can any of you help me figure out what the issues are? Another site I
did in Publisher is http://www.kristystinyaviary.com and I did not
have any sort of issues :-( If you want to compare or if that would
help get to the bottom of this.
In that case, the best idea would have been to put in place 301
redirects from the old one's to the new but a little doubtful you can
do that with the Microsoft set up.That is certainly different, the
source code must be close to a record for verbose and the code
structure does seem to be causing another problem. Take a look at the
cached text for a couple of pages:
The most noticeable thing by absence is internal linking, there are a
good few pages indexed, so Google might be able to follow a few links
here and there but as you see from the cache, they are not truly
recognised.
Internal links are important to indexing and you need to investigate
how this can be improved. I did see a couple of external links
recorded, so this appears possible, you need to try and get the
internal ones into a similar format. Add to this the likelihood that
URLs have changed, with no redirects in place. This will stop Google
carrying forward any value from the old URLs, not least the value of
links that may have pointed to them. You might try and contact any
other sites with the wrong links to put that right.
> Hello,
> I am going to sound really really stupid here. I am a really
> uneducated webmaster you see...I use Microsoft Publisher to create my
> sites...and do not know a whole lot about HTML or all the other codes
> or languages used to create sites. Oh boy this is starting off
> bad...so I am just going to fire away my questions.
> In October sometime, I changed our site from being "built" using my
> service providers tool (network Solutions) to using MS Publisher. I
> have made numerous other sites with Publisher (since it is so easy)
> without any issues. The site I am referring to ishttp://www.harleyhaul.com
> My problem is this...I use to be able to be searched on google using
> any and or all of my keywords. Now since I changed the site I am
> "lost" somewhere on the internet. I used google's webmaster tools to
> be sure they can still find my site which it said it can (with no
> errors)...but when I search google, I am no longer found. I do not
> know what is wrong...
> Can any of you help me figure out what the issues are? Another site I
> did in Publisher ishttp://www.kristystinyaviary.comand I did not
> have any sort of issues :-( If you want to compare or if that would
> help get to the bottom of this.
Thank you so much for responding ...OK - when I visit the cache pages
you listed, I can see all the links on the Nav bar are not
functioning...but on the site they do. I am not sure what this means
or how to fix it. Can I still do the 301 redirects you talk about or
is it too late? I am still listed correctly on other sites i.e.
daytonachamberofcommerce.com etc...Another dumb question for
you...internal links are what is on my nav bar on my site...is that
correct?
> In that case, the best idea would have been to put in place 301
> redirects from the old one's to the new but a little doubtful you can
> do that with the Microsoft set up.That is certainly different, the
> source code must be close to a record for verbose and the code
> structure does seem to be causing another problem. Take a look at the
> cached text for a couple of pages:
> The most noticeable thing by absence is internal linking, there are a
> good few pages indexed, so Google might be able to follow a few links
> here and there but as you see from the cache, they are not truly
> recognised.
> Internal links are important to indexing and you need to investigate
> how this can be improved. I did see a couple of external links
> recorded, so this appears possible, you need to try and get the
> internal ones into a similar format. Add to this the likelihood that
> URLs have changed, with no redirects in place. This will stop Google
> carrying forward any value from the old URLs, not least the value of
> links that may have pointed to them. You might try and contact any
> other sites with the wrong links to put that right.
> On Dec 2, 1:03 am, HarleyHaul wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I am going to sound really really stupid here. I am a really
> > uneducated webmaster you see...I use Microsoft Publisher to create my
> > sites...and do not know a whole lot about HTML or all the other codes
> > or languages used to create sites. Oh boy this is starting off
> > bad...so I am just going to fire away my questions.
