Google Indexed Homepage, but no other Pages

[acadaca]

In the past, even the recent past, we've launched completely new sites, and they've been completely indexed within 2 weeks. We launched a new site 2 weeks ago, and the homepage was indexed within 48 hours, but no other pages have been indexed yet. In the past, once the homepage was indexed, the other pages were spidered accordingly and indexed soon after. I realize that ranking for specific keywords will take some time, but it seems odd that the other pages weren't even indexed. Was wondering if anyone else had encountered this problem recently.

[rustybrick]

Is the index page linked cleaning to the internal pages? It can take longer then 2 weeks to get fully indexed.

[Elisabeth]

Yep, happened to me recently- luckily it hasn't turned into the full Sandbox effect as of yet. About a 30 page site launched around Sept. 16th, homepage got hit by Googlebot 3 times, indexed for brandname/domain name #1 on 9/23 - sales jumped from a daily average of 14 to 40 that day.

Disappeared the next.

Good news - another week or so later, googlebot fully spidered the site, and indexed homepage #1, with 2nd level page as an indented listing.

No natural keywords driving significant traffic through the other pages of the site, but there's not too many backlinks as of yet, either.

oh, and in case anyone's wondering - I launched their Adwords campaign on Sept. 21st. I personally don't think there's any connection between the two still, but for you conspiracy theorists out there

[rustybrick]

Elis, I am pretty sure that number of pages indexed is unrelated to the sandbox theory. Google might have been a tad slow the past few weeks.

I would be interested to know when your sub page, detailed keyword phrases, start to rank well.

[neckbone]

I lauched a site in March. When I do site:domain.com in Google search bar. I still only get the index page showing.

For three months, the only way to remotely find it in Google was to search for the domain name, "doimainname". And then it would only return this, www.domainname.com with no cahce link or any other info.

[rustybrick]

Originally Posted by neckbone

I lauched a site in March. When I do site:domain.com in Google search bar. I still only get the index page showing.

For three months, the only way to remotely find it in Google was to search for the domain name, "doimainname". And then it would only return this, www.domainname.com with no cahce link or any other info.

Seems like the site is not very search engine friendly.

[neckbone]

Originally Posted by rustybrick

Seems like the site is not very search engine friendly.

Funny thing is, the main keyword for the site has been a solid #5 on Google since the homepage got cached.

Also, it's doing very well in Yayhoo. Sevaral #1 and #2 SERPs and more in the top 20.

[acadaca]

Originally Posted by neckbone

I lauched a site in March. When I do site:domain.com in Google search bar. I still only get the index page showing.

For three months, the only way to remotely find it in Google was to search for the domain name, "doimainname". And then it would only return this, www.domainname.com with no cahce link or any other info.

Neckbone - Sounds like our sites are suffering from the same syndrome. Have you tried attacking it from another angle? Or are you just taking a wait and see approach? Correct me if i'm wrong, but from ur post, it sounds like the index page is still the only one showing up, right? Do the other pages have any inbound links to them other than internal ones?

[neckbone]

You asked, "Have you tried attacking it from another angle? Or are you just taking a wait and see approach? Correct me if i'm wrong, but from ur post, it sounds like the index page is still the only one showing up, right? Do the other pages have any inbound links to them other than internal ones?"


The hompage has several links pointing at it. I don't think the inner pages have any other than intrasite links.

I got a coupla links for the site right after I launched it and then turned that end over to the site owner's kid who is supposed to be getting links. I gave him gobs of sources to list on. He hasn't been taking care of it as far as I can tell.

Even with the five or six links pointing to the index, only two show up as backlinks in Google. They're straight html static links and have been live for a couple months.

I haven't tried any other attacks from different angles, just the wait and see thing. I have only made a handful of sites. I learned everything I know the hard way, trial and error, over the past 3 or 4 years. I learned by doing. I made and maintain the company site where I work. I do everything, nothing is farmed out. Being in charge of the company site is where I developed my style.

I target some pages for Google and and other pages for Yahoo. I learned what works for me in Yahoo and Google, which are all I'm really concerned about. If you do good in Yahoo, you'll (presently) also do good in MSN and most of the others. Google is in a class by itself. Typically, if you do well in Google, you'll do OK in Yahoo and the rest but not vice versa.

Another thing, you don't need 7 million backlinks. I have several kw and kw phrases ranking top 5 with only about twenty backlinks total. Several are #1. I have top twenty for many kw.

The way you lay out your pages and the way you write your copy is what you need to concentrate on. Get all the backlinks you can but don't lose sleep over it. Once you get in Google's index, the game starts. Start working on on-page optimization. It takes time to learn so be patient. Hint, simplicity. Keep it simple but don't over simplify.

You have to really work to do good across the board. By across the board, I mean do well overall with a site in all the search engines. Aside from getting backlinks, it takes much careful thought and edit after edit of your page text. You'll know when you got it as good as you can get it. That's when it's time to upload. Don't upload until you're sure it's ready.

Target some pages for Yahoo and others for Google. Don't discount Yahoo as a second-class engine. Yahoo sends me about 20% more traffic than Google. Yahoo is spread far and wide because they are an Internet Provider. Zillions of people use Yahoo as their homepage simply because they installed the Yahoo software when they signed up for DSL or whatever. Yahoo's search bar is spotlighted so they typically just use the default search tool.

One thing I'll tell you is if you have a site that's been up for a few years, you'll do way better in Google when launching new pages. A month ago, I launched two new pages. Two weeks later, in Google, one was at #2 for main kw, the other at #7 for main kw. They've held their positions for the past two weeks so they're good to go. These two pages have yet to appear in any other engines.

As for this site I posted about with the problem, I put all my knowhow into making every page a separate target for number one with it's main keyword. I just have to wait and see what happens.