Search Engine Optimization Dallas - Why am I not in the Google Search Results?

Where’s my site?
A big part of this blog is to not only to discuss SEO ideas, but also to talk about the actual implementation of SEO, especially as it pertains to getting local DFW businesses to rank for their keywords in Google.

The big question this week has been “Where’s my site in the search results?”  It was not showing up at all in the Google Search Results.  This is strange because I had several pages indexed on the main Swanson SEO Services website before this blog was started.

Relevant Content and Still no rankings?
I have been working diligently to get my website to rank for “Search Engine Optimization Dallas” in Google, yet I was nowhere to be found.  It seemed odd that even with my relevant content (pictures and blog posts about my keyword) I wasn’t showing up at all, as in, not way down the rankings – but not at all.

Google Sitemap Error:
So I started doing some serious digging and I found that while I did have a Google Sitemap and it had indeed been submitted, it had been rejected for an error.  Ah, I hear the questions already, “psst, hey, what’s a Google Sitemap?”  Lol, no problem.  A Google sitemap is just what it sounds like, it is a map of all the content of your website.  You want Google to crawl your site and index your content (that helps Google know what to rank you for).  Submitting a sitemap file (i.e. “sitemap.xml”) is like handing Google a Table of Contents for your site.  That makes it quick and easy for Google to know exactly what is on your site and how to categorize it.  You can submit your sitemap for free to Google by signing with a Google Webmasters account.

Google Sitemap Makes a Difference!
I have seen other sites where I had been working at ranking (building relevant backlinks) and they had would not show up in the Search Results either.  Then, I would submit the sitemap and “presto” they would show up.  Google loves sitemaps and it shows in the rankings.

Robots.txt Error:
I had submitted my sitemap several times a day for about 3 days and I was getting a bit frustrated because each time it would come back with the following Error:

Network unreachable: robots. txt unreachable
We encountered an error while trying to access your Sitemap.
Please ensure your Sitemap follows our guidelines and
can be accessed at the location you provided and then resubmit.

The Frustration Builds – I HAD NO ROBOTS.TXT FILE!
I kept getting the above error, no matter what I changed on my site.  I thought it might be something to do with the Permalinks (Blog URL’s) or some other way that my blog was set up.  Home with Andrew’s blog had two posts that were laid out very well to help me determine what my problem was not:

* Debugging the Network unreachable / Robots.txt unreachable error
* Canonicalization

Resolution: Give Google what it wants a Robots.txt file:
A Robots.txt file’s purpose is to tell Google what leave out of its indexing efforts.  So, even though I did not need a Robots.txt file (because I want everything to be indexed), I decided to give Google what it wanted.  I went ahead and had sitemap file created for free automatically.  I basically told it that I didn’t want to restrict anything.  I added it to my site and then resubmitted my Sitemap to Google.

24 hours later I was showing up in Google’s Search results!

Submit your comments back about your sitemap experiences to help other webmasters out there.

Getting you ranked!
~Nick Swanson~
Search Engine Optimization Dallas
http://SwansonSEOServices.com

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