> > In October sometime, I changed our site from being "built" using my
> > service providers tool (network Solutions) to using MS Publisher. I
> > have made numerous other sites with Publisher (since it is so easy)
> > without any issues. The site I am referring to ishttp://www.harleyhaul.com
> > My problem is this...I use to be able to be searched on google using
> > any and or all of my keywords. Now since I changed the site I am
> > "lost" somewhere on the internet. I used google's webmaster tools to
> > be sure they can still find my site which it said it can (with no
> > errors)...but when I search google, I am no longer found. I do not
> > know what is wrong...
> > Can any of you help me figure out what the issues are? Another site I
> > did in Publisher ishttp://www.kristystinyaviary.comandI did not
> > have any sort of issues :-( If you want to compare or if that would
> > help get to the bottom of this.- Hide quoted text -
Looks like you are not actually hosting on the Microsoft service but
still with Network Solutions, which is good news. Your site is on a
server with apache software and you can use a .htaccess file to put
the redirects in place, from old URLs to new ones. You can also
consolidate your site by redirecting from http:// to http://www as
your site is available for both. Also useful to 301 redirect index.htm
to the root /
I know this will appear complicated but really isn't that bad. Add the
code Webado suggests for redirecting non www to www and index.htm to
the root, remembering that yours is .htm not .html. Leave a line break
in the .htaccess file and then list the old to new redirects:
You can see this better on the .htaccess site listed above, as you
need to make sure spaces are in the right place. All the redirects can
be tested using a tool like http://www.asymptoticdesign.com/aux/header-viewer.cgi This is all worth the trouble and coupled with sorting out the
internal linking, will help a fair bit.
> In that case, the best idea would have been to put in place 301
> redirects from the old one's to the new but a little doubtful you can
> do that with the Microsoft set up.That is certainly different, the
> source code must be close to a record for verbose and the code
> structure does seem to be causing another problem. Take a look at the
> cached text for a couple of pages:
> The most noticeable thing by absence is internal linking, there are a
> good few pages indexed, so Google might be able to follow a few links
> here and there but as you see from the cache, they are not truly
> recognised.
> Internal links are important to indexing and you need to investigate
> how this can be improved. I did see a couple of external links
> recorded, so this appears possible, you need to try and get the
> internal ones into a similar format. Add to this the likelihood that
> URLs have changed, with no redirects in place. This will stop Google
> carrying forward any value from the old URLs, not least the value of
> links that may have pointed to them. You might try and contact any
> other sites with the wrong links to put that right.
> On Dec 2, 1:03 am, HarleyHaul wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I am going to sound really really stupid here. I am a really
> > uneducated webmaster you see...I use Microsoft Publisher to create my
> > sites...and do not know a whole lot about HTML or all the other codes
> > or languages used to create sites. Oh boy this is starting off
> > bad...so I am just going to fire away my questions.
> > In October sometime, I changed our site from being "built" using my
> > service providers tool (network Solutions) to using MS Publisher. I
> > have made numerous other sites with Publisher (since it is so easy)
> > without any issues. The site I am referring to ishttp://www.harleyhaul.com
> > My problem is this...I use to be able to be searched on google using
> > any and or all of my keywords. Now since I changed the site I am
> > "lost" somewhere on the internet. I used google's webmaster tools to
> > be sure they can still find my site which it said it can (with no
> > errors)...but when I search google, I am no longer found. I do not
> > know what is wrong...
> > Can any of you help me figure out what the issues are? Another site I
> > did in Publisher ishttp://www.kristystinyaviary.comandI did not
> > have any sort of issues :-( If you want to compare or if that would
> > help get to the bottom of this.
Just caught your recent post, bit of a lag on here at the moment. The
internal links are the ones from your nav bar, which are not being
cached but the external ones are. I honestly know nothing about
Microsoft Publisher but you need to find a way to use a simpler/
plainer format for your navigation. The current set up may be able to
be tweaked by editing the HTML. An alternative would be to use
whatever part of the tool you used to create the external links e.g.
MusiciansFriend on the home page and make a plain text footer menu
containing the same options as the main menu, then add this to each
page.
