Is your website visible to the search engines?

If you aren't receiving the level of search traffic you would like, here's a very easy test that you can conduct to find out how your site is viewed by the search engines. It'll take less than five minutes to conduct and could shed-light on some issues that would otherwise be invisible to you.

An important part of search engine optimisation is site optimisation - ensuring that the content on your website is presented in the right way for both your users and any visiting search engines.

For this test, we're going to use Google.com.

So, head over to Google.com and enter you full web address in the Google Search box. E.g.

http://www.naturalranks.co.uk

You should see your website at the top of any search results returned by Google. If your site isn't present, move onto the problem shooting section below. Beneath your website, you should see a few links, "Cached", "Similar Pages" and "More results from www...". We want to see the cached version of your website.

Checking the cache

The cached version of your page is what Google "saw" the last time it visited your website. So, click Cached and wait whilst your page loads up.

In the top right corner of the page you should not see a link reading "Text only version" - click this to strip away all the graphical and presentational elements of your site.

You can now see your page as a Search Engines does - pretty much. Here's a snapshot of the NaturalRanks page:

Natural Ranks SEO

* SEO front page
* About
* Contact
* Services
* Portfolio
* FAQs
* RSS

Good evening from the team at NaturalRanks.co.uk

We're a dedicated bunch of search engine optimisers based in the North West of England and are now looking for new clients to add to our already impressive portfolio. We want to make 2009 one of our most successful years, so come join us for SEO workshops & events, or talk to us about becoming one of our super-impressive case studies.

I can see page headings (larger, bolder pieces of text), all of my content, navigation through to other pages and my page footer (with links to my Sitemap).

Is there anything missing from your site? All navigational element are present? All of your content is visible? Page headers are being used?

If everything is as it should be, great! Well done! But if something is missing or not as expected, see the troubleshooting section below.

Checking your pages

Now return to your Google results. In the Google search bar enter "site:**your URL**" E.g.

site:www.naturalranks.co.uk

Google should return all of your site's pages that it is aware of. If, for example, you have recently published a few pages and they don't appear yet, don't worry. Next time Google visits your site they should update their knowledge of your site. Similarly, if you hve one hundred pages and only ninety show-up, it's nothing to worry about right now. Eventually Google will find the remaining pages.

If no pages are returned or there is a large discrepancy between what is available and what Google believes exist, see the troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting

I can't see Google's cache of my website.

Enter the following into the Google search box "cache:**your URL**" E.g.
cache:www.naturalranks.co.uk

If your page doesn't show up in the Google cache, it could be that your page is too new and Google hasn't come across it yet. If you believe that your page is well established it could be that you need to check your page code to ensure that your content is being served to the Search Engines in the correct way; avoiding use of JavaScript and Flash animation.

Large portions of my site are not visible on my cached page

If sections of your website are served using technologies such as JavaScript or Flash, they will not be visible to the Search Engines. If essential web site information is being served via these technologies (such as navigation and page content) you may want to relook at how you handle this information by altering your website's code.

Many of my web pages are not showing up in Google

This could be due to poor internal website navigation or that your site is new to the Search Engines and that Google hasn't had chance to find all of your pages. Check your page code and try building new links to your site. Recheck within a few weeks.

An alternative site inspector

Another good alternative for viewing your website's content without any graphical or presentational elements is the Lynx Viewer (this link will open in a new window). This is the online edition of the popular Text only web browser.

So there you have it, a simple way to use Google to ensure that your site is visible to the Search Engines. If you have any questions feel free to get in touch 

By Chris Hough, online expert and founder of www.naturalranks.co.uk .

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