[Pro] Search Engines

Freeway
1

Hi,

Time for my first, laughably obvious to some, request for advice for 2011!

I see that google lists several of my website’s pages.
If I simply wanted google to list the homepage (index.html) only (and not any of the other pages in the site) How would I go about this?

Is it even possible?

Thanks

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

2

Now that it has indexed them it will be difficult for it to ‘forget’

But for future pages create a new Metatag with the Name: robots and the Value: noindex,nofollow,noarchive

But if you want existing indexed pages to disappear then you will have to rename them and then visitors will get a 404 message instead.

David

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

3

That would be easy enough as going to ‘Page’ and choosing ‘Meta Tags’ and then choosing ‘New’ and then for ‘Name’ put in ‘robots’ and for ‘Value’ put either ‘index,follow,archive’ or if you don’t want it just put ‘no’ in front of it so it would read ‘noindex,nofollow,noarchive’.

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

4

Sometime around 2/1/11 (at 16:10 -0500) David B said:

I see that google lists several of my website’s pages.
If I simply wanted google to list the homepage (index.html) only
(and not any of the other pages in the site) How would I go about
this?

Soe good advice given already. But remember this: the pages in a
search result are what Google thinks are appropriate for the search
query. You may prefer people to come in through the home page, but if
that doesn’t contain appropriate text for a particular search then it
will never appear in those results.

  1. Be glad that you’re appearing in what I presume is a reasonably
    high position for saerches that you’ve tried.

  2. Make sure your home page contains a reasonable amount of real
    text, structured well.

  3. Consider amending your page designs to encourage visitors to look
    further through your site.

  4. Be happy. Actually, this should be (1).

k

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

5

Thanks - is there a glossary of meta tags commands and so forth available that could be recommended?

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

6

A quick Google for Meta Tags should turn up a load of stuff. Some totally irrelevant.

D

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

7

You can find a comprehensive list of things you can tell (compliant,
honest) search engines to do at http://robotstxt.org Realize though
that a Venn diagram of ((compliant, honest) search engines) would have
a very large outer circle.

Walter

On Jan 3, 2011, at 11:38 AM, David B wrote:

Thanks - is there a glossary of meta tags commands and so forth
available that could be recommended?

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

8

A question I haven’t seen asked of you yet is WHY? The whole point of
search engines is to connect searchers to individual pages that answer
their question, not to sites that include information related to that
question. It’s really going to cut down on the total number of
requests you get from Google if you only allow them to index and
direct visitors to your home page. It’s a serious diminishing returns
result.

Your ranking for any individual page is governed in large measure by
how deeply that individual page answers the search request to the
exclusion of other topics. You know that old saying about Jack of
all trades, Master of none? That applies most definitely to Web pages,
too. So if their search is about Salsa, and your page is about Salsa
and Oven Mitts, then a page – even a crappier one – that deal
exclusively with Salsa will have a higher page rank than yours. Every
time.

Take this further. Unless your entire site could easily be condensed
into a single home page, and unless your entire site is really only
about one or two closely-related things that are really likely to come
up in the same search requests over and over, you don’t stand a chance
of rising anywhere near the first results page if you put all your
eggs in your home page basket.

Walter

On Jan 2, 2011, at 4:10 PM, David B wrote:

If I simply wanted google to list the homepage (index.html) only
(and not any of the other pages in the site) How would I go about
this?

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

9

Thanks for the replies everyone, good advice.

The reason I wanted this info was because a possible client wanted most visitors, where possible to visit via the homepage so she can post news and events on there.

Thanks again all

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

10

Then add a header or footer or sidebar feature to every page that
directs visitors back to that news page or home page.

Walter

On Jan 4, 2011, at 10:04 AM, David B wrote:

Thanks for the replies everyone, good advice.

The reason I wanted this info was because a possible client wanted
most visitors, where possible to visit via the homepage so she can
post news and events on there.

Thanks again all

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options