This is common on websites, so won't look out of place and will make
life easier for a robot. At the moment, if you open your home page in
IE and hover the cursor over the MusiciansFriend link, you can see the
link come up bottom left, try the same for the navigation links and
you see nothing. This is not a guarantee but will at least give you a
visual idea, build a footer menu where the links appear normal and
that gives you a good chance of being okay.
The 301s are a little more complicated but I'm sure you will sort
those out, if you can put a Harley together, what problem can one file
be.
> Looks like you are not actually hosting on the Microsoft service but
> still with Network Solutions, which is good news. Your site is on a
> server with apache software and you can use a .htaccess file to put
> the redirects in place, from old URLs to new ones. You can also
> consolidate your site by redirecting from http:// tohttp://wwwas > your site is available for both. Also useful to 301 redirect index.htm
> to the root /
> I know this will appear complicated but really isn't that bad. Add the
> code Webado suggests for redirecting non www to www and index.htm to
> the root, remembering that yours is .htm not .html. Leave a line break
> in the .htaccess file and then list the old to new redirects:
> You can see this better on the .htaccess site listed above, as you
> need to make sure spaces are in the right place. All the redirects can
> be tested using a tool likehttp://www.asymptoticdesign.com/aux/header-viewer.cgi > This is all worth the trouble and coupled with sorting out the
> internal linking, will help a fair bit.
> Good luck with the site.
> On Dec 2, 2:10 am, Chibcha wrote:
> > Hi Harley
> > Looks like the domain name didn't change but the individual URLs did
> > e.g.
> > In that case, the best idea would have been to put in place 301
> > redirects from the old one's to the new but a little doubtful you can
> > do that with the Microsoft set up.That is certainly different, the
> > source code must be close to a record for verbose and the code
> > structure does seem to be causing another problem. Take a look at the
> > cached text for a couple of pages:
> > The most noticeable thing by absence is internal linking, there are a
> > good few pages indexed, so Google might be able to follow a few links
> > here and there but as you see from the cache, they are not truly
> > recognised.
> > Internal links are important to indexing and you need to investigate
> > how this can be improved. I did see a couple of external links
> > recorded, so this appears possible, you need to try and get the
> > internal ones into a similar format. Add to this the likelihood that
> > URLs have changed, with no redirects in place. This will stop Google
> > carrying forward any value from the old URLs, not least the value of
> > links that may have pointed to them. You might try and contact any
> > other sites with the wrong links to put that right.
> > On Dec 2, 1:03 am, HarleyHaul wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > I am going to sound really really stupid here. I am a really
> > > uneducated webmaster you see...I use Microsoft Publisher to create my
> > > sites...and do not know a whole lot about HTML or all the other codes
> > > or languages used to create sites. Oh boy this is starting off
> > > bad...so I am just going to fire away my questions.
> > > In October sometime, I changed our site from being "built" using my
> > > service providers tool (network Solutions) to using MS Publisher. I
> > > have made numerous other sites with Publisher (since it is so easy)
> > > without any issues. The site I am referring to ishttp://www.harleyhaul.com
> > > My problem is this...I use to be able to be searched on google using
> > > any and or all of my keywords. Now since I changed the site I am
> > > "lost" somewhere on the internet. I used google's webmaster tools to
> > > be sure they can still find my site which it said it can (with no
> > > errors)...but when I search google, I am no longer found. I do not
> > > know what is wrong...
> > > Can any of you help me figure out what the issues are? Another site I
> > > did in Publisher ishttp://www.kristystinyaviary.comandIdid not
> > > have any sort of issues :-( If you want to compare or if that would
> > > help get to the bottom of this.
> Just caught your recent post, bit of a lag on here at the moment. The
> internal links are the ones from your nav bar, which are not being
> cached but the external ones are. I honestly know nothing about
> Microsoft Publisher but you need to find a way to use a simpler/
> plainer format for your navigation. The current set up may be able to
> be tweaked by editing the HTML. An alternative would be to use
> whatever part of the tool you used to create the external links e.g.
