Yesterday I left you wondering what could possibly go wrong with my blog’s Google Page rank when I hadn’t touched the blog in any way at all in over six months. I gave a huge clue in the post because the issue isn’t about the drop in Google Page rank at all, though it is a symptom of the problem.
The real pointer was the “only 1 page indexed” statement. How does a blog that has been around in the same format for 6 months at least, end up with only 1 page indexed?
Here’s what happened and it could happen to you too if you have set up you blog the same way I had.
Blog Before
Blog After
So what changed? Well in the sidebar came a link to categories…”But you have a sitemap Allison, why do you also need links to categories?”
Because I didn’t think too hard about what would happen if the sitemap plugin decided to just “die”. No sitemap means nothing for the search engine spiders to follow links from and so they deduce “there’s nothing there”. Simple isn’t it? I broke one of the rules that I screech at in my day job as a manager of network technicians. “Where’s the redundancy?!?!?!” If it is important, like a path for spiders or DNS servers (you hear me India network architects *shakes fist*), make sure there is a backup route should the first option become unusable.
Planned and executed my exit from the corporate world. Walked away with a 6 figure payment to boot.
Thanks for the information – I didn’t know the sitemap was so important.
Michelle´s last [type] ..Expressive Art Workshops
Allison, I noticed earlier today when I left a comment that you were at 0, and I remembered you as being at 4. Sorry this happened to you.
I’m a little surprised that my Intelligent Productivity blog is at zero. I launched it in mid-April. Two blogs I launched in early March were both 2′s on May 1. Perhaps it’s because I had a site redesign?
I do have a sitemap plugin that’s active.
John Soares´s last [type] ..Learn to Say NO
The thing to remember is the average Joe Blow on the internet doesn’t know or care about PR. Keeping the #1 ranking is the important bit and that is still there. So many people obsess over their PR but don’t realise (or just don’t get) that great content is always going to “keep” your readers, more than a million backlinks will ever do.
The PR will come back as the quality hasn’t changed, just Google’s ability to see it did.
That’s interesting. It can definitely give your site a boost if Google’s bots can easily crawl to each page.
Charles´s last [type] ..What It’s Like To Get Tased
Ahhh! Well, this is kind of good news for me as I do keep my categories listed. Be careful in how you use it though, because it can often lead Google to think it is duplicate content
alan @ Spider Costume´s last [type] ..Fireman Costume Accessories
Well Alan… as the Google – Duplicate content thing is a complete myth I don’t think anyone need worry about that