Blogger and search engines ?

[cperry]

Hello
I have a blogger blog - I have a custom url, Big Paw Blog forwarding the Big Paw Blog url. Someone recently told me that the blog is not indexed by search engines...probably because of this. Anyone have thoughts, personal experience on this?
CP

[mattb]

I just did a test on your blog and it seems that you directly link with the domain, which seems to be ok.

View HTTP Request and Response Header

This basically means that your website is essentially two websites to the search engines: bigpawblog.com and the bigpawdesigns.blogspot.com address. That's not a problem.

What the person was probably referring to was the use of a "blind forward" which actually links out to a certain page without changing what's in the address bar. That technique uses some sneaky code that search engines despise.

If you're unsure of whether the engines really are picking you up or not, try installing Google Webmaster Tools, which will allow you to see how Google is looking at your site.

If you have any other concerns, definitely put them up so we can look into them for you!

[cperry]

Thanks!...so I looked it up/added the code for google webmaster tools and it does say I am not indexed in google and to fix the errors/violations and resubmit (below). I read the guidelines and do not see anything that I think the site is doing, especially if indeed the url redirect is valid......any tips on next steps?
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You've successfully verified Big Paw Blog.

Indexing | Top search queries »
Home page crawl:
Googlebot last successfully accessed your home page on May 6, 2008.
Index status:
Pages on your site may not appear in Google search results pages due to violations of the Google webmaster guidelines. Please review our webmaster guidelines and modify your site so that it meets those guidelines. Once your site meets our guidelines, you can request reconsideration and we'll evaluate your site.
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[mattb]

Well we certainly can't have that! Does it list out any particular problems with the site? Maybe I can give some suggestions.

[cperry]

nope - just what I paste in the entry above - that it does not meet the standards.....with a link to the standards:
Webmaster Guidelines

[mattb]

I can't see anything off the top of my head, so I'm going to have your EC call you so maybe you can get hooked up with our search engine guys. They can see those tiny things that are going to kick your indexing status. I'll still keep an eye on this thread, though.

Sorry I can't help you out more with this! If I think of anything, I'll post it.

[cperry]

thanks! :0