> MusiciansFriend on the home page and make a plain text footer menu
> containing the same options as the main menu, then add this to each
> page.
> This is common on websites, so won't look out of place and will make
> life easier for a robot. At the moment, if you open your home page in
> IE and hover the cursor over the MusiciansFriend link, you can see the
> link come up bottom left, try the same for the navigation links and
> you see nothing. This is not a guarantee but will at least give you a
> visual idea, build a footer menu where the links appear normal and
> that gives you a good chance of being okay.
> The 301s are a little more complicated but I'm sure you will sort
> those out, if you can put a Harley together, what problem can one file
> be.
> On Dec 2, 2:44 am, Chibcha wrote:
> > Hi Harley
> > Looks like you are not actually hosting on the Microsoft service but
> > still with Network Solutions, which is good news. Your site is on a
> > server with apache software and you can use a .htaccess file to put
> > the redirects in place, from old URLs to new ones. You can also
> > consolidate your site by redirecting from http:// tohttp://wwwas > > your site is available for both. Also useful to 301 redirect index.htm
> > to the root /
> > I know this will appear complicated but really isn't that bad. Add the
> > code Webado suggests for redirecting non www to www and index.htm to
> > the root, remembering that yours is .htm not .html. Leave a line break
> > in the .htaccess file and then list the old to new redirects:
> > You can see this better on the .htaccess site listed above, as you
> > need to make sure spaces are in the right place. All the redirects can
> > be tested using a tool likehttp://www.asymptoticdesign.com/aux/header-viewer.cgi > > This is all worth the trouble and coupled with sorting out the
> > internal linking, will help a fair bit.
> > Good luck with the site.
> > On Dec 2, 2:10 am, Chibcha wrote:
> > > Hi Harley
> > > Looks like the domain name didn't change but the individual URLs did
> > > e.g.
> > > In that case, the best idea would have been to put in place 301
> > > redirects from the old one's to the new but a little doubtful you can
> > > do that with the Microsoft set up.That is certainly different, the
> > > source code must be close to a record for verbose and the code
> > > structure does seem to be causing another problem. Take a look at the
> > > cached text for a couple of pages:
> > > The most noticeable thing by absence is internal linking, there are a
> > > good few pages indexed, so Google might be able to follow a few links
> > > here and there but as you see from the cache, they are not truly
> > > recognised.
> > > Internal links are important to indexing and you need to investigate
> > > how this can be improved. I did see a couple of external links
> > > recorded, so this appears possible, you need to try and get the
> > > internal ones into a similar format. Add to this the likelihood that
> > > URLs have changed, with no redirects in place. This will stop Google
> > > carrying forward any value from the old URLs, not least the value of
> > > links that may have pointed to them. You might try and contact any
> > > other sites with the wrong links to put that right.
> > > On Dec 2, 1:03 am, HarleyHaul wrote:
> > > > Hello,
> > > > I am going to sound really really stupid here. I am a really
> > > > uneducated webmaster you see...I use Microsoft Publisher to create my
> > > > sites...and do not know a whole lot about HTML or all the other codes
> > > > or languages used to create sites. Oh boy this is starting off
> > > > bad...so I am just going to fire away my questions.
> > > > In October sometime, I changed our site from being "built" using my
> > > > service providers tool (network Solutions) to using MS Publisher. I
> > > > have made numerous other sites with Publisher (since it is so easy)
> > > > without any issues. The site I am referring to ishttp://www.harleyhaul.com
> > > > My problem is this...I use to be able to be searched on google using
> > > > any and or all of my keywords. Now since I changed the site I am
> > > > "lost" somewhere on the internet. I used google's webmaster tools to
> > > > be sure they can still find my site which it said it can (with no
> > > > errors)...but when I search google, I am no longer found. I do not
> > > > know what is wrong...
> > > > Can any of you help me figure out what the issues are? Another site I
> > > > did in Publisher ishttp://www.kristystinyaviary.comandIdidnot > > > > have any sort of issues :-( If you want to compare or if that would
> > > > help get to the bottom of this.- Hide quoted text -
I think I just made a site map correctly. Does it look OK? I used a
tool on the web since I am a real idiot without some users friendly
GUI to help. I do not write any type of code! LOL
> Looks like you are not actually hosting on the Microsoft service but
> still with Network Solutions, which is good news. Your site is on a
> server with apache software and you can use a .htaccess file to put
> the redirects in place, from old URLs to new ones. You can also
> consolidate your site by redirecting from http:// tohttp://wwwas > your site is available for both. Also useful to 301 redirect index.htm
> to the root /
> I know this will appear complicated but really isn't that bad. Add the
> code Webado suggests for redirecting non www to www and index.htm to
> the root, remembering that yours is .htm not .html. Leave a line break
> in the .htaccess file and then list the old to new redirects:
> You can see this better on the .htaccess site listed above, as you
> need to make sure spaces are in the right place. All the redirects can
> be tested using a tool likehttp://www.asymptoticdesign.com/aux/header-viewer.cgi > This is all worth the trouble and coupled with sorting out the
> internal linking, will help a fair bit.
> Good luck with the site.
> On Dec 2, 2:10 am, Chibcha wrote:
> > Hi Harley
> > Looks like the domain name didn't change but the individual URLs did
> > e.g.
> > In that case, the best idea would have been to put in place 301
> > redirects from the old one's to the new but a little doubtful you can
> > do that with the Microsoft set up.That is certainly different, the
> > source code must be close to a record for verbose and the code
> > structure does seem to be causing another problem. Take a look at the
> > cached text for a couple of pages:
> > The most noticeable thing by absence is internal linking, there are a
> > good few pages indexed, so Google might be able to follow a few links
> > here and there but as you see from the cache, they are not truly
> > recognised.
> > Internal links are important to indexing and you need to investigate
> > how this can be improved. I did see a couple of external links
> > recorded, so this appears possible, you need to try and get the
> > internal ones into a similar format. Add to this the likelihood that
> > URLs have changed, with no redirects in place. This will stop Google
> > carrying forward any value from the old URLs, not least the value of
> > links that may have pointed to them. You might try and contact any
> > other sites with the wrong links to put that right.
> > On Dec 2, 1:03 am, HarleyHaul wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > I am going to sound really really stupid here. I am a really
> > > uneducated webmaster you see...I use Microsoft Publisher to create my
> > > sites...and do not know a whole lot about HTML or all the other codes
> > > or languages used to create sites. Oh boy this is starting off
> > > bad...so I am just going to fire away my questions.
> > > In October sometime, I changed our site from being "built" using my
> > > service providers tool (network Solutions) to using MS Publisher. I
> > > have made numerous other sites with Publisher (since it is so easy)
> > > without any issues. The site I am referring to ishttp://www.harleyhaul.com
> > > My problem is this...I use to be able to be searched on google using
> > > any and or all of my keywords. Now since I changed the site I am
> > > "lost" somewhere on the internet. I used google's webmaster tools to
> > > be sure they can still find my site which it said it can (with no
> > > errors)...but when I search google, I am no longer found. I do not
> > > know what is wrong...
> > > Can any of you help me figure out what the issues are? Another site I
> > > did in Publisher ishttp://www.kristystinyaviary.comandIdid not
> > > have any sort of issues :-( If you want to compare or if that would
> > > help get to the bottom of this.- Hide quoted text -
Your sitemap comes up okay at the URL . Small point, every page is set
to monthly, which suggests you are going to update them all monthly,
when some may be more often, others not at all. more importantly, the
root http://www.harleyhaul.com/ is in there but so is:
These are in reality the same and you would be better to remove the
line above. There is another site where you can make a sitemap that is
a little easier to follow:
The layout makes life simpler when altering any of the information and
to see you have the right URLs. Also, on that site they happen to have
a plain text footer menu for the main links. A sitemap will help but
trying to put something similar to their footer menu on your site
would do a lot of good. However you made the short line " Musician
Friend Coupons " for the two at the bottom of the home page, just
leave a blank line or two and go across the page with a string of
seven links that match your main menu, then repeat this on each page.
No need for any code that way and robots should follow them okay.
> I think I just made a site map correctly. Does it look OK? I used a
> tool on the web since I am a real idiot without some users friendly
> GUI to help. I do not write any type of code! LOL
> On Dec 1, 9:44 pm, Chibcha wrote:
> > Hi Harley
> > Looks like you are not actually hosting on the Microsoft service but
> > still with Network Solutions, which is good news. Your site is on a
> > server with apache software and you can use a .htaccess file to put
> > the redirects in place, from old URLs to new ones. You can also
> > consolidate your site by redirecting from http:// tohttp://wwwas > > your site is available for both. Also useful to 301 redirect index.htm
> > to the root /
> > I know this will appear complicated but really isn't that bad. Add the
> > code Webado suggests for redirecting non www to www and index.htm to
> > the root, remembering that yours is .htm not .html. Leave a line break
> > in the .htaccess file and then list the old to new redirects:
> > You can see this better on the .htaccess site listed above, as you
> > need to make sure spaces are in the right place. All the redirects can
> > be tested using a tool likehttp://www.asymptoticdesign.com/aux/header-viewer.cgi > > This is all worth the trouble and coupled with sorting out the
> > internal linking, will help a fair bit.
> > Good luck with the site.
> > On Dec 2, 2:10 am, Chibcha wrote:
> > > Hi Harley
> > > Looks like the domain name didn't change but the individual URLs did
> > > e.g.
> > > In that case, the best idea would have been to put in place 301
> > > redirects from the old one's to the new but a little doubtful you can
> > > do that with the Microsoft set up.That is certainly different, the
> > > source code must be close to a record for verbose and the code
> > > structure does seem to be causing another problem. Take a look at the
> > > cached text for a couple of pages:
> > > The most noticeable thing by absence is internal linking, there are a
> > > good few pages indexed, so Google might be able to follow a few links
> > > here and there but as you see from the cache, they are not truly
> > > recognised.
> > > Internal links are important to indexing and you need to investigate
> > > how this can be improved. I did see a couple of external links
> > > recorded, so this appears possible, you need to try and get the
> > > internal ones into a similar format. Add to this the likelihood that
> > > URLs have changed, with no redirects in place. This will stop Google
> > > carrying forward any value from the old URLs, not least the value of
> > > links that may have pointed to them. You might try and contact any
> > > other sites with the wrong links to put that right.
> > > On Dec 2, 1:03 am, HarleyHaul wrote:
> > > > Hello,
> > > > I am going to sound really really stupid here. I am a really
> > > > uneducated webmaster you see...I use Microsoft Publisher to create my
> > > > sites...and do not know a whole lot about HTML or all the other codes
> > > > or languages used to create sites. Oh boy this is starting off
> > > > bad...so I am just going to fire away my questions.
> > > > In October sometime, I changed our site from being "built" using my
> > > > service providers tool (network Solutions) to using MS Publisher. I
> > > > have made numerous other sites with Publisher (since it is so easy)
> > > > without any issues. The site I am referring to ishttp://www.harleyhaul.com
> > > > My problem is this...I use to be able to be searched on google using
> > > > any and or all of my keywords. Now since I changed the site I am
> > > > "lost" somewhere on the internet. I used google's webmaster tools to
> > > > be sure they can still find my site which it said it can (with no
> > > > errors)...but when I search google, I am no longer found. I do not
> > > > know what is wrong...
> > > > Can any of you help me figure out what the issues are? Another site I
> > > > did in Publisher ishttp://www.kristystinyaviary.comandIdidnot > > > > have any sort of issues :-( If you want to compare or if that would
> > > > help get to the bottom of this.- Hide quoted text -